The following program is a Tamil talk show that discusses cultural issues arising due to the "IT work culture" in India. While it is unfair to single out IT as the reason and easy to blame westernization for this increased trend, what is significant is that the psyche of the current generation is a tailored fit to exploit the opportunities opened up by the "IT work culture" and westernization. These things have always been around in our society but they have always been instances that were few and far between to leave them aside as a blot rather than a trend.
Today's 'liberated' psyche combined with a misplaced sense of freedom, increased cash flow and access to 'fun' is all responsible for this trend. In previous generations the access to such opportunities were less, and with India being a poorer country money was always a deterrent to such attitudes. The most important trend is the sense of liberation and the idea of freedom without responsibility or restraint.
Generation theory is uncommon in India, but considering various aspects of the Indian society today this current generation could easily be termed the 'Lost Generation'. Misplaced sense of liberation, a confused sense of westernization, confused priorities, a general lack of discipline driven by a feeling of freedom without responsibility and gross under-achievement define the makings of this generation. (An anecdotal statement, but there are tons of examples that could prove it.)
This is not westernization in its real sense. This trend is eerily reminiscent of the 1960's western culture. This generation is very similar to the 'baby boomer generation' raised in the modern technological world. This is the generation that was so 'liberated' that it led to a President having an illegitimate relationship in the Oval Office with a 21 year old unpaid intern, and not feel guilty about it!!!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
India still Asia's reluctant tiger - BBC
| By Zareer Masani Presenter, BBC Radio 4's Analysis |
With its economy growing at more than triple the speed of Britain's, India has become a global leader in information technology and other hi-tech products.
But how has this been possible in a country where poverty is so widespread and where more than a third of people are still illiterate?
In the words of Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen, "the danger of India moving in the direction of being half California and half sub-Saharan Africa is a real one."
The contrast between hi-tech, silicon enclaves such as Bangalore and the primitive conditions of many Indian villages and urban slums strikes even the most casual tourist.
So is the dramatic rise of Indian IT firms just a Californian bubble in the sub-Saharan deserts of Indian poverty? Not according to Anand Mahindra, managing director of a family business, Mahindra and Mahindra, that has grown into one of India's largest conglomerates, producing everything from tractors to telecommunications.
| | If you want to make a million Barbie dolls, this is not the place to come Anand Mahindra |
"The IT sector was a kicker to growth," he says. "Its impact was psychological. It signalled to the world that India was much more than its old historical stereotypes.
"It suddenly in an exaggerated manner, if you ask me, made the world think that every Indian was smart and could fix their computers.
"But that helped entrepreneurs in India from all industry segments, because it gave them a more receptive environment in which to do business."
The number of Indian IT professionals has leapt from 56,000 in 1991 to a million today. That's still tiny relative to a population of over a billion, but a rare achievement in a global market where IT has traditionally been the preserve of advanced industrial economies.
Reliability costs
But how do hi-tech Indian companies survive and prosper in an environment where even basic infrastructure like transport, power and water is so notoriously unreliable?
Phiroz Vandrevala, executive director of Tata Consultancy Services, India's oldest and largest IT firm, says: "What we've actually done is within our own environments created global circles, oases of excellence.
"So if we build any facility, we create a 24-hour power back-up," he says,"or if you employ x number of people, you actually transport everybody from their home to their place of work."
"But it certainly is a cost to doing business."
While IT firms are cocooned within their oases of excellence, poor infrastructure can be a crippling cost for other sectors, such as large-scale manufacturing.
Anand Mahindra, whom many consider the sub-continent's most thoughtful businessman, warns that India cannot live by IT alone.
"Even Bill Gates when he came to India said, 'IT is not the answer for employment. You're going to have to emulate China and its manufacturing sector, because that's where the jobs are and that's where the multiplier effect is the highest,'" says Mr Mahindra.
"So it was a nice, sobering thought to come from the Messiah of IT himself.
"If you want to make a million Barbie dolls, this is not the place to come. Then you go to China. This is not a widget-making manufacturing economy, and that is largely and possibly only due to our poor infrastructure.
"We simply don't have the power in terms of energy to meet such high capacities. We don't have the port infrastructure and the transportation infrastructure to ship out such a high volume of goods in a reliable and timely manner."
Education, education
So instead of making widgets, Indian manufacturing is currently building on its comparative advantages in engineering-intensive goods, which require versatility, flexibility and innovation.
One example is carmaking, with domestic and foreign firms now investing an estimated $6.6bn in new Indian factories.
