Recommending that state governments improve urban management by empowering city administrations, particularly in places like Bengaluru, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, a former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said on Wednesday that more states should be carved out to increase the number of cities in the country. “If India is to grow at 8 per cent, then the urban population has to grow larger. I think you have to recognise that India will not be viksit (developed) if it doesn’t largely reduce the number (of people) staying in the villages,” he said in Bengaluru. Ahluwalia made these remarks during an interaction on “Resilient Pathways: Charting India’s Economic Growth Amid Global Challenges” at the state government’s Invest Karnataka 2025 meet alongside economist and author Salman Soz. Story continues below this ad Ahluwalia emphasised that making a city liveable involved more than just attracting corporate investment. “There is a whole lot of urban management that has to be done. And there, Bengaluru has not done what it should be doing. Now that it is on the global map, …