How to transform census towns into economic growth engines: an Indian (Pune) perspective

The core areas of the large cities in developing countries have reached saturation points. Therefore, the economic activities in cities spill over into surrounding rural areas, giving birth to census towns (CTs) that belong to small towns. In the case of India, CTs are responsible for 32% of urban growth between 2001 and 2011. Therefore, haphazard, unregulated and autonomous expansion of urban activities in the form of CTs must be prepared for greater economic development. In this context, the present study considers 18 CTs located in the Pune District and close to Pune City to examine factors affecting household income. Several important factors, including infrastructure, environmental benefits, agglomeration effects, distance to power and markets, governance structure, local employment and important household-level characteristics were considered for the analysis. The principal component analysis (PCA) method was used to construct infrastructure and environmental indexes. The regression results showed that infrastructure and agglomeration variables have a mixed effect on the household income of the CTs. The environmental benefits and governance structure positively affect household income. Local employment scenarios and distance to power and the market have a negative effect. Finally, several policy measures are suggested to boost the productivity of the CTs and create jobs and business activity. This will serve as a catalyst to bring about a better quality of urbanization in CTs, creating new avenues for development and complying with select Sustainable Development Goal 11.