Cities Need a Place in Our Economics

The govt should actively consider measures to better articulate and underscore economic role of cities and create the required institutional framework

- MOHITKUMAR DAGA

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN Kanpur and Koramangala, or Asansol and Ahmedabad, or even Guntur and Gurgaon is more than geographic. The top industrial cities of yesteryear have seen their prosperity erode significantly, while the urban bigwigs of our times have neatly aligned themselves with changes in the Indian economy. The comparative economic fortunes of these urban centres can partially be explained through lenses like divergences in the industrial bases, infrastructure, human resources, political temperaments, etc. However, the fundamental lesson is that cities respond and adapt differently to changing economic conditions and policies must accommodate this fact. India's economic strategies till now, however, have been hesitant to accord much importance to this intuitive lesson.

Throughout human history, cities have been the fount of economic prosperity. As the key loci of economic activity, mediators between urban and rural economies, dense hosts of labour and consumers, and portals for global interactions, cities play an instrumental role in shaping the economy. They are also impacted more quickly and severely by a nation's economic circumstances. The economic importance of cities was well-encapsulated by the National Commission on Urbanisation's seminal 1988 report which called cities the "heroic engines of growth". This ringing acknowledgement notwithstanding, India's cities have either been taken for granted or more often ignored in its economic policymaking.