Securing India’s Cities

With India’s economy recording impressive growth, the country’s cities are emerging as pronounced markers of gains. With a concentrated push to improve infrastructure chalked up to ameliorate India’s longstanding connectivity problems, its extant urban areas are growing significantly. At the same time, dedicated programs to spur urban growth as well as an ambitious set of planned “industrial corridors” across the country – even as they progress in fits and starts – could very well lead to the creation of new, well-planned, Indian cities, “strengthen[ing] the grand edifice of developed India,” as Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed in a speech in December.

That said, the extent to which India’s ambitious urbanisation plans would succeed is contingent on how the country secures its cities. If urban areas are indeed to contribute 75 per cent of India’s GDP by the end of the decade – as the Indian government estimates – the country’s future as a leading Indo-Pacific power critically depends on the extent to which its cities are resilient in the face of a wide array of current and emerging threats.

Read the full article in The Interpreter