India’s big cities are rotting, growing into massive, self-governing slums. When attempts are made to fix them, corals come in the way, like in Mumbai.
Sitharaman’s best option to find funds is to recycle public assets, something Australian states have successfully achieved with power grids and other assets.
Efforts to augment Mumbai's drainage to 50 mm an hour is still underway while BMC is yet to fully rejuvenate the Mithi river, the city's natural drainage.
Large financing needs of infrastructure require long-term financial savings of households to increase but they actually show a steep decline in recent years.
Ship of Theseus director Anand Gandhi moved to Goa to synthesise big ideas and build an Indian sci-fi mythiverse with MAYA. ‘In a way, the job title in the East for this enterprise is the Buddha.’
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
You know the hypocrisy I see in this article – Gurugram was there, even Chandigarh was there along with “metros” like Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Isn’t Shekhar saab old enough to know India had 4 metros initially before Bengaluru and Hyderabad joined the list ?
Yes he never mentioned Chennai ! Or is it because Chennai is free of such problems and is India’s New Zealand ? Or is Chennai not part of India any longer ?
Let Mr Shekar (and journalists/politicians of his ilk) learn Indian Geography and hopefully that Indian Geography stops at Kanyakumari and not at Hyderabad/ Bengaluru before they talk of India.
I for one am sick of this divisive debate. Environment or development is hackneyed. Last weeks vomit served as today’s fresh meal. Unless you have basic human needs of water, air, food, transport, housing employment, you cannot have development.
MUMBAI needs public transport, trains and Metros not some fancy road that 2%of the population will use. The 12,000 crores for just the Southern segment has gone up from 6,000 crores for the entire road. Even before any objections were raised.
How blind can you get?
Sure you can blame it on the environmentalists or citizens who said no to the road. We can’t stop you from voicing your point of view but when your children have no access to a Beach in Bombay you can proudly say I supported the Coastal Road but I will take you to the Bahamas.
Not all of us are that privileged Mr Gupta.
Nothing gives the Govt and the BMC the right to destroy our city.
If you are so confident of what MUMBAI needs ask the people. Let’s there be a referendum. Let people who live in Mumbai decide if they want a better Train service or a Coastal Road.
Can you do that?
Perhaps this will resolve the question once and for all.
Only problem is the government should take all clearances honestly to avoid such delays. Also, now urban development ministry is there to improve our cities. our cities have grown so badly because of building mafias supported by politicians . all blames are on politicians for corruption in implementing new laws and approving substandard illegal constructions.
A lot of Indian cities (e.g. Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad) in the 1970s and 1980s were as beautiful and clean as European ones. Once the population started growing beyond a certain limit, they literally collapsed. It is not easy to run big cities without money and engineering talent. Mumbai contributes a lot to Central taxes, but gets back a pittance.
What is pointed out in the article is a secondary issues that can be debated separately. The main problem is the population growth.
Who can believe that Delhi had a population of about 100,00 one hundred years ago?
Prof PK Sharma, Freelance Journalist,Barnala (Punjab)
It is fine that National Interest has gone in for a change in the parleys bothering about the
miserable plight of cities and humans in India !
Shekhar Sahib, excess of everything is bad ! The Print should not fritter away too much space
and energies on bringing politics, political leaders and political outfits off and on under the
scanner. Right from the earth to sky there is a lot more to deliberate and ponder over !
Kudos to The Print for this pleasant innovation ! Fed up with politics, leaders’ roles and the
political outfits !
Hoping for something new and absorbing in the next week’s NATIONAL INTEREST
introspection and ruminations of public and nation’s interests !
Very few remember that Indira Gandhi brought in the Agriculture Land tenancy act in the early 70s. This resulted in fragmentation of farm lands. The result was that only one son of a farmer could remain on the farm land as it could not support other children. Thus started the exodus to the cities.
The other reason is that with better education facilities and growth in employment younger generation flicked to the cities.
The third reason is that farming has become distressful with climate change affecting crops and middle men making bigger profits.
Cities became very crowded while the Govt allowed unplanned expansion without proper town planning. Narrow roads and increase in vehicular traffic combined with narrow roads and widespread building construction is the root cause of the poor state of our cities.
WE can blame our politician/bureaucrat/builder mafia nexus for the sorry state.
So where does Mr Gupta draw the line when it comes to environmental damage which is irreplaceable? If you want to throw the economic argument Mr Gupta, first measure the value of environmental degradation. While you do that, live with the fact that homo sapiens have wreaked destruction wherever we have gone and when we are in nature’s dock, the only living thing that will speak for us is the mosquito. Maybe!
