LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA by Narayanan Edadan, PhD
tor workers are the least protected by labor laws, welfare benefits, exploitation at work and the non-existent maternity leave benefits. Lack of a clear urban strategy for promoting the economic contribution of informal economic sectors such as pro poor businesses/micro enterprises, vending business, etc has been one of the main limitations of the current urban development strategy to achieve inclusiveness.
integrated and coordinated intervention from government, private sector and local communities. The poor conditions of physical and economic infrastructure in the State and in urban areas have been cited an important impediment for investments, besides the institutional and operational constraints emerging from poor governance and lack of investment orientations of local bodies.
Employment is an area, which shows up where growth process is failing on inclusiveness. During 1999-2000, the growth of employment accelerated to 2.6 percent, outpacing the growth of population. This was because working age population grew faster than total population and labor force participation rates, particularly among women, increased. Non-agricultural employment expanded robustly at an annual rate of 4.7 percent during 1999-2005 which was in the unorganized sector and low productivity self employment sectors. Despite a healthy GDP growth, the employment in the organized sector declined. Similarly, urban poor remains excluded from the urban economic growth, particularly the trickling down effects of knowledge based urban growth bypassed the urban poor in a significant way. Besides, the issue of insecurity of land tenure affects their capacity to improve their living and working environments. Absence of clarity on the responsibilities of urban local governments in engaging formal and informal economic sector stakeholders for mobilizing investments has been an important impediment in taking up direct urban economic development responsibilities, even though, the policy intentions and objectives to attract local and external investments in the urban areas are expressed adequately articulated in the New National Urban Development Strategy.
Asset and Urban Economic Growth Transmission Processes
Guiding Principles The Urban Local Economic Development Framework is guided by the following principles: • Governments at all levels, Local, State and Central, have an unavoidable responsibility and leadership role in shaping the economic future of our urban local economies6.
URBAN ECONOMIC LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
• Urban local economic development is an outcome of actions and interventions resulting from good governance, alignment and integration of local programs with State and Central policies and programs.
The Urban Local Economic Development processes would entail a comprehensive strategy that would promote the core competence of urban areas through an
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