But growth in these high-value sectors is also running up against a skills shortage fuelled by lack of what's called social infrastructure - primarily good education.
Although Indian universities churn out three million graduates a year, only 15% of them are suitable employees for blue-chip companies.
That's nowhere near enough for Phiroz Vandrevala of Tata Consultancy Services.
"We have a tremendous amount of availability, but the suitability quotient is slightly low. If you look at about a hundred engineers from different educational institutions, in a company like ours about 20% make the cut," says Mr Vandrevala.
"Every industry is going to have to make significant investments in training for their own skills."
Despite growing investment in education, India still lags way behind its Western competitors. Thirty-five per cent of its population is still illiterate; only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate.
Change is messy
Privatisations, or at least public-private partnerships, are now widely seen as the way to open up essential infrastructure like education, transport, power and even water to competition and new investment.
But local delivery depends on the quality of local leadership and its willingness to cut back its own powers.
Indian democracy undoubtedly makes structural change a lot slower and more messy than in China, but there is genuine optimism among Indian economists that the system will eventually deliver.
"Our confidence in rapid growth is quite recent, because rapid growth itself is recent, and so for the state to gear up to provide the infrastructure that's appropriate for 8 to 9% growth is taking a while," says Suman Bery, head of a leading Delhi think-tank called the National Council for Advanced Economic Research.
"We're not one of these countries like France or China which does things in advance and pre-emptively.
"The shoe has to pinch before we get round to it.
"Infrastructure strikes me as an issue that will solve itself. It may hold growth back a little bit, but I don't think it's fatal."
BBC Radio 4's Analysis: India: The Reluctant Tiger will be broadcast on Thursday, 28 February, 2008 at 2030 GMT on BBC Radio 4. You can listen to the programme again after it is has been broadcast at Radio 4's listen again page or download the podcast here .
Monday, March 3, 2008
Challenges of urbanisation - The Hindu
The world now lives in cities. According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report released recently, the world population has decisively turned urban. About 3.3 billion people live in urban areas and by 2030 that would increase to about 5 billion. This amounts to more than half of the world’s population. The level of urbanisation in India, in comparison, appears much lower. Urban India accounts for about 30 per cent of the total population and its share i s expected to rise to about 40 per cent by 2030. However, the absolute numbers tell quite a different story. At present, the urban population is about 300 million and it is expected to reach 590 million by 2030. Indian cities cannot take comfort from the U.N.’s observation that urbanisation is a positive feature and cities offer the best opportunity to escape poverty. Urban poverty, housing deficit, poor quality of city planning, and weak governance are challenges to be addressed. As of now, the list of unfinished and unattended urban agenda in India is long and daunting.
By 2015, about $90 billion needs to be invested in urban infrastructure excluding metro railway projects. But what would be available, on the basis of 2004 figures and projections, is only $10 billion. The national transport policy stresses the need for large investments in public transportation and the need to establish metropolitan authorities that will integrate different modes of transport and promote sustainable options. This still remains a far cry. In spite of a national slum policy and housing policies being in place, the housing deficit in Indian cities is on the rise. In 2007, the housing shortage was about 24 million units and it is expected to touch 26 million by 2012. About 99 per cent of this deficit pertains to lower income groups. The UNFPA report identifies urban governance as the key challenge in planning for quality cities. This appears to be one of the weaker links in the Indian urban context. The Constitution, through its amendments, has devolved more powers to local bodies, but they are yet to be empowered in full. Their capacity needs to be built and financial powers strengthened before we can expect them to adopt best practices in governance. Such issues are even more pressing in smaller cities, which are expected to take most of the growing urban population. Urbanisation may be inevitable but whether it will turn into a positive force or an environmental and social disaster depends on how quickly we put plans and governance in place.
By 2015, about $90 billion needs to be invested in urban infrastructure excluding metro railway projects. But what would be available, on the basis of 2004 figures and projections, is only $10 billion. The national transport policy stresses the need for large investments in public transportation and the need to establish metropolitan authorities that will integrate different modes of transport and promote sustainable options. This still remains a far cry. In spite of a national slum policy and housing policies being in place, the housing deficit in Indian cities is on the rise. In 2007, the housing shortage was about 24 million units and it is expected to touch 26 million by 2012. About 99 per cent of this deficit pertains to lower income groups. The UNFPA report identifies urban governance as the key challenge in planning for quality cities. This appears to be one of the weaker links in the Indian urban context. The Constitution, through its amendments, has devolved more powers to local bodies, but they are yet to be empowered in full. Their capacity needs to be built and financial powers strengthened before we can expect them to adopt best practices in governance. Such issues are even more pressing in smaller cities, which are expected to take most of the growing urban population. Urbanisation may be inevitable but whether it will turn into a positive force or an environmental and social disaster depends on how quickly we put plans and governance in place.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
What in heaven's name....................
