[Urbanstudy] CPR CSH Workshop on 29 April by Om Prakash Mathur

[Shahana Sheikh]

Dear All,

As part of our Urban Workshop Series, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR)
and Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), Delhi, are delighted to invite you
to a Workshop on *City-size Distribution in a Quasi-open Economy: The
Indian Evidence *by *Om Prakash Mathu*r of Institute of Social Sciences,
New Delhi.

Date:               Tuesday, 29 April 2014
Time:               3.45 p.m.

Venue:     Conference Hall, Centre for Policy Research, Dharma Marg,
Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021

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Is city-size distribution sensitive to the nature of the economic system?
 Does city-size distribution change when an economy characterized by a
command-control mode transits to one which is open or substantially open?
The literature discuses two principal forms of city-size distributions: (i)
the Zipf’s Law - distributions according to rank-size rule and (ii) the
primate city form where one city dominates and attracts much of the
development. The former is associated with the relatively developed
countries; the latter is a characteristic of developing and small
countries. There are numerous examples of the latter where capital cities
alone account for 35-50 percent of national GDP.

The presentation will compare the 1991 city-size distributions, when India
was in a command-control mode, with the 2011 city-size distributions when
India had done away with much of the regulation and control. This is
important given that most countries, including India, reveal policy
preferences for different sizes of cities. For example, India, in the mid
1970s, undertook the Integrated Development Small and Medium Towns Scheme
based on the argument that small/medium cities were handicapped on account
of poor infrastructure; and in 2005, it launched the JNNURM which focused
on large and capital cities, arguing that these were central to growth. The
purpose of this presentation is to suggest that policy preferences for size
classes of cities can be “informed exercises”, using strong analytical
frameworks.

*Om Prakash Mathur*, currently with the Institute of Social Sciences, New
Delhi, is one of India’s most distinguished urban researchers. He was
previously Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs, New Delhi and has
held positions with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
the Planning Commission, Government of India, United Nations Centre for
Regional Development, Nagoya, Japan and the Government of Iran. Recently he
was a member of the Prime Minister's National Review Committee on
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, the JNNURM Technical
Advisory Group, the High-Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure
Investment Requirements and the Advisory Group of Experts on
Decentralization (AGRED), of UN-Habitat. He serves on the editorial board
of many important journals and has numerous publications.

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This is the fifty first in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and Centre for Policy Research
(CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating
to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including
its administration, culture, economy, society and politics. For further
information, please contact: Jayani Bonnerjee at
jayani.bonnerjee at csh-delhi.com, Partha Mukhopadhyay at
partha at cprindia.orgor Marie-Hélène Zerah at
marie-helene.zerah at ird.fr


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We look forward to welcoming you to CPR for what promises to be an
interesting discussion. Please feel free to share this invitation with
friends and colleagues who may be interested.

Thanks and Regards,


-- 
Shahana Sheikh

Research Associate
Centre for Policy Research
New Delhi
Phone No.: +91 8826649608
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