Changing Paradigms of Urbanisation: India and Beyond (Hardcover, Om Prakash Mathur)

Between 2022 and 2047, India will transit from a lower-middle to an upper-middle urban economy. What strategic policy shifts will be necessary to ensure that this transition plays out productively is a major question that the author addresses in the opening paper. This book—a collection of 20 papers authored by Om Prakash Mathur, a leading urban scholar, serves as a repository of insights into global and Indian urbanisation. It explores how it unfolds and establishes linkages with macroeconomic parameters. The author deliberates on questions such as: are these linkages in line with the tenets of the growing economy that India is? Has the 74th Constitutional amendment, aimed at restructuring urban governance and finance, yielded the expected results? Furthermore, the author explores the challenges of uneven spatial development in major Asian economies. He advocates market-driven approaches to counter inequities, in place of the conventional methods of developing counter-magnets, growth centres, and small cities. Simultaneously, he delves into the paradox of poverty and informality in the world’s mega economic hubs. Supported by rigorous research and analytical frameworks, the book is an indispensable resource for academics, policy-makers and researchers.