Whats happening in Chennai in the name of architecture?
From being the cradle of Indo-Saracenic Architecture, and many other buildings that are elegance personified, this fall from grace hurts. The pictures that follow tell the entire story, better than a thousand words could explain.
From being the cradle of Indo-Saracenic Architecture, and many other buildings that are elegance personified, this fall from grace hurts. The pictures that follow tell the entire story, better than a thousand words could explain.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The under-achieving real estate market and under-utilized mass transit systems in Indian metros forcing unhealthy sprawl
ABSTRACT
'Kada veedi’ or 'Street of shops' is the traditional middle-class Tamil market-place. Ranganathan Street, Mambalam; Shanmugam Road, Tambaram; Main Road, Pallavaram; Main Road, Chromepet are just some examples that epitomize this concept, not to mention the Pondi Bazaars, Luz Corners and other such commercial centers in the city of Chennai, India.
Small shops lined up along un-motorable roads, providing economic opportunities and goods at low cost mark the making of these markets. At best, these markets can be described as disorganized, underachieving and an obsolete form of business operation. The efficiency of such economies is very low, and, does not help the cause of a city and a nation knocking on the door of development. Significantly, these markets are linked by the metro rail network and occupy prime real estate in close proximity to these metro lines.
The density of the built form is high, which in turn causes a high density of pedestrian traffic, thereby creating the illusion of saturated development. However, the actual built-up area is very low and does not utilize the full potential of the location. Most importantly, the illusion of saturation and the resultant premium price tag has caused new development to move outside the city.
Unfortunately, this new development represents the IT economy and employs a large number of urban dwellers. Companies operate buses from and to the city, and apart from straining the narrow roads and gasoline based fuel resources, the time spent in traveling between home and work directly affects the productivity of the economy and the quality of domestic life for future generations.
This paper studies the development pattern of Chennai, the resultant pattern of land-use, current trends in development and how these effect the environment, the built-environment and quality of life in the city. The paper also proposes a different development pattern based on mass-transit for sustainable development of the city, and the feasibility of such a solution in the context of Chennai. The hope for this solution is that it reduces redundancy in economic investment, development footprint and fossil fuel dependency while increasing quality of life, economic efficiency and addressing a host of issues currently faced by the city.
Keywords: transit based development; urban sprawl; mixed-use community; Chennai;
INTRODUCTION
A low-rise built-form, unplanned organic morphosis of the built-form and a few misplaced development decisions in the middle of excellent infrastructure (in the form of an ideal road structure, metro network, first class bus network, abundant power supply, highly educated inhabitants and international connectivity) is creating an interesting phenomenon in the city of Chennai. This excellent infrastructure is driving many new investment opportunities into the city, but due to the above mentioned phenomenon caused by the current built form, it is increasingly finding its way out into distant suburban locations.
As a result of the suburbanization of economic investment, the city has been subjected to a splurge in the ownership and use of automobiles and an unhealthy real estate bubble. Development of satellite towns in now imminent and widespread sprawl powered by the expanding Indian economy is almost inevitable. This paper takes a close look at the master plans developed for Chennai, the implementation of the goals identified by it (which have led to this pattern of development), the land-use pattern around one major metro rail station in the city of Chennai - Mambalam, which illustrates the above phenomenon in its full bloom with fragmented, unplanned land use and organic built-form causing the illusion of congestion. Finally, this paper discusses an image of transit based development in the city, the road blocks to achieving that vision and a possible solution to the problem.
City of
Chennai
Infrastructure in Chennai is considered world-class, except for its water supply and drainage systems. Abundant power supply, without much interruption, comes from the Kalpakkam Atomic Power Plant and Neyveli Lignite Power Plant. The main roads form a radial structure with three major arterial roads (
Dubbed the 'Detroit of India' for the prevalence of the automobile and automobile spare parts industry, it is home to auto manufacturers Ford, Hyundai, GM and BMW. Other major industries in Chennai include IT, hardware manufacturing, biotechnology, petrochemicals, garments and financial services. The Madras Export Processing Zone, Ambattur Industrial Estate,
DEVELOPMENT PATTERN OF CHENNAI
Fig 1 illustrates the metropolitan agglomeration of Chennai. The city and the surrounding areas are the 34th largest agglomeration in the world, and the 4th largest in
Apart from the city, population in the metropolitan areas is distributed among the areas shown shaded in cyan. The rest of the region is either sparsely populated or uninhabited. A closer look at the areas shaded in cyan shows the metro network running through them. The clue to this pattern of growth can be found in the first master plan developed for Chennai in 1976.
