By
Aswin Kumar Das
Suvendu Parida
Subha Prakash Ratha
Phani Bhusan Panda
Bishnu Prasad Gariagadu
Diptimayee Sahu
Priyanka Sahu
Anubhab Panigrahi
Chapter- 1 Introduction
1.1. General:
Mahatma Gandhi envisioned a society where the man would live in harmony with nature. He Propounded having self-sufficient village communities to achieve this goal, having a civilization built on renewable resources. He insisted for the growth of human beings from every stratum of the society and to avoid wasteful use of resources. It is in the Indian culture system to find use for everything, which may be considered as waste by many. However in the race of rapid urbanization and globalization we have lost these practices leading to unsustainable growth of cities.
As per Figure 1.1, by 2008, 30% of Indian population was living in cities generating 58% of the total GDP of India. It is estimated that by 2030, more than 40% of Indians would be living in urban areas contributing to about 70% of the GDP. The cities are going to be the engines of growth for India to become a developed nation and so, the quality of life needs to be improved for sustaining the growth in the long term. India being the second most populated country in the world has some of the most densely populated cities in the world. The rise in Indian economy in the last couple of decades has created many job opportunities in the cities leading to a rapid influx of migrants from the rural areas to the urban areas.