On May 09, 2014 The Collaborating
Chambers, EMBARQ, IITB, Nagar, TISS, UDRI, WeSchool and Mumbai First jointly
organised a talk by Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia titled "Transforming Our
Cities". The talk was held at the BSE International Convention Hall in
Mumbai.
Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia is a well known economist and Chairperson, Board of Governors, the Indian Council for Research on international Economic Relations (ICRIER), heading its research programme on urbanization. She was also Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Services (HPECUIS) during 2008-2011. The Report on Indian Infrastructure and Services by the HPECUIS addresses the issues of urban governance and suggests ways to bring about urban reform. Dr. Ahluwalia is Member of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and is on the Boards of a number of premier research institutes in India. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India in the year 2009 for her services in the field of education and literature. She is married to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, and lives in Delhi. Dr. Ahluwalia received her BA from Presidency College, Calcutta University; MA from the Delhi School of Economics; and Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research has focused on industrial development, macro-economic reforms, and urban issues in India.
The talk was based on her book 'Transforming Our Cities: Postcards of change'. The book talks about the issues facing Indian cities and the positive changes that have been experienced in recent years. The book presents case studies of success stories across India, and documents their processes. These changes were first documented by Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia in a series of monthly columns, 'Postcards of Change' in The Indian Express and The Financial Express in 2010. Dr. Ahluwalia provokes researchers and concerned citizens to ask what are the 'right' circumstances that led to these successes, and what it would take to replicate them.
Structural transformation of Indian economy
The urban population of India
increased from 26% (217 million) in 1991 to 31% (377 million) in 2011, and projected
to reach 40% (600 million) by 2031. Despite this evidence of rapid
urbanization, the "Gandhian notion
that India lives in its villages lingers on ...". In India 50% of the
population is dependent on agriculture even though agriculture contributes less
than 15% to the GDP. The reason is primarily because industrialization in the
manufacturing sector has been slow, and whatever growth has taken place in manufacturing
has not taken place in employment-intensive sectors.
Dr. Ahluwalia is a strong advocate of urbanization and industrialization, and feels that India's future is in its cities. She goes on to say, "The economics of industrialization is incomplete without an understanding of urbanization. Planning for urbanization has to go hand in hand with industrialization and change." India is in urgent need of structural transformation of the economy along with a political discourse towards planned urbanization.
Currently the urban population (30%) occupies merely 3% of the total land area of the country. Industrialization, hand-in-hand with agriculture, creates a balanced economy which is symbiotic and sustainable. Dr. Ahluwalia states that the task is "to create a rural-urban synergy rather than a rural-urban divide." By 2031, cities with population of 1 million and above will increase from 53 to 87. It will be extremely important to empower these new cities with policies so they can address their urban issues at the local level. Greater decentralization of power and devolution of finances to the local governments will be required to enable them to undertake urban development.
JNNURM
Under the Constitution of India,
the principle responsibility of urban development lies with the state
governments. The 74th amendment of 1992 assigned a part of the responsibility
to the local governments. The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) helps state and city governments to fulfil
their mandate for urban development. The JNNURM has four schemes:
1.
Urban
infrastructure and governance
2.
Basic
services for urban poor
3.
Urban
infrastructure development in small and medium towns
4.
Integrated
housing and slum development programme
JNNURM has been a catalyst for urban development in many cities in India. The foremost contribution of JNNURM has been in bringing the urban agenda to the forefront and directing attention to urbanization and its challenges and opportunities. Many cities have taken advantage of the JNNURM scheme to transform themselves for the better. More than 50% of the funding has been for projects in drinking water, sanitation, drainage, and solid waste management. Due to the central government-driven, top-down approach of JNNURM, it has met with limited success in affecting significant urban reform.
Case studies
Dr. Ahluwalia presented some very
inspiring examples of urban transformation, of cities that give hope and
lessons at the same time. The case studies covered as wide a range of issues as
sanitation, biodiversity, heritage conservation, power supply, water supply and
waste management. Dr. Ahluwalia broadly classified the case studies into the
following categories:
1.
Planning
2.
Role of IT
3.
Water
4.
Wastewater
management
5.
Solid Waste
management
6.
Transit
Surat transformed itself into one of the cleanest city after the plague, and also implemented e-governance quite successfully. Magarpatta near Pune, developed a unique form of development with rural-urban partnership, paving the way for urban growth. Malkapur in Maharashtra is the first town in India to provide 24X7 water supply to its residents. Rajkot and Pune have used technology and innovative use of man-power to reduce and reuse waste. The success of Ahmedabad's Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) has become a benchmark for future public transportation projects. Apart from these other examples of Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Indore, Bhopal and other cities are equally inspiring. With these success stories of urban transformation, we may not have to necessarily look west-ward, having enough lessons within the country. These case studies will be more relevant since they show the way forward by working within the Indian system.
Conclusion
The author talks about the
challenges facing Indian cities and how things might get bad to worse in the
future. But at the same time she shows us some hope by focusing our attention
to some cities within India who have beaten the odds and successfully
transformed themselves, in turn raising the quality of life of the people. In spite
of all that is wrong in our county, including corruption and a failing system,
if the right mix of people, ideas and intention are brought in one place, great
things can be achieved, achieving nothing less than miracles.
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