As a result of the economic liberalization policy of the Indian Government in 1991, the public sector started to contract and the private sector then gathered momentum. With this shift, and with the arrival of IT as a major player in the Indian economy, the focus of the economy shifted from being predominantly based in the secondary manufacturing sector to increasingly being one based in the tertiary services sector. Consequently, land-use and growth patterns have shifted to new areas that were hitherto not developed. The new IT economy needed contiguous office space, abundant power supply and easy accessibility, and of course cheap land to build vast IT complexes on. The current focus is on new developments along
The main goals of the first master plan were to restrict density and population growth in the city, restrict industrial and commercial developments within the metropolitan area, encouragement of growth along the metro rail transportation corridors and creation of urban nodes at the termini, dispersal of certain activities from the CBD and development of the satellite towns of MM Nagar, Gummidipoondi and Thiruvallur. [CMDA] Of these goals, only the growth along the metro rail corridors, with a predominant growth along the south-west corridor [CMDA] and dispersal of the bus terminus and central market from Kothvalchavadi to Koyambedu, completed in the 90's, were successfully implemented. The concept of satellite towns failed miserably from the start, and if it had not been for Ford and the
The major criticism of the first master plan is that the implementation was so slow that the issues were very different by the time the projects were completed. For example, Koyambedu bus terminus and central market are so far away from the radial network of roads and completely out of sync with the metro rail network that reaching the area is an ordeal, given the traffic conditions of today. The Inner Ring Road that connects to Koyambedu is only 100' wide, and with all the encroachments and break in continuity in Ashok Nagar, the road is not suited to take in additional truck and bus traffic. The construction of the Chennai By-pass to serve the developments in Koyambedu seems an ad-hoc decision to alleviate modern day traffic issues for an obsolete solution. There is no reference of such a road in the first master plan, while the decision to develop Koyambedu was a direct result of a goal set during the first master plan. [CMDA]
Recent development projects in the city have included the construction of flyovers, the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), construction of the Chennai by-pass, developing the IT Corridor, development of the various technology and industrial parks in MM Nagar, Siruseri, Poonamalle and Sriperumbudur and passing a proposal for an Outer Ring Road. There is also a proposal to construct an underground metro line network to supplement the existing metro rail network.
The MRTS was constructed as an overhead metro rail system, and the 3rd phase of development is currently in progress. The MRTS rail network was constructed along the banks of the
Development of residential areas in close proximity to these new technology parks is currently in full swing, which, when populated will create satellite towns around Chennai. [CMDA] Though this is a development which aims to alleviate the traffic issues of people living in the city and working in the suburbs, it shows an eerie similarity to the development of single-use American suburbs in the latter half of the last century. This is urban sprawl at its worst, and as Albert Einstein put it so aptly, "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is nothing but insanity."
The environmental impact of creating this residential development close to the technology parks could affect the ecological balance as far away as 
The perils of suburbanization and ‘
What is referred to in the Master Plans of Chennai as ‘
Developing industrial estates and technology parks in Chennai mimics the single-use suburban developments in
The built-environment and underutilized resources in the city
As previously stated, Chennai's population density within the city is 24,418 people per sq km. Per the Development Control Rules (rules) for Chennai, building heights were restricted to 20 stories. Up until 2000, the
The area shown in Fig 4 is Mambalam, and as can be clearly seen, the common thread in all of the images shown is organic, unplanned and unregulated growth. One tell-tale image is that of the electric transformer adjacent to a residential building with its window opening into the transformer! The lack of regulation, lack of a localized planning body and failure to enforce development control rules, mainly due to widespread corruption in building plan approvals, has created a built-environment that is haphazard, hazardous, dense and lacking in basic civic amenities, apart from creating increased stress on the city's water supply and drainage lines due to the larger than planned for demand.
The land on which the multi-family dwelling units shown in Fig 4 and Fig 5 below (Fig 5 shows the relatively less developed area of Tambaram Sanatorium) are built on, were previously used to house single family residences with front and back yards. Increased equity, providing for retirement capital (especially with the increase in non-pension paying private sector jobs) coupled with the sociological peculiarity of property inheritance divided ‘equally’ between all children have in turn caused the development of multi-family dwelling units on such plots, which causes further fragmentation in ownership of property in the city.
