An interesting report from McKinsey on India's Urbanization explosion. Some of the figures it mentions in the report are amazing. But my point is, with realty in cities becoming out of reach for all but the rich and the poor paying heavy for high food prices, I wonder if crime will not catch up. The mixing of zhoparpattis (local Marathi language slang for small make-shift huts) by the urban poor with expensive towers, will it not make some of our cities crime prone.
Here is an excerpt from EquityMaster.com's "5 minute update" newsletter -
"Here's a quiz: By 2030, Mumbai's GDP is expected to exceed that of Thailand and Hong Kong. Is that a good thing or bad? Bad, in our view. It indicates that India's economic growth is going to be extremely urban centric. In fact, as per a recent McKinsey report, Indian cities will expand massively. Urban population will surge by 74%. India will have 68 cities with a population of more than 1 m, 13 cities with more than 4 m people and 6 mega cities with populations of 10 m.
Cities will also create 70% of the new jobs. All this will put huge pressure on the infrastructure of cities. And India spends just US$ 17 per head on infrastructure in its cities. That's about 15% of what China spends. The report says we need US$ 2.24 trillion to build the city infrastructure. That's an incredible figure. Our track record at focused and sustained spending on infrastructure is rather weak. Hence, in our view, we must also find ways of spreading economic progress beyond the cities."
McKinsey Global Institute report titled, 'India's urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth', can be downloaded from here.
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