I wish 100% population of this country live in cities.
But the question arises; does the planet have enough resources to provide for so much consumption? If not, then we have to look at sustainable means of employment and lifestyle. In a village, you are employed in agriculture,which in comparison to industry, is more sustainable with nature.
I have a question-
Why 10 million people left cities and migrated back to villages, when
recession affected China. If cities are sustainable, this would have never happened. There is something terribly wrong with concept of unhindered urbanisation. Urbanisation has to be tolerated as a necessary evil, only to some extent.

In my opinion, even the present urbanisation in India or China will not sustain. West urbanised and continue to remain so not because it is sustainable but because it draws resources from far away third world countries. It is being able to do because because of its technological advancement, which enables it to buy labor and raw materials in return for technology.
The planet is on its brink.It is not so because of tribals or rural people. All these factories running around the world are running to satisfy the appetite of urban world.
The day we build cities, which have same per capita consumption as that of a typical village, I would say, lets urbanise the entire country. Otherwise, we all are falling in a self made death trap.
To think holistically is our responsibilty. There is no use of repenting after having lost. One third of living planet has finished in last 40 years.
(UN Millennium report). It’s we who have to find solutions; especially we ,who live in urban areas because we are part of the problem.

Diwan Singh

a) Israel is a good example where desalination plants have worked. It may not always be necessary to locate a city near a fresh water source. Point being, there are alternatives and we need to explore them.

b) There are two issues raised – migration and land acquisition. My perception is that in India, migration from rural to urban areas has always happened and is an ongoing process. Building better cities with more opportunities will accelerate this process.

For better or worse, people in our villages and towns seem to believe that cities offer better opportunities to survive. I am certain there are examples we can relate to in our own families, friends and extended families where people have migrated from villages and towns to cities in search of better education, jobs or livelihood.

I admit land acquisition is a thorny issue and needs to be addressed. As Atanu often writes, incentives work and we may need to be creative enough to work out options.

The bottom line though is that our policy makers need to first decide to build new cities and the issues can then be tackled.

Thanks for your reply. The main issue with this is that just as agriculture require a certain type of land, so do cities.

a)Every urban area requires huge amounts of water infrastructure. This effectively translates into a requirement of fertile land since, water sources are nearby. The Problem with all big projects today is that, they have water requirements , which necessiates arable land.

b) The implicit requirement is also that one needs to move people from rural jobs to urban jobs. The disparity between rural share of GDP Vs the rural employment %age of total employment is the crux of our poverty problem. How do convince a farm owner to leave his land in hope for a better, but, intangible future?

The answer might be to pay him huge amounts. Then the next question is that, Do we have the money to pay that kind of compensation.(a la 20 crores an acre, this was in Hyderabad)

One could consider the possibility of non-arable land being used for developing cities.

good to read ur writings. Some knowledge there. But , my friend, it’s easy to talk . Just like when u r a kid…u criticize ur parents…it’s easy to criticize government sitting in ur bedroom. Ek baath batha yaar…what did u do for India except finding out the faults.

Even a beggar can do what u r doing…stop :”"%ing urself n others with ur smart hypocrisy….cos the need of the hour is a politician who backs his words into actions. We both know, we can’t do nothing to improve this :”*ed up country…..only a big earthquake will do good by making it alert n killiong a few million. Let them sleep my friend…let them :”&* each other.