ABSTRACT
The year 2007 is a tipping point since more than half of the world’s population started to live in urban areas. The urbanization pattern in India has been undergoing significant change. The share of urban population in the total has grown from about 11 per cent in 1901 to nearly 29 per cent in 2001. 1 The urban population is expected to increase to about 40 per cent of total population by 2021 (Ministry of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation and Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India 2005). Given urban areas contribute to more than 65 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the sustainability of the rapid 8–9 per cent GDP growth India has experienced in the last decade is dependent to a large extent on urban areas.
