The word urban underlies a basic theme. One that its population size is larger than its rural counterpart, two that its size is definitely larger and three that its functions are varied. Function is probably the most important criterion to define a town. The other criteria are population size and population density. Different countries have different parameters to explain an urban space. India has one too.
In India, the criteria for identifying urban places kept changing with time. The frequent changes in the criteria reflected the basic problem of identifying urban places and the issue could not be settled till 1981.
In India, urban areas are given different administrative status by different state governments. The conferring of this status depends on the state-level Municipal and Local Bodies Acts. A place has to satisfy all the three Census criteria in order to be designated as an urban place even if the requirements are criticised by some to be vague, rigid and conservative.
| The 1981 Census defined an urban place as: |
| (A) a place with a municipality, corporation, or cantonment, or notified town area |
| (B) any other place which satisfied all the following criteria:(i) a minimum population of 5,000; (ii) at least 75 per cent of the male working population engaged in non-agricultural; and, (iii) a density of population of at least 400 per square kilometre or 1,000 persons per square mile. |
At present, we have 35 million cities (2001 census) in India and 27.8 percent of our people live in the towns and cities.
Many eminent scholars have studied the intricacies of a city and have proposed some unique findings. It was J. Gottman who first coined the term Megalopolis. This city was envisaged to have a population size over 35 million people. G. Sjoberg in his book ‘The Pre-Industrial City’ examined the structure of urban settlements both in Europe and elsewhere in the world, prior to the impact of large-scale industrialization. Then there were many more like Harvey, Peet, Pred etc. who went to make our understanding of cities more lucid.
| The Eminent Titles |
| J. Gottman, Megalopolis: The Urbanized North-eastern Seaboard of the United States, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1961. |
| G. Sjoberg, The Pre-Industrial City, Past and Present, The Free Press, New York, 1960. |
Building a city isn’t an easy job. The site factors have to be taken into account so that the city is provided with its basic amenities. Then comes several others factors that depend upon what the city’s basic function is to be.
Administrative Towns
These towns include, capital cities of nations, provinces, district and other administrative units.
Example: Delhi, Chandigarh.
Defence Towns
Most countries maintain Armies, Navies and Air forces for the defence. Such towns generally have barracks and training facilities for the armed forces.
Example: Jalandhar, Jodhpur and Jammu.
Cultural Centres
Many towns have cultural functions such as the provisions for education, art galleries or religious buildings, pilgrimage centre, and more.
Example:
- Shantiniketan, Pantnagar etc. are educational towns.
- Bombay and Pune etc. film centers.
- Lhasa, once the seat of the Dalai Lama of Tibet.
- Banaras, Hardwar, Ajmer etc. pilgrimage centers.
Collection Centres
Mining Towns, fishing Ports and Lumbering Centres are included in collection centres:
Examples:
- Mining Towns— Raniganj and Jharia.
- Fishing Ports — Calicut, Cochin and Pondicherry.
- Lumbering Towns: Papernagar, Kathgodam, Haldwani.
Commercial Town
Business houses, Banks, Insurance Companies and other financial organisations are included in it. It mainly includes those related to trading, retailing and commercial services.
Examples: Muzaffarpur (in Bihar), Nagpur, Bhopal, Kanpur etc.
Market Towns
These are places where exchanges of goods take place i.e collection and distribution. They mainly include large business markets or mandis besides, a wide range of shops,stores,warehouses and godowns, supported by a well knit network of transport facilities.
Examples: Ludhiana, Tirupur.
Resort Towns
These are located in favourable geographical surroundings basically recreational pleasant places to live in. It has hotels, guest houses, film theatres, night clubs, amusement parks, shopping centres etc.
Examples:
- Coastal Resorts with sea-side recreational facilities for water sports such as Goa, Kanya kumari, Allepey;
- Hill Resorts provide scenic beauty, cool climate and adventurous and thrilling sports i.e. trekking, skiing etc. such as Darjeeling, Auli, Shimla etc.; and,
- Health Resorts mainly based on health-giving waters somewhat like health spa such as Manikaran, and favourable climate in Ranikhet, Kasauni etc.
Residential Towns
These are mainly modern towns with all facilities for healthy, good and comfortable life away from congested and polluted cities. These are often well planned and located in a neat and healthy milieu.
Example: Chandigarh, Salt Lake City (Kolkata)
Last but not the least; a mention must be made of the shanty town and slums, a product of the accelerating urbanization process. It is a district of temporary, generally overcrowded, lacking in amenities and characterized by a high incidence of disease, extreme poverty and more.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)