At the time of the first master plan,
Street hawkers, like the ones shown in Fig 5, are still a significant part of the 'kada veedi' or 'street of shops'. This informal economy has been essential for the development of the country, as identified by the Planning Commission of India. Such economies tend to thrive in pedestrian dominated neighborhoods, and with the increased density of pedestrian traffic, the success of these markets improved as well. As is seen in the images shown in Fig 4 and Fig 5, the organic growth of the economic status of the small vendors mirrors the organic growth of the built-form in the city. This stands testimony to the need for more walkable urbanity and less automobile based sprawl. The concept of 'kada veedi' still holds good, and was recognized in the First Master Plan as the '
Also, at the time of the First Master Plan due to India’s socialistic past, Urban Land Ceiling Act meant that land ownership was limited; marking the origins of widespread fragmented land ownership. Information Technology was unheard of and the current open-market, technology-driven development was a political impossibility. However, despite the vast change in development drivers, the pattern of growth continues, and land-use surrounding the metro rail networks continues to be predominantly residential and increasingly fragmented in ownership.
The fragmented land ownership pattern causes resultant growth to be organic in nature. Individual owners expand their property based on their specific needs, and the result is what is seen in the photographs in Fig 4 and 5. This pattern is typical in all of the residential areas surrounding the metro network. Mambalam happens to be the busiest and 'most-developed' of all such areas in the city that surround the metro rail station.
In this scenario, it is very difficult for the new generation of IT empires like Infosys to accumulate the space necessary for basing their operation within the urban fabric, and is forced to move out to the greener pastures of the suburbs where they can build the required space without the hassles of going through the political red-tapes. That the increasing automobile based sprawl is causing the metro rail system to be underutilized is reflected by the trend in respective percentage of trips by bus to that by trains, 41.5 to 11.5 in 1970 changing to 45.5 to 9.0 in 1984 and finally 37.9 to 4.1 in 1992. [CMDA] With the ten-fold increase in automobile population mentioned earlier, this trend is set to continue causing the redundancy in public infrastructure.
TRANSIT BASED DEVELOPMENT IN CHENNAI - A RENEWED IMAGE OF MAMBALAM
The answer to this conundrum lies in transit based development. Chennai has the structure and the infrastructure in place to make this transformation in development pattern at a relatively low up-front cost. The time has come for a major overhaul of the mediocre built environment in the city. It is time to do away with all of the unplanned and unhygienic organic growth and make better use of the metro rail network. A mixed-use mid to high rise development with plenty of opportunity for cultural interaction, a cargo processing and garbage recycling unit well connected by the rail network, rain water harvesting and plenty of green space would foster the seeds of sustainable development in the city. Such a model can be implemented through the city in a number of locations.
The idea presented by this concept is not to cannibalize the street hawkers or the 'kada veedi' concept, and even less a crude attempt to alter the social patterns of the area, but is instead a plan which will maximize organized space for the street hawkers and small businesses to thrive in and an honest attempt at making provision for an environment that enhances social exchange. Hence, it becomes an exercise of consolidating and organizing the space and built-form in a manner that capitalizes on the sustainable development potential presented by the existing infrastructure.
"What got you here will not get you there," is a famous book that illustrates why a different approach is needed to climb higher on the ladder to success, and
The image presented above is similar to development plans already undertaken in
Road blocks in achieving transit based development and the role of Indian Railways as a catalytic developer
Consideration of any major development project is not possible without significant roadblocks, especially a radical change such as this one. The principal stumbling block is the ability to accumulate the required land for the development of such a concept. Convincing businesses and politicians to think in terms of a long-term strategy with potential for short-term losses goes against current business principles, and this is especially true in the current political climate of coalition governments. Politicians playing for survival and businesses more worried about their profitability than the sustainable development of the community as a whole are not congenial team players in realizing this vision. The profitability of such a plan would need to be proved before this vision could become a reality. Frequently, in similar projects, this is the role of a catalytic developer. The catalytic developer invests slow capital in the project with the aim of absorbing short-term losses for long-term gains. They typically carry the project until a critical mass is reached, after which the development effort can only move forward.
