Urbanization in India began to accelerate after independence, due to the country’s adoption of a mixed economy, which gave rise to the development of the private sector. Urbanisation is taking place at a faster rate in India. Population residing in urban areas in India, according to 1901 census, was 11.4%. This count increased to 28.53% according to 2001 census, and crossing 30% as per 2011 census, standing at 31.16%. According to a survey by UN State of the World Population report in 2007, by 2030, 40.76% of country’s population is expected to reside in urban areas. As per World Bank, India, along with China, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the United States, will lead the world’s urban population surge by 2050.

India is adapting the western models of urbanizations for maximizing and efficiently developing the urban space to accommodate the large chunk of population. However the western models we emulate in smart cities and export oriented industrial corridors have the advantages of giving a Ready (and already tested) planning of physical and social infrastructure -Water and waste management, public spaces, connectivity, ICT in law and order. However these 20th century models have the following drawbacks-

• Climate resilience – the cities do not cater for environmental disasters as well as damage which the cities themselves cause- Paris floods, Beijing smog.
• Inclusion- The poor though have a social security net but cities fail to cater for their sustainable development.
• Monotonous urban landscape without due respect to local topography.
• Artificial concretization which leads to urban heat islands.
• Cities built mostly on economic terms without considering or less importance to cultural and recreational aspects of human beings.
• The current models does not take into consideration the growth and inclusion at micro-levels, but at the grand macro-levels only.
• The growth models are highly centralized, like the Industrial Corridor and the Smart City Mission, which encourage rapid migration towards some few urban belts and areas.

India needs to adapt a customized model of urbanization which maximizes benefits from the old model and goes a step ahead in addressing its drawbacks- –

• Urbanization supported by industrialization- catering for future footfall in the city prevents slum growth and better inclusion. Raising cities without employment opportunities doesn’t solve long term agendas.
• Urban local bodies revamp, seamless connectivity with suburban areas/ farms.
• Inclusion for the elderly and the disabled, Safety of women and children. India doesn’t yet agree to the “right to the city” in Urban Habitat III agenda.
• Climate mitigation- to avoid situations like Chennai floods.
• A decentralized growth model creating fractal habitation with self-governance, self-sustaining democratized cities, which has the same as the nation as a whole.
• Addressing the employment issues of the migrants by focusing more on urban industrialization.
• Rurban Planning, which creates growth at micro-level and impedes rural-to-urban migration
• Equity oriented citizen welfare program to minimise poverty, this can be done by employment generation, housing, better education and skill development, improving health facilities with better sanitation and drinking water facilities.
• Availability of cheaper and environment friendly fuel for cooking and transport, cheaper and environment friendly mode of public transport, using environment friendly technologies such as rain water harvesting, solar devices
• State being catalyst for social transformation and modernisation of economy and society.

Conclusion:-

 It is not absolutely correct to say that we are emulating outdated concepts of urbanisation which has been copied from the nations which have become rich by questionable means since we are not applying absolute method of industrialisation which took place in Europe neither our democratic socialist liberal country is pro rich and anti-poor as was true with Europe in the past. With respect to our demography and our national values we have customised concepts of urbanisation. Export oriented industrial corridor cannot be called best model of urban growth since it holds only economic factor but by no means smart city concept is outdated or questionable in approach, smart city itself is characterised by “efficient use of physical infrastructure through artificial intelligence and data analytics to support a strong and healthy economic, social, cultural development and it include concepts like e-governance, sustainable development”. Our present schemes like AMRUT, HRIDAY, PRASAD, HOUSING FOR ALL, SWACHH BHARAT ABHIYAN – URBAN are actively moving in the direction of urban growth.