Yes, Shekharji, you are right about the perils of walking into a ‘lovely coral’ versus ‘ugly human’ debate! We in India have been living on this Cloud ‘Coral’ Cuckooland for years! GM mustard, developed by Indian scientists will raise yields by 20-30%, and improve farm income by over Rs 1,000 crore. It will also reduce India’s dependence on imported edible oil. GM Cotton has revolutionized cotton farming, doubled output and converted India from an importer to a major exporter of cotton. GM mustard and GM brinjal could replicate this stunning success. Our environmentalists block dams, block GM crops that will cut the use of dangerous pesticides and reduce hunger by bringing more bountiful and nutritious harvests.
I have to remind of the Indian media getting intoxicated by reports of pesticides Coca Cola, and the Supreme Court on Dec.6th 2004 making it mandatory for Pepsi and Coke (the newspapers did not mention other names!) would have to display on their bottles a warning that the soft drinks may contain pesticide residues! The SC was not worried about the hundred of brands of “bottled drinking water” and “mineral water”! If Coke and Pepsi contain pesticides, they must have entered these drinks from the water drawn from sources in this country! No such thought ever entered the judicial minds. I read later that the lawyers employed by Coke and Pepsi argued (unsuccessfully) in the Supreme Court that at levels like 0.027 parts per million etc., the pesticides are quite harmless. Did their Lordships understand the point? Probably they were furious and hence the ruling. In the present case also, it is more their moral concern or fury, not logic that saved the coral and ditched the road!
The dismal science , that is what somebody called economics , on T.R.Mathus prediction of ever growing popultaion and inability of mankind to keep up supply of food and other amenities . Shekhar Gupta is the new Malthus . But Malthus was predicting the future and Gupta is describing the present .I am not a great fan of demographic dividend , any day I would take the 1% economic growth along with a stable population , rather than what India offers at present , an ever burgeoning population with 7% growth (is it ?) which of course is contested by economists of Indian origin sitting in New York (where else) .Like China it is time to propogate 1 child norm in India . You don’t want father Malthus to be right in the context of India.
Thanks to Shekhar Gupta for bringing up this issue. Without Indian media taking up this issue with honesty and not bringing politics in it like they done for Modi’s Swach Bharat programme. By culturally Indians follow double standards one for there own home and another for public utilities and places. Few journalists like Tavleen Singh has been writing on these issues. However, there is combined movement from the media to take the issues head on and ensure that the government programmes are not laughed at. The biggest change must come in the way Indian children are raised and their attitudes are shaped at home and at school. If we can’t make our schools as the model examples, how can we expect the conditions in cities to improve.
Yes, quite true. But life in villages is even worse. Rural India is primarily afflicted by lack of opportunities, which the reason for unabated flow to urban India. Inadequate civic facilities, overcrowding, traffic jams, intolerable delays in daily commutation, growing filth.. the list is endless- all these constitute today’s urban life. Add to that water shortages- Chennai is the worst example, unsafe housing- collapse of old buildings in Mumbai, age-old bridges are threat to life, inexorable rise in pollution that causes lungs related health problems: again the list is endless. Comparison with New Zealand or Luxembourg is hilarious. The concept of ‘Ease of Living’ simply doesn’t apply to India- rural or urban. The question is what are the solutions. It is a trillion dollar question that defies answer.
The first step could be getting less cynical and sarcastic which you seem to be displaying in abundance. India has what it has. Nothing wrong in advocating ease of living and trying to come up with ideas even if our people are nowhere near New Zealanders.
Ok. First step taken. Let us view things with pure optimism and hope. Now tell me what is step no two. Without any concrete solutions it is just an empty bravado.
Much / most / all of the incremental GDP from here to $ 5 trillion will be generated in urban India, disproportionately in the largest cities. They are being starved of investment, partly because rural development – now including so many more toilets and houses – has to be paid for. India will need to strike a better balance, create cities that are some way from being Smart but more congenial places to reside in. 2. As far as Bombay’s four square foot Great Barrier Reef – it is small enough to be accommodated in one corner of the Taraporevala Aquarium – is concerned, the coastal road has been so long in the planning, the basic point of law on which the Bombay High Court has faulted it ought to have been dealt with in good time. Public functionaries sometimes regard it as a sign of dynamism that they have met their counterparts in Delhi and breezed through environmental clearances for a prestigious project. The cost overruns and delay that will follow in the wake of the judgment could easily have been avoided with a little foresight.