The Indian Railways own vast tracts of land in close proximity to the railway stations. The railway colonies that are under the scanner in this discussion were developed more than thirty years ago as single family residences, with standard material specifications and are badly in need of redevelopment. By undertaking the redevelopment of the railway colonies as model transit towns, the Indian Railways are in the best position, either as a single entity or through public-private partnerships, to absorb a short-term loss in order to create the ubiquitous benefit sought in the long-term. If transit towns were to become the predominant development pattern, the railways could recuperate the small losses easily. Currently, the operational model of Indian Railways needs a revised strategy due to its financial crunch. Being part of the Central Government, the Railways are forced to subsidize popular passenger services by increasing the price on its freight services. This practice has meant that the trucks are the predominant freight handlers in the country. Such a business model is unsustainable, and it is in the best interests of the country that its railway system functions in good health. If transit towns were to become the predominant development pattern, the Railways benefit the most from it as the trains would be the life-line of the economy. The Railways have identified this approach to be beneficial to them, and are in the process of identifying ways to serve the Special Economic Zones in the country. [Indian Railways]
CONCLUSION
Transit based development provides the city of
REFERENCES
Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), 2005, Draft copy of The Second Master Plan for Chennai, CMDA
Calthorpe, Peter and William Fulton, 2001, Planning for the end of sprawl - The Regional City, Island Press
Cadman, David and Geoffrey Payne, 1990, The Living City: towards a sustainable future, Routledge
Hardroy, Jorge E., Diana Mitlin, David Satterthwaite, 1992, Environmental Problems in Third World Countries, Earthscan Publications
Leinberger, Christopher B., 2005, Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization, The Brookings Institution
Planning Commission, 2006, Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth – An Approach to the 11th Five Year Plan, Government of
Indian Railways, 2008, Draft Policy for Logistics Parks, http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/deptts/ppp/ppp-idx.htm
Raghuram G. and Gangwar Rachna, 2007,Marketing Strategies for Freight Traffic on Indian Railways - A Systems Perspective, Indian Institute of Management
Portney, Kent E., 2003, Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously - Economic Development, the Environment and Quality of life in American Cities, The MIT Press
Harris, Nigel, 1992, The Urban Environment in Developing Countries, United Nations
Lehmann, Steffen, 2007, Towards a Sustainable City Centre: Integrating Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Principles into Urban Renewal, Journal of Green Building - Volume 1, Number 3, pp. 85 - 104
Hammond, William F. and Larry Peterson, 2007, Developers address new challenges in the planning and implementation of very large scale developments as self-sustaining communities, Journal of Green Building - Volume 2, Number 4, pp 73 - 99
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Activists need urgent rehab
Activists need urgent rehab
Swapan Dasgupta
Viewers of English-language TV news channels will have noticed the frequency with which a mysterious community called "activists" has begun popping up. On subjects as diverse as education, health, industrialisation and religion, the utterances of politicians, officials, corporates and the man in the street are invariably countered with views of "activists" presumed to have profound expertise on all subjects. There is also an implicit suggestion that the "activists" are detached, selfless and not burdened by the baggage of interest groups. In short, they are a superior and pious voice in the rabble.
Swapan Dasgupta
Viewers of English-language TV news channels will have noticed the frequency with which a mysterious community called "activists" has begun popping up. On subjects as diverse as education, health, industrialisation and religion, the utterances of politicians, officials, corporates and the man in the street are invariably countered with views of "activists" presumed to have profound expertise on all subjects. There is also an implicit suggestion that the "activists" are detached, selfless and not burdened by the baggage of interest groups. In short, they are a superior and pious voice in the rabble.
