Land acquisition law a visionary policy
A legion of developers, home buyers, investors and others related to the real estate industry perceive the recently passed land acquisition law as an unviable legislation which would jeopardize the Indian industry by increasing the price of acquiring land manifold.However, such perceptions can actually be rested. The industry does not require the capability to snatch land at throwaway prices from helpless farmers as there is ample a supply of ready land where developers and other realtors can move into without any fuss. Albeit what the realty industry does require is an operational framework along with appropriate policies for planned urbanization.
Increasing share of industry over agriculture:
For the first time since India gained its independence, the portion of workforce engaged within the agricultural sector dropped below 50 per cent in 2011. This occurrence was caused due to the natural progression of the Indian economy’s rapid growth fueled by the service and industry sectors, which expanded three to four times as fast as agriculture, steadily increasing their share within the overall output as well as bringing down the share of agriculture below 15 per cent of GDP.
Census data and demographics:
Modern services and industry did not grow on farmlands, they call for an urban environment. Simply put, the growth of industry and services would attract multitude of people to migrate from their respective towns or villages. As per the 2011 Census, town residents accounted for only 32 per cent of the total population of India. This figure is a mere 4 percentage points higher when compared to the Census of 2001.
Future pace of urbanization:
The pace of urbanization is certain to accelerate and in a period of the next two decades the country could easily be witnessing nearly half of its population residing within towns and cities. This would translate into providing accommodation for about 25 crore migrants within towns and other urban regions of the country.
This migratory population can certainly not be accommodated within the already existing towns or cities which are already brimming and bristling with slums, people, slumlords as well as crime. India requires to create and establish a minimum of 20,000 square kilometers of additional urban space in order to accommodate its migratory population. To this end, India’s largest infrastructure project so far – Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation which entails a cost of more than $ 100 billion dollars envisages creating and establishing 24 new cities within the country.
