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Historically, cities have been the driving force in economic and social development. At present approximately 307 million Indians lives in nearly 3700 towns and cities spread across the country. This is 30.5% of its population, in sharp contrast to only 60 millions (15%) who lived in urban areas in 1947 when the country became Independent. During the last fifty years the population of India has grown two and half times, but Urban India has grown by nearly five times. In numerical terms, India's urban population is second largest in the world after China, and is higher than the total urban population of all countries put together barring China, USA and Russia.