India@75: The learning & way forward

As India celebrates 75 years of independence, there is a need to look back at the country’s urban development and learn from it. In an attempt to trace this journey, the All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG) along with the InfoComm India organised a webinar to celebrate the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav – 75 years of India’s independence. The webinar focussed on the development of urban local bodies, right from the beginning in 1950s to the present.
The illustrious panel included Ravi Ranjan Guru, DDG, AIILSG; S K Singh, IAS (Retd.), Member Administrative/Technical, Real Estate Appellate Tribunal Bihar; Kulwant Singh, CEO, 3R Waste Foundation; Mukesh Mathur, Former Professor, National Institute of Urban Affairs. Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update moderated the session.
Damini Diwakar, Head of Marketing and Communication, InfoComm India, introduced the subject to panellists and audience. She said, as India is making rapid strides in national transformation, the next few years will be very crucial, and this webinar aims to address the key challenges and changes that are expected in the future, learning from the past and planning for the future. She later introduced Sammi Zhang, Program Director, InfoComm Asia to the panellists and other participants.
Zhang highlighted the role played by InfoComm Asia in organising educational and meaningful programmes including this webinar. She also provided a brief introduction of the organisation and of the upcoming event of InfoComm India, 2022, which will be held in Mumbai.
After her opening address, she invited Ravi Ranjan Guru, Deputy Director General, AIILSG to speak. Guru highlighted the role of AIILSG in the field of urban development since 1926. He later informed the audience about a new publication of Urban Update, Urban75, a Coffee Table Book tracing the evolution and development of Indian cities since 1947.
He added that to ensure the effective implementation of projects and programmes related to urban development, the participation of the urban local bodies is an essential precondition. He said, “We, as an organisation, started working in the field of sanitation by introducing the course of Sanitary Inspector in 1956. The move aims to create a trained workforce that would work to ensure and promote cleanliness and sanitation in Indian Cities.”
Following the address of Guru, Damini introduced Abhishek Pandey and asked him to moderate the panel discussion. Pandey began his address right from the partition of the erstwhile Indian dominion into India and Pakistan, which led to the migration of over 20 million people from and to Pakistan. A landmark incident from which the nature of Indian cities started changing.
At the time of independence, only 17 per cent population of the country was living in cities, which has soared to 35 per cent today, and if we look at the report of World Population Prospect (WPP) 2022, approximately 675 million people will be living in Indian cities by 2035. In the next 25 years, we will be celebrating 100 years of India’s independence so we must take note of the needs of this urban population keeping in mind the number of people moving towards cities and challenges posed by the extreme weather events to make our cities disaster resilient.
Pandey invited Sunil Kumar Singh, IAS (Retd.), to deliver his remarks. He began by telling the participants about background of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA), 1992. He noted that earlier when the urban local bodies used to be part of the state list, the idea to give independent powers to the local bodies started gaining currency, which culminated in the introduction of 74th CAA that added part IX and Part-IX-A along with Schedule 11 and Schedule 12 to the Constitution of India. Under this act, power to conduct elections for local bodies was conferred on State Election Commission and it mandated the formation of a State Finance Commission (SFC) to be formed by the state governments every five years. The State Finance Commission was to recommend measures to augment the financial position of the local bodies. Because the local bodies did not have the necessary resource they were heavily dependent on the state governments for same.
Kulwant Singh was next on the panel to deliver thoughts on the subject. Singh began by telling the audience that earlier it was believed that India lives in the villages in 20th century, but now it could be said that half of India lives in the urban landscape. He added, “The urban population of India will breach the 600 million mark by the year 2030, therefore, there is an urgent need for urban planning, which has been neglected in the past. Currently, out of the total of 8000 towns and cities, only 2000 have prepared their master plan.”
He further added that urban planning should also include transport planning, especially when the density of the urban population is increasing with each passing year. Public transport is of key importance as far as the development of India is concerned. Since, up to 60 to 65 per cent of our GDP comes from the cities, the development of which is largely dependent on urban mobility. Singh later highlighted some of the key initiatives and schemes working in the field of public transportation, including the Metro Rail Policy and Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of EV (FAME) – I & II, and several other initiatives of the central government that works in the field of clean energy, sanitation and waste management.
Mukesh Mathur was the next panellist following Singh. He delved into the financial challenges that the local bodies have to deal with and how can they improve their financial standing. He began by tracing the history of the origin of the local bodies right from Lord Rippon’s resolution of 1687, in port town Madras. He said that urbanisation was not that much of a challenge before the south Asian countries including India, before the 1980s. But now as the estimates show that by the year 2050, more than 50 per cent of the population will be living in urban areas, and present contribution of the urban sector to India’s GDP is around 68 per cent. Therefore, the urban landscape is worthy of the attention which is given to it by the government. The concept behind the introduction of the 74th CAA lies in the vision of realising the dream of creating an urban local government, who are capable of planning and implementing plans related to urban development. So, they could function as the third tier of governance rather than being treated as a department under the administrative control of the state government. Apart from that, Mathur also shed light on the performance-based grant system recommended by the 15th finance commission. Additionally, the commission has recommended a complete delegation of the 18 functional items enshrined in the 12th schedule, not just in theory but on the ground.
The webinar was held as the pre-event of InfoComm India 2022, which is to be held in Mumbai on September 5-7, 2022.

The urban population of India will breach the 600 million mark by the year 2030, therefore, there is an urgent need for urban planning, which has been neglected in the past. Currently, out of the total of 8000 towns and cities, only 2000 have prepared
their master plan