The Battle of Ideas will host the fifth UK versus India Debating Matters International Final, a showdown between the winners of Debating Matters Competition UK 2012/13 and the winners of the Debating Matters India Competition 2012/13. Known for its rigorous and intellectually challenging format that values substance over style, the Debating Matters international final will showcase the very best debaters from both countries. Students from National Public School, Koramangala from Bangalore, India and Withington Girls’ School from Manchester, UK, will debate the motion Megacities are bad for the developing world.

A ‘megacity’ is typically defined as an urban area with over 10 million inhabitants. In 1950, New York was the only one. Today, there are 27 megacities – the largest is Tokyo with a population of 34.5 million people. According to the UN, by 2025, the number of megacities is expected to rise to 37 and the majority of this growth will come in the developing world, with Asia alone having 22 megacities. Many of these cities will look vastly different to New York, Tokyo or London, resembling Mumbai or Sāo Paulo with their vast slums and associated health and social problems. The growth of megacities will coincide with a general move towards urban living – it is expected that 60% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030. Some view megacities as places with challenges to be overcome, allowing for a better standard of living for more and more people. Those opposed to the growth of such large cities see people crushed under the weight of population, leading to squalor, disease, environmental problems and at greater risk of material disaster and where huge amounts of infrastructure are threatened by pollution, rising sea levels and flooding. The only affordable means of shelter for millions of megacity inhabitants is illegal, unplanned and dangerous housing. They lack not only basic government services, but political recognition – their presence tacitly accepted but ignored. Are megacities dynamic hotbeds of productivity, offering individuals an opportunity to work their way out of poverty, or corrupt and frightening expanses of urban blight?

Yogesh Chauhan, Director Corporate Sustainability, Tata Consultancy Services

Rebecca Walton, director, Partnerships and Business Development, British Council

Austin Williams, associate professor in architecture, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China; producer, FCP Ltd for NBSTV; convenor, Bookshop Barnies