India is set to witness its biggest ever phase of urbanisation over the next two decades. Increasing literacy and greater migration to cities with people looking for better opportunities is likely to give a major thrust to the process of urbanisation. The new government has rightly put emphasis on creating new cities to accommodate the rural Indians moving out of villages and small towns in search of better opportunities and growth.
According to a Mckinsey report, India is on the cusp of a never seen before urban expansion. The report says that in the four decades from 1971 to 2008, India’s urban population rose by nearly 230 million; it will now take only half this time to add the next 250 million.
This brings us to the next logical question that as the land area under agriculture declines due to urban expansion and other causes, how does a country with a burgeoning population plan to feed its teeming millions over the next few decades?