India ranks at the bottom on the urbanisation growth ladder world over, but the country is going to catch up with the rest of Asia with a promising boom in its 20 cities, including four metropolis and other big Tier I cities, reveals a study.

Among the Asian countries, Korea tops the table with 32% urbanisation growth followed by Indonesia and China with 29% and 23%, respectively, against India?s dismal 8%.

According to the study, The next urban frontier: Twenty cities to watch, jointly conducted by the Future Capital Research and the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) in top 20 cities, finds 20 cities that make up for less than 10% of India?s population generate 30% of income. This will make half the households middle class by 2016 with the high-income segment tripling in the same period.

Outpacing the metropolis, cities like Bhopal, Jalandhar and Kanpur reported an average growth of 78% in householdconsumption expenditure compared to a low of 57% by cities like Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai. While household income growth in top 20 cities hovered around 11%, cities like Surat, Nagpur and Ahmedabad maintained more than 15% growth in household income.

Megacities and Tier I cities scored the least on average spending on eduction and recreation than boomtowns and niche cities. Surplus income in all top cities, around 50%, is almost double that of the national average.

While 19% households in the cities preferred to keep surplus at home, roughly 70-80% of them bank on savings to cope with economic shock. On financial trends, the study maintained that cities in niche category had highest asset penetration but fared low on financial penetration.

Nagpur, in the boomtown category, led in highest insurance penetration, followed by Bangalore and Surat at second and third places, respectively. On the highest credit card penetration, Coimbatore, which falls under the boomtown category, came first followed by Jaipur and Chennai, said the study.

Urban Development

•Among the Asian countries, Korea tops the table with 32% urbanisation growth, followed by Indonesia and China with 29% and 23%, respectively, against India?s dismal 8%

• 20 cities that make up for less than 10% of India?s population, generate 30% of income

• Megacities and Tier I cities scored the least on average spending on eduction and recreation than boomtowns