55% of Indians will be living in cities by 2050

Less than 20 years from now, Mumbai will be the world’s most densely populated city after Tokyo, with Delhi and Dhaka following right behind. By 2025, the world’s four biggest cities will be in Asia. This is forecast by UN Habitat in its State of the World’s cities 2008/09 report. The three south Asian cities breaking into the top four will replace Mexico City, New York and Sao Paulo in Brazil. Tokyo is already in the top four.

According to UN Habitat in its latest report, State of the World’s cities 2008/09, most of the cities in China projected to shrink are intermediate and big cities. In India, which accounts for 20% of the shrinking cities, it is the smaller urban centres that are shrinking as people migrate to bigger cities or to other newer cities that become more attractive as destinations for migration.Despite shrinking cities, the urban population keeps growing as a proportion to the total in the developing world, as rural towns and centres grow to become new cities and further migration happens between these cities.

Migration has been the primary reason for growth of cities in countries with low levels of urbanisation as is the case in Asia and Africa. However, in many countries, the largest movements of population are taking place between cities and not from rural to urban areas. This city-to-city movement has been one of the strongest reasons for some cities expanding at the cost of others. Dhaka is the fastest growing meta city those with populations above 20 million — in the world with a population growth rate of 4.4% per year. But some of the fastest growing cities are in China, with Chongqing, Xiamen and Shenzhen all growing at over 10% per year. It’s no surprise that China is expected to be 70% urban by 2050.
In India, on the other hand, urbanisation is likely to be at a slower pace.The report estimates that about 55% of the population or 900 million people would be living in urban areas by 2050.

Indian carriers are slipping deeper into red every passing month. On Saturday, Jet Airways announced its highest net loss in six quarters — Rs 384.50 crore for this fiscal’s second quarter ending September 30 — while the airline had a profit of Rs 28.30 crore same period last year. The loss comes on account of higher operating costs that led to raising fares and saw dwindling of passenger loads. The company’s total income that quarter, however, increased to Rs 3,121.34 crore from Rs 1,818.55 crore in the yearago period. The airline admitted its subsidiary, JetLite, has accumulated losses more than its net worth. But the Naresh Goyal-led airline plans to support JetLite and turn it around.