| It may be unfair to lump "activists" into the umbrella category of NGOs. There are many non-profit organisations that perceive themselves as philanthropic bodies, charities, religious trusts and even social organisations which occasionally dabble in "social work". They raise their own resources, have nothing to do with the Government but hate being clubbed with "activist" NGOs. What distinguishes normal NGOs from "activist" groups is funding, political involvement and what the Americans call attitude. The "activists" tend to be globally funded, politically Left-liberal or worse, and blessed with the conviction that they know best and everyone else is garbage. | |
| At the 1999 Seattle summit of the World Trade Organisation, The Economist estimated some two million NGOs in the world; of these, about a million were in India. The numbers have increased over the past nine years, more so because a growing number of entrepreneurs have discovered business potential in NGOs. To be fair, most activists are not racketeers, though they have an insatiable appetite for publicity, business class travel and endless conferences in exotic places. Activists from the so-called Third World which, tragically, still includes India, have also developed considerable skills in guilt-tripping angst-ridden Western liberals and UN-sponsored bodies into doling out lavish grants. The grants are ostensibly aimed at facilitating "people's empowerment", a euphemism for good salaries, many conferences, media lollipops and sponsorship of agitations that impede national progress. | |
| The activists ostensibly want to "help people help themselves". Some genuinely try to help the informal sector get legal protection and end up getting thrashed by goons. Others, rope in starry-eyed TV reporters from privileged backgrounds and gap-year radical tourists to give legitimacy to movements that seek to prevent steel plants in Orissa and dams in Gujarat. | |
| "Activists" have different priorities but what binds them together is a passionate desire to keep alive the problems that justify their existence. In recent years, for example, activist bodies have been accused of grossly exaggerating the incidence of AIDS in India. The unstated reason: The massive availability of international funds to fight AIDS. In Gujarat, the "activists" have also been accused of keeping riot victims in a state of permanent dislocation because it helps score political points. | |
| In the old days, the "activists" were derided as harmless but over-zealous jholawalas and relegated to the margins of civil society -- despite their bogus claims of actually representing civil society. In recent times, thanks to lavish global patronage, some deft "advocacy" and strategic political interventions against the former NDA regime, the activists have inveigled themselves into the decision-making making process. The inclusion of "activist" icons in the once all-powerful National Advisory Council chaired by Sonia Gandhi was a signal to the UPA Government to accommodate seemingly radical concerns in the development process. The results have been catastrophic. | |
| Take the case of urban planning in Delhi. The sudden collapse of all systems of traffic management in areas outside Lutyens' Delhi is widely blamed on the construction of the High Speed Bus Corridor. Billed as a system favouring cyclists and bus commuters and flaunted as the success story of Bogota (Columbia), it is likely to be a major factor behind the Congress' near-certain electoral defeat in Delhi later this year. Yet, as is now apparent, this hare-brained, regressive scheme was sold as a progressive pro-poor measure by activists who have no stake in the future of India. | |
| The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was the greatest triumph of the "activists". Now operational in 330 districts at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore, it was supposed to do for the Congress what Operation Barga did for the CPM in rural Bengal: Make it electorally invincible. The interim results point to a monumental disaster and CAG's draft report speaks of a 97% under-performance. | |
| In normal parlance this means unmitigated disaster but "activists", egged on by a mindless section of the political class, now want Rs 30,000 crore from this year's Budget to make this profligate, corrupt and unproductive scheme national. They want a dedicated bureaucracy and membership of a so-called Employment Guarantee Council to run NREGA as a form of parallel Government. They want to turn disaster into calamity. A distraught Government, afraid of admitting its Italian blunder, may well oblige. | |
| Finally, "activists" have poured into sensitive bodies like the Minorities Commission. Established as a well-meaning talking shop for those who couldn't be accommodated in Parliament, it has become a malignant influence on society. From giving predictable template reports on "attacks on minorities" by a despicable majority, it has moved into tampering with national security. The interference of Minorities Commission activists in the arrest and interrogation of terror suspects in Andhra Pradesh is a warning. If you give them an inch, they will take a mile. | |
| Democratic societies operate on the principle of indulgence. However, when minuscule unaccountable "activists" start holding the nation to ransom on the strength of misplaced certitudes, it is time for correctives. An urgent rehabilitation programme for "activists" is overdue. | |
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Needed, a renewed socialist concern - The Hindu
Needed, a renewed socialist concern
V.R. Krishna Iyer
India needs democracy, development and a distributive strategy to salvage the lives of its have-nots.
Indian Independence is a political phenomenon that has the sovereignty of the people enshrined in the paramountcy of a Socialist Secular Democratic Republic created by the Constitution. Our administration comprises triune instrumentalities that are accountable and transparent. We, the People of India, who are over a billion strong, not you, the multinational corporations, the corrupt mafia, the freebooter billionaires and the imperial controllerate over the state’s r esources, are the final authority, since we are no colony. We are a rich nation albeit with poor people, a marvel of culture and rare talent, never to suffer submissive status and foreign pressure. We are a globally glorious jewel, the Kohinoor, but shine no longer as brave new Bharat. We are great, not under the shadow of another giant of the unipolar world but as a peer partner of a grand quadrilateral alliance of China, Russia, India and the U.S.
This vision was projected at a recent conference. Yes, India is no satellite but the co-author of Panch Sheel (the five principles of peaceful co-existence). Ever for non-alignment, never an international mendicant, our nation was allergic to the Soviet pattern of proletariat dictatorship. We also rejected as anathematic Western mega-industrial capitalism and surely regarded U.S imperialist disregard for other sovereign nations as bete noire. Feudalism was our curse and agrarian backwardness the symbol of a fossilised economy. Swaraj was a struggle against these savage vices as well as British imperialism. Thus, inevitably, compassionate humanism and democratic socialism became our socio-political culture without an alternative.
