Uttar Pradesh On Newer Development Landscape: A Geographical Overview Of Urban Policy, Economic Growth Planning And The Emerging Strategic Pathways

Author : Kapil Kumar Gavsker

Abstract :The state has witnessed a tremendous amount of developmental pressures and the politics of socio spatial transformation over the last few decades. Much of this change is driven by the cities and towns and their interconnected space in Uttar Pradesh. State plays a significant part in social, cultural, political life of the country. This has not been coupled with the urbanization levels, economic development and enrichment of urban social well being. The state has level of urbanization (22.28%) which is below the national average (31.16%). Being the epitome of slower pace of urbanization and economic development, state has been seen playing a pivotal role in the Idea of socio-spatial justice and making processes more inclusionary in urban development and planning. Historical analysis shows that politics behind social assertion has impacted urban development practices a lot and urban planning too in the state. Recently efforts have been made to transform urbanscapes and urban economy and enhance social participation. The focus of present urban policy is towards revival of major urban growth centres and linking them with the broad urban transformation agenda of the state and country. The emerging avenues include tackling issues and concerns of urban local bodies, capacity constraints, refurbishment of infrastructure, and urban governance to promote urban sustainability. This unprecedented move in urban development paradigm in Uttar Pradesh has geographical implications, socio-demographic impacts and economic ramifications. The present study is designed in the conceptual framework of constructivism and critically deals with the changing urban development policy and spatial planning in the state. The methodologically, this study is based on secondary sources of data, literature and case studies.

Keywords :cities and towns, socio-spatial justice, sustainability, transformation, urbanization, urban development paradigm, urban economy.

Conference Name :International Conference on Urban Development Studies (ICUDS-2024)

Conference Place London, UK

Conference Date 11th Nov 2024