A column by Ms Smruti Koppikar in HT points out that there has been no Environmental Impact Assessment for this 14,000 crore project.
I agree to what you say but what is the solution? Is it going to be incremental or transformational? While we have all the problems we can think of we must talk of solutions and is there any redemption?
You know the hypocrisy I see in this article – Gurugram was there, even Chandigarh was there along with “metros” like Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Isn’t Shekhar saab old enough to know India had 4 metros initially before Bengaluru and Hyderabad joined the list ?
Yes he never mentioned Chennai ! Or is it because Chennai is free of such problems and is India’s New Zealand ? Or is Chennai not part of India any longer ?
Let Mr Shekar (and journalists/politicians of his ilk) learn Indian Geography and hopefully that Indian Geography stops at Kanyakumari and not at Hyderabad/ Bengaluru before they talk of India.
I for one am sick of this divisive debate. Environment or development is hackneyed. Last weeks vomit served as today’s fresh meal. Unless you have basic human needs of water, air, food, transport, housing employment, you cannot have development.
MUMBAI needs public transport, trains and Metros not some fancy road that 2%of the population will use. The 12,000 crores for just the Southern segment has gone up from 6,000 crores for the entire road. Even before any objections were raised.
How blind can you get?
Sure you can blame it on the environmentalists or citizens who said no to the road. We can’t stop you from voicing your point of view but when your children have no access to a Beach in Bombay you can proudly say I supported the Coastal Road but I will take you to the Bahamas.
Not all of us are that privileged Mr Gupta.
Nothing gives the Govt and the BMC the right to destroy our city.
If you are so confident of what MUMBAI needs ask the people. Let’s there be a referendum. Let people who live in Mumbai decide if they want a better Train service or a Coastal Road.
Can you do that?
Perhaps this will resolve the question once and for all.
Only problem is the government should take all clearances honestly to avoid such delays. Also, now urban development ministry is there to improve our cities. our cities have grown so badly because of building mafias supported by politicians . all blames are on politicians for corruption in implementing new laws and approving substandard illegal constructions.
A lot of Indian cities (e.g. Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad) in the 1970s and 1980s were as beautiful and clean as European ones. Once the population started growing beyond a certain limit, they literally collapsed. It is not easy to run big cities without money and engineering talent. Mumbai contributes a lot to Central taxes, but gets back a pittance.
What is pointed out in the article is a secondary issues that can be debated separately. The main problem is the population growth.
Who can believe that Delhi had a population of about 100,00 one hundred years ago?
Prof PK Sharma, Freelance Journalist,Barnala (Punjab)
It is fine that National Interest has gone in for a change in the parleys bothering about the
miserable plight of cities and humans in India !
Shekhar Sahib, excess of everything is bad ! The Print should not fritter away too much space
and energies on bringing politics, political leaders and political outfits off and on under the
scanner. Right from the earth to sky there is a lot more to deliberate and ponder over !
Kudos to The Print for this pleasant innovation ! Fed up with politics, leaders’ roles and the
political outfits !
Hoping for something new and absorbing in the next week’s NATIONAL INTEREST
introspection and ruminations of public and nation’s interests !
Prof PK Sharma, Freelance Journalist
Pom Anm Nest,Barnala (Punjab)
Very few remember that Indira Gandhi brought in the Agriculture Land tenancy act in the early 70s. This resulted in fragmentation of farm lands. The result was that only one son of a farmer could remain on the farm land as it could not support other children. Thus started the exodus to the cities.
The other reason is that with better education facilities and growth in employment younger generation flicked to the cities.
The third reason is that farming has become distressful with climate change affecting crops and middle men making bigger profits.
Cities became very crowded while the Govt allowed unplanned expansion without proper town planning. Narrow roads and increase in vehicular traffic combined with narrow roads and widespread building construction is the root cause of the poor state of our cities.
WE can blame our politician/bureaucrat/builder mafia nexus for the sorry state.
So where does Mr Gupta draw the line when it comes to environmental damage which is irreplaceable? If you want to throw the economic argument Mr Gupta, first measure the value of environmental degradation. While you do that, live with the fact that homo sapiens have wreaked destruction wherever we have gone and when we are in nature’s dock, the only living thing that will speak for us is the mosquito. Maybe!
