This book examines urban governance, digital divide, poverty, unemployment, financial and social exclusion and presents a theoretical perspective on inclusive cities, urbanization, migration, slums and affordable housing.

Alok Kumar Mishra is Professor of economics at the School of Economics, University of Hyderabad, an Institution of Eminence. He has been the director of the Land, Housing, Transport, and Urban Economics, HUDCO Chair, and several other programmes. He was awarded Baden-Württemberg Fellowship Award at South Asia Institute (SAI), Heidelberg University, Germany, in 2014, and Chancellor's Award in 2016 for contributing to teaching and research at the University of Hyderabad. He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed research papers in both International and National journals of repute and authored four books. He has guided 17 MPhil scholars, 7 PhD, and 20 Master's dissertations to date. Dr. Mishra's work experiences include the following: Research Officer, National Institute of Bank Management, Pune; Manager of Quant Finance, Financial Strategic Division, Shinsei Bank, Tokyo; Manager of Investment Research, Evalueserve.com Private Limited; and Assistant Vice President, Bank of New York, Mellon. He holds an MA degree in Economics, an MPhil in Monetary Economics, and a PhD in Financial Economics from the University of Hyderabad, India. His current research areas include developmental finance, financial stability, financial markets, financial inclusion, land, housing, urban and transport economics, macroeconomic policies, and applied econometrics.

List of Figures viii

List of Boxes ix

List of Tables x

Preface xii

List of Abbreviations xv

1 India's Urban Missions: Addressing the Challenges of Inclusive Urbanization 1

2 Economic Perspective on Inclusive Urbanization: Cities, Rural-Urban Migration, Slums, and Urban Poverty 42

3 Challenges of Affordable Housing: Reform Strategy to Make Urban Planning Inclusive 71

4 Financing Urban Poverty Alleviation through Inclusive City Reforms 109

5 Urban Participatory Governance: Including the Urban Poor in Public Service Delivery 135

6 Policy Issues in Inclusive Urbanization: An Empirical Study of Select Cities in Telangana State 166

7 An Agenda for Slum-Free and Poverty-Free Cities in India 207

Bibliography 233

Index 265