There are a number of issues that need to be debated about India’s urbanization. While the popular perception is that of a deluge of migrants into urban areas, others (I among them) are concerned that our urbanization is too slow. There are questions of location – whether we seek to concentrate regional development and move people to jobs or continue with our strategy of evening the regional spread and try to move jobs to people. Even if one accepts concentration, should it be done as in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, or should it follow the model of expanding existing urban areas, like Bangalore and Hyderabad, each of whom today have a development authority that oversees an area around twice the size of Goa? How should the cities themselves be; should they be sprawling garden cities like those in America or more compact? And the question that we address here: what is the role of formality, of planning?