As the number of people living in cities continues to increase, India needs to be proactive in solving the problems of Urbanization according to LiveMint.com article titled “Future for Urban India”.
In the NY Times blog titled “Slumdog Entrepreneurs”, Economics Professor at Harvard School Ed Glaeser, writes about his observation that 43 percent of urban Indians who worked were self-employed (vs 11% in the US). High self employment in Urban India reflects both good things about the country, like energy and intelligence, and bad things, like a maze of regulations that make it difficult to build large companies that follow the rules.
India can learn from China to develop light manufacturing to provide employment for tens of millions of surplus farm laborers. Better urban management will be an imperative as more Indians flock to cities in search of work.
Click on ‘Continue Reading’ to see video of Nandan Nilekani’s presentation at TED on his ideas for the Future of India
The technology has immense potential for ‘intelligent urbanization’ for India according to Susheela Venkataraman, managing director, Internet Business Solution Group at Cisco Systems.