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Smart cities a far cry, cries Infy’s Murthy
MUMBAI: At a time when the government is drawing up plans to build Smart Cities, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy on Thursday built a case for developing existing cities as they stand the risk of stagnating.
“We are far, far away from a Smart City. Urban crises have made headlines in India in the last few months. We have to make our cities more hospitable,” Murthy said at the annual “Literature Live! Independence” lecture.
The issue is topical as most of India’s larger cities have seen a breakdown this monsoon. While Mumbai has always bore the brunt of incessant rains, normal life has been severely affected due to unexpected flooding in Bengaluru and Gurugram (Gurgaon) as well.
“Cities have to play a critical role to achieve higher economic growth and to create employment in manufacturing and services. Economic growth can happen by attracting good talent and capital. For that, we also need well-managed urbanisation,” said Murthy.
A recent McKinsey study said that by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, which is up from 50% at present. Over the same period, more than two billion people are likely to enter the middle class, with a majority of them living in cities in the emerging markets.
“India is witnessing a massive urban shift, witnessed like never before. So there is exponential growth in the migrant population. We have to create millions of jobs in manufacturing and services in cities,” said Murthy.
He said India’s financial capital suffers despite the fact that its contribution to the GDP is $210 billion, which is higher than any other state.
“We need spatial planning, capacity building of municipal institutions. But share of our cities is very low. Indian cities account for 1% of the total fiscal wallet at both central and state level, while the global average is 7.5%,” he said, citing the fact that India has only 5,000 registered town planners, which comes to less than one town planner per town.