The narrative of urban modernization calls for replacing the native urban poor with a new class of people who will support the world-city ambitions projected by the Bangalore government. Indeed, India's land grabs and real estate investment boom are not occurring in urban centers, but rather in booming suburbs and smaller cities such as the fringe settlements beyond Bangalore's Electronic City. Lefebvre defines this phenomenon as India's "urban revolution", explaining the shift of capital from its primary (industrial) circuit to its secondary (property-based) circuit. This form of urban revolution requires an injection of surplus capital into real estate in emerging markets and the conversion of previously “underutilized areas” for the production of capitalist space. In the case of India, this has been down to millions of small peri-urban land transactions being bundled together and sold to developers. The colonial state-inspired manipulation of existing laws, in conjunction with India's Special Economic Zone Act, has led to an unprecedented level of acquisition of state land for urban development through the cunning of expropriation. In fact, India has 143 operational SEZs, with another 600 approved and planned for future development, requiring over half a million acres of new land, much of which will be zoned for luxury residential and retail : “the real attraction of the SEZ for most developers”. Yet Bangalore, in its quest to become a world city, has led to considerable displacement following the expansion of the capital's secondary circuit. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay A discussion on urbanization and city building in India is not complete without addressing informality. Macfarlane offers an alternative conceptualisation of the distinction between formality and informality: both are different forms of practice. The product of urban modernity and economic liberalization is assumed to fall within the realm of the “formal,” while informality can be conceptualized as a negotiable value. In reality, formality and informality are not fixed categories, but rather fluid ones, which allows planners and developers of Indian cities like Bangalore to switch between them to achieve their goals. However, this comes at a high price, as Bangalore's IT-focused world city development projects have also undermined a major informal economy that employs much of the city's population and provides 50-75% of GDP. Like many postcolonial cities, urban neighborhoods in Indian cities are informally settled and are “recognized and administered through hybrid, contradictory, and ambiguous sets of legal mechanisms and state practices.” Informal slum settlements emerge from development-induced poverty and subsequent migration from rural areas to urban periphery. Indeed, informality is a way of life, experienced and used by both elites and slum dwellers, and is central to understanding how development occurs in India. Developers and state agencies undermine existing laws, begin illegal construction, and only gain approval later. In some cases, state agencies initiate projects with the support of organized crime syndicates. Therefore it is clear that informality is not limited to poorly built slums and the lower classes: it is used and implemented throughout Indian society. is especially relevant here, since.