Towns of India: Status of Demography, Economy, Social Structures, Housing and Basic Infrastructure
Towns of India Status of Demography, Economy, Social Structures, Housing and Basic Infrastructure HSMI – HUDCO Chair – NIUA Collaborative Research 2016 Towns of India Status of Demography, Economy, Social Structures, Housing and Basic Infrastructure HSMI – HUDCO Chair – NIUA Collaborative Research 2016 Foreword An increasing number of people live in small and medium-sized towns in the periphery of large cities as the world completes its process of urban transition. India is no exception to this phenomenon. It is in these towns where national economies are to be built, solutions to global challenges such as inequality and the impacts of climate change are to be addressed, and future generations are to be educated. The reality in India, however, suggests that the small towns are not fully integrated in the urban fabric of the nation. They have enormous backlogs in economic infrastructure, weak human capacity, high levels of under unemployment and unemployment, and extremely weak local economies. However, with their growing numbers – there are more than 2,500 new towns added in the last Population Census– the role of small and medium-sized towns in the national economy will have a significant influence upon the future social and economic development of larger geographic regions. If these towns were better equipped to steer their economic assets and development, the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could be increased, with significant benefits reducing rural poverty in the hinterlands. This research on small towns, those below 100,000 population, was conducted at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi, under Phase III of the HUDCO Chair project during the period 2015-16.
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