BOOK RE VIEW S MANZOOR ALAM AND WAHEEDUDDIN KHAN, METROPOLITAN HYDERABAD AND ITS REGION : A STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPMENT, Asia Publishing Mouse, Bombay 1972, pp 315 Rs 30. URBANIZATION, as a process, has been proceeding in a very peculiar fashion in this country. Although four major metropolitan cities—Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi and Madras—have recorded fantastic growth, it is not maintained in respect of other cities. The second j level metropolitan centres—Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kanpur— are however now fast catching up. Historically, metropolitan cities have been studied in isolation and it is only now that their relationship (influence and dependence) with the surrounding region has been realized. The book under review is perhaps the first attempt in India to study a metropolitan centre in the regional context. The basic premises on which the study has been conducted are: firstly,metropolitan Hyderabad, being the largest urban industrial agglomeration in Andhra Pradesh, decides to a great extent the shaping of the spatial economy of the state: secondly, it also is a dominant factor in determining the spatial distribution of population and activities in the zone of its immediate impact and thirdly, that it is a rapidly developing conurbation with strong axial expansion tendencies. The book is divided into four parts. Part I covers the process of urbanization in Andhra Pradesh in general, features of various component regions and the zones of influence of Metropolitan Hyderabad. Part II, which deals with the economic characteristics and strategy for development in three chapters, defines the limits of Metropolitan Hyderabad on the basis of circulation of daily newspapers, distribution pattern of resident university scholars, traffic flow and traffic shed and supply zones of some of the essentials. It then analyses the demographic and economic profile of the region, and outlines a strategy for its development. Part III is