ABSTRACT
Urbanisation in India is on the high growth path, and this is expected to continue due to the sustained high growth of the economy projected for the coming years. Presently, India has the lowest level of urbanisation (percentage of urban population) among comparable countries in the world. By the year 2000 urbanisation in India had reached 27.7 percent, as against 37.5 percent in Asia. India–China differences in urbanisation are likely to widen by 2020: 34.7 percent in India, compared to 53.4 percent in China. Urbanisation in India is projected to reach 40.1 percent by 2030 (www.un.org/population/publications). Compared to the last five decades, the growth of urbanisation will be much faster during the next two decades if India continues to be a services economy (Reddy 2006). However, growth in urbanisation is also shifting from metropolitan cities to secondary towns over the years. Most of the towns in this category have recorded faster growth than larger cities (GoI 2001). It is observed that the bulk of population growth in India is expected to occur in small towns with populations greater than 100,000 (Scott et al. 2004).
