Growth and Size of large Cities in India: Spatial Variation and Causes

Beside the dominance of large cities in the process of urbanization, there is spatial disparity in terms of their growth, distribution and other characteristics. Therefore the paper compares the class I cities (100000 population and above) located within UA boundaries and those located outside UA’s in terms of their population size, growth and employment growth. The latter part of this paper tries to see the relationship between size and growth of the cities. In addition, the paper also looks at the changes in migration pattern towards large cities.
The paper concludes that Indian urbanization is experiencing concentrated decentralization where growth is concentrated in class I cities particularly within UAs. Within this category, cities located outside UAs are catching up with those located within UAs. There is a Movement from Monocentric to Polycentric urban pattern in largest UAs of the Country. In addition a decline in the growth rates of a number of million plus cities suggests that large cities, particularly the metropolises, have become less welcoming to the prospective migrants or indicates exclusionary urbanization. Its also important to note that most of these new million plus cities have emerged in close proximity to the already existing million plus cities.