New Delhi, July 8 -- India has long been known as a land of contrasts. Recall what the British economist Joan Robinson famously said of India: "Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true." This is as true today as it was back in the early years of the 20th century, when it was said.

According to a report by research agency PRICE and Tata Sons titled The Many Urban Indias, while India's top 100 cities that account for less than a fifth of our population generate over a third of the income and make up 31% of consumption, just a few cities account for an outsized share. The six metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad alone account for 46% of the top-100's total spending.

On average income...