Finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday underscored the need to limit the size of cities to meet the pressures of rapid urbanisaton in India.
Releasing the book Transforming our cities, postcards of change, written by noted economist Isher Judge Ahluwalia, the minister said, ?It is important to arrest the decline of our cities and using the ideas in this book, we must rebuild our cities.?
He drew attention to the estimates that one half of India would be living in cities after two decades and about 70% of the country would be city dwellers by the end of this century. The minister referred to new cities such as Navi Mumbai, Raipur and Ranchi.
Published by HarperCollins and from the Express Book Series, Ahluwalia’s book is a collection of columns published in The Indian Express and The Financial Express.
As political parties debate different economic and financial governance models in an election year, Ahluwalia’s book offers an eyewitness account of the success stories of reforms and sustainable service delivery by unsung heroes, highlighting the pressures of rapid urbanisation. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh notes in his foreword to the book, it brings together living examples of local initiatives across India as having implications for future strategies of urbanisation.
Chairperson of the economic think-tank Icrier, Ahluwalia had earlier headed a panel on urban infrastructure and services. A Padma Bhushan recipient, she is also a member of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.
Arun Jaitley, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said in a panel discussion after the book release that town planning often gets derailed because cities are not designed properly to meet the needs of the working class that migrates from villages in search of jobs.