Yes, Shekharji, you are right about the perils of walking into a ‘lovely coral’ versus ‘ugly human’ debate! We in India have been living on this Cloud ‘Coral’ Cuckooland for years! GM mustard, developed by Indian scientists will raise yields by 20-30%, and improve farm income by over Rs 1,000 crore. It will also reduce India’s dependence on imported edible oil. GM Cotton has revolutionized cotton farming, doubled output and converted India from an importer to a major exporter of cotton. GM mustard and GM brinjal could replicate this stunning success. Our environmentalists block dams, block GM crops that will cut the use of dangerous pesticides and reduce hunger by bringing more bountiful and nutritious harvests.
I have to remind of the Indian media getting intoxicated by reports of pesticides Coca Cola, and the Supreme Court on Dec.6th 2004 making it mandatory for Pepsi and Coke (the newspapers did not mention other names!) would have to display on their bottles a warning that the soft drinks may contain pesticide residues! The SC was not worried about the hundred of brands of “bottled drinking water” and “mineral water”! If Coke and Pepsi contain pesticides, they must have entered these drinks from the water drawn from sources in this country! No such thought ever entered the judicial minds. I read later that the lawyers employed by Coke and Pepsi argued (unsuccessfully) in the Supreme Court that at levels like 0.027 parts per million etc., the pesticides are quite harmless. Did their Lordships understand the point? Probably they were furious and hence the ruling. In the present case also, it is more their moral concern or fury, not logic that saved the coral and ditched the road!
The dismal science , that is what somebody called economics , on T.R.Mathus prediction of ever growing popultaion and inability of mankind to keep up supply of food and other amenities . Shekhar Gupta is the new Malthus . But Malthus was predicting the future and Gupta is describing the present .I am not a great fan of demographic dividend , any day I would take the 1% economic growth along with a stable population , rather than what India offers at present , an ever burgeoning population with 7% growth (is it ?) which of course is contested by economists of Indian origin sitting in New York (where else) .Like China it is time to propogate 1 child norm in India . You don’t want father Malthus to be right in the context of India.
Thanks to Shekhar Gupta for bringing up this issue. Without Indian media taking up this issue with honesty and not bringing politics in it like they done for Modi’s Swach Bharat programme. By culturally Indians follow double standards one for there own home and another for public utilities and places. Few journalists like Tavleen Singh has been writing on these issues. However, there is combined movement from the media to take the issues head on and ensure that the government programmes are not laughed at. The biggest change must come in the way Indian children are raised and their attitudes are shaped at home and at school. If we can’t make our schools as the model examples, how can we expect the conditions in cities to improve.
Yes, quite true. But life in villages is even worse. Rural India is primarily afflicted by lack of opportunities, which the reason for unabated flow to urban India. Inadequate civic facilities, overcrowding, traffic jams, intolerable delays in daily commutation, growing filth.. the list is endless- all these constitute today’s urban life. Add to that water shortages- Chennai is the worst example, unsafe housing- collapse of old buildings in Mumbai, age-old bridges are threat to life, inexorable rise in pollution that causes lungs related health problems: again the list is endless. Comparison with New Zealand or Luxembourg is hilarious. The concept of ‘Ease of Living’ simply doesn’t apply to India- rural or urban. The question is what are the solutions. It is a trillion dollar question that defies answer.
The first step could be getting less cynical and sarcastic which you seem to be displaying in abundance. India has what it has. Nothing wrong in advocating ease of living and trying to come up with ideas even if our people are nowhere near New Zealanders.
Ok. First step taken. Let us view things with pure optimism and hope. Now tell me what is step no two. Without any concrete solutions it is just an empty bravado.
Much / most / all of the incremental GDP from here to $ 5 trillion will be generated in urban India, disproportionately in the largest cities. They are being starved of investment, partly because rural development – now including so many more toilets and houses – has to be paid for. India will need to strike a better balance, create cities that are some way from being Smart but more congenial places to reside in. 2. As far as Bombay’s four square foot Great Barrier Reef – it is small enough to be accommodated in one corner of the Taraporevala Aquarium – is concerned, the coastal road has been so long in the planning, the basic point of law on which the Bombay High Court has faulted it ought to have been dealt with in good time. Public functionaries sometimes regard it as a sign of dynamism that they have met their counterparts in Delhi and breezed through environmental clearances for a prestigious project. The cost overruns and delay that will follow in the wake of the judgment could easily have been avoided with a little foresight.
A column by Ms Smruti Koppikar in HT points out that there has been no Environmental Impact Assessment for this 14,000 crore project.
I agree to what you say but what is the solution? Is it going to be incremental or transformational? While we have all the problems we can think of we must talk of solutions and is there any redemption?
Nobody can talk of solutions as none exist. On an individual basis one can try to migrate to better places. That’s all.