Comparative Study on Urbanization of Maharashtra and West Bengal in the Post Liberalization Era

This paper compares the urbanization pattern and growth of urbanization between West Bengal and Maharashtra after the post-liberalization era. Twenty years? time period is taken for the study i.e., from 1991-2011. This paper shows the inter-district urbanization pattern of the above states along with their growth rates and also inter-district disparity present in the states and the reasons for it. This paper also shows the urbanization in West Bengal and Maharashtra is affected by the changes in economic indicators, demographic and development indicator,and how they are related to urbanization. A brief comparison takes place between the population growth, sectoral comparison of Kolkata and Mumbai, which are the capital of these states respectively, is analyzed. The paper concludes that urbanization in Maharashtra is taking place at a faster rate and in a diverse way than that of West Bengal because of various factors mentioned in the study.