India 2050: A strategy for Dispersed Urbanization for Inclusive Growth
The Indo-French collaborative “Agriculture and Food in India in 2050 – Interactive Seminar on the Foresight Agrimonde-Terra for 2050: The Indian Perspective” was held in New Delhi from 7th to 9th December 2017. The organizers of the seminar were the Indian Council of Agricultural Research(ICAR), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), and Centre International de Recherche Agricole pour la Developpement (CIRAD). The seminar was meant to serve as a platform to bring together experts from India and France to:
- Discuss land use and food security scenarios for India in 2050 based on the projections of the global foresight model “Agrimonde-Terra”.
- Identify new areas of collaborative research based on the challenges jointly identified during the seminar.
G N Kathpalia and Rakesh Kapoor were invited to present a talk on “India 2050: A strategy for Dispersed Urbanization for Inclusive Growth” as part of the panel addressing “Structural Transformation and Rural Employment”. The talk identified three important transformations in India happening right now – transition of the economy from an agriculture-based to a services-based economy, rapid urbanization, and a demographic transition towards a population with one of the youngest median age in the world. As part of a strategy to tackle new challenges that would result from this demographic transition, the talk suggested that 4000 new small towns with a population of 1.5 lakh each and equipped with all urban facilities would be needed to allow inclusive growth. The talk also emphasized the criticality of employable skills for the youth especially non-farm skills to enhance incomes of rural families. This dispersed urbanization strategy would be essential to sustain inclusive economic growth, especially in the context of climate change induced disruptions.
The presentation accompanying the talk is available for download below.