Thinking Beyond

The canvas of urbanization is multi-dimensional and requires many lenses to pierce it. When analysed carefully, the approach to urbanization in India seems to have been “reluctant” in nature rather than proactively embraced by policymakers, planners, society, and businesses. In this book we have used many lenses, naming them as environments — built, productive, living, natural, and governing — to see through the physical, spatial, economic, and institutional aspects of urbanization. As outlined in Chapter 1 and discussed in later chapters, despite being lauded for providing a large share of the service sector in the economy, increasing urbanization, a rising middle class, a demographic dividend, an educated population, India, at the national level, has overlooked the factors necessary for competitiveness, growth, and welfare of citizens living in cities, causing Indian cities to rank amongst bottom half in the world in terms of competitiveness and fare poorly in quality-of-life indicators. Having described the outcomes that we see in Indian cities, it is pertinent that we draw broader lessons from the nature of interventions that have best worked in the past. In this chapter we therefore look at examples of initiatives and interventions at the project level that have produced better outcomes or have changed the state of the affairs in those cities in which they were implemented.