The capacity of cities to create unprecedented levels of economic activity and innovation will all but ensure that they will take the lead in the century ahead.
Increasingly, numbers & political clout is moving from villages to cities. Being more exposed to media, cities are influencing political agenda more than politicians understand.
India’s civil services were once called the ‘steel frame’. But steel is forged in fire, not moulded in a coaching class. While dilution has made the exam easier, it has also made it harder to find the game-changers we need.
SEBI probe concluded that purported loans and fund transfers were paid back in full and did not amount to deceptive market practices or unreported related party transactions.
Many really smart people now share the position that playing cricket with Pakistan is politically, strategically and morally wrong. It is just a poor appreciation of competitive sport.
Most of us think of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong while speaking of China. Consider the scores of new cities it has created since 1978 which are in the million plus category. Without necessarily thinking of metropolitan areas and smaller urban towns as an Either Or binary, it is unquestionably true that most of the incremental GDP that will need to be created for India to reach a per capita income of @ 6,000 will have to be generated in urban areas. Being a Nehruvian to the core, my heart tells me it will be the metros more than the smaller towns that will get us there. Which makes it all the more tragic that one half of Bombay’s population lives in slums. Our urban areas need not be Smart Cities but the quality of our urbanisation needs to be much better.
Most of us think of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong while speaking of China. Consider the scores of new cities it has created since 1978 which are in the million plus category. Without necessarily thinking of metropolitan areas and smaller urban towns as an Either Or binary, it is unquestionably true that most of the incremental GDP that will need to be created for India to reach a per capita income of @ 6,000 will have to be generated in urban areas. Being a Nehruvian to the core, my heart tells me it will be the metros more than the smaller towns that will get us there. Which makes it all the more tragic that one half of Bombay’s population lives in slums. Our urban areas need not be Smart Cities but the quality of our urbanisation needs to be much better.