Globally powerful corporate privatisation of industries may make us a satellite and a banana republic unless we dare to defend our people’s tryst with destiny. But the state must run industries and services of strategic significance for the people’s survival. It should ensure non-exploitation, fair employment and workers’ participation in management, sound marketing facilities with community concern, and price control sans rackets. Cornering of land, real estate terrorism, mafia manoeuvres, business and trade corruption and professional lawlessness must be abolished by state authority. A planned economy and public morality with the common good of society are crying needs today.
We made a tryst with destiny upon awakening to Independence. Operation Swaraj was a wake-up call to abolish oppressive inhumanity and establish economic democracy. In substance, our pledge was not to create a creamy layer of wealthy industrialists, latifundists or toxic technologists, or to invite foreign investments and duty-free imports that will wipe out swadeshi. A socialistic pattern of society has been our dire desideratum. That “cyclonic sadhu,” Swami Vivekananda, declared: “I am a socialist because half a loaf [for the hungry Indian humanity] was better than none.”
Jawaharlal Nehru voiced in the Constituent Assembly the fundamental national proposition when he argued: “We have given the content of democracy in this resolution and not only the content of democracy but the content, if I may say so, of economic democracy. Well, I stand for Socialism. I hope India will stand for Socialism and that India will go towards the constitution of a Socialist State.”
The generation of Professor Harold Lasky; the political peers of Nehru and Subash Bose; Left intellectuals like E.M.S. Namboodiripad; P.C. Joshi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. Ambedkar; and all leading British thinkers such as Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Sydney Webb, belonged to the socialist fraternity. Small wonder, cadres and leaders of the nationalist movement were comrades against imperialism and capitalist ideology. Socialism was strengthened by that phenomenal expounder of dialectical materialism and Communism, Karl Marx.
Swaraj, that epic march for Indian liberation, had a crimson hue and the Constitution that our Founding Fathers forged spelt economic democracy. This tall goal was proclaimed by Nehru, the first Prime Minister, on Independence Day. But what has since found expression is a culpable reminder of our guilty, greedy ‘growth’ ideology that is unapproachable for the larger, weaker masses.
Nehru did organise basic institutions and instrumentalities such as the Planning Commission, public sector enterprises, strategic state-managed industries and river projects. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did more: she nationalised key industries, abolished the privy purses, and set urban land ceiling. By means of an amendment to the Constitution she declared the Republic to be Socialist. This terminological transformation stood the test of time, despite parliamentary and Cabinet changes. Even today, under the Constitution India is a Socialist Republic, and every Member of Parliament and Minister, the President and the Governors, are oath-bound to uphold the Socialist mandate.
A cartoon recently pictured the status of the republic with sardonic veracity. Two hungry Indians hold the peels of a banana but the banana itself has been already eaten by the rich Indian and the alien. If we jettison the nation’s resources to be consumed by capitalists, the people below the poverty line will have to hold the peel. The fruit, euphemistically described as ‘growth’, would have been craftily consumed by corporate capitalists.
The glory of Bharat can be regained only if the democratic socialists of India unite without factions and divisions. They have to win, without discrimination, distributive justice by full and fair use of its resources. They should give a just opportunity for all to share its work, wealth and happiness. The latest technology should be geared to maximise the common people’s economic worth, and the educational facilities, in order that the needs of the underprivileged are met as the state’s first charge, far above the pampered seven-star pleasures of the millionaires. The health, egalite and income of “We the People of India” should desiderate socialist concern.
The patriotic, truly crimson comrades of India, the Communists of plural parties, will you listen to the noble command of Karl Marx as still relevant to India: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” The pathology of class-caste-creed communalism wrapped in fossil feudal socio-economic thralldom finds its finest pharmacopoeia in a democratic socialist diversity planned with sociologically scientific dialectical materialism, inspired by a moral-spiritual value glory.
Speaking generally, since 1991 the national economy has become noxiously contra-constitutional, anti-people and dollar drug-addicted. Let me cite Shashi Tharoor: “India annually gets richer by $200 billion. India’s foreign resources have exceeded $140 billion. Remember, the country had to mortgage its gold in London because the foreign exchange coffers were dry! In the list of the world’s billionaires, 27 of the world’s richest people are Indian, most of them staying in India. A large portion of the world’s poorest people live in India too and you don’t need to go to Davos to meet them. Our country’s poor live below a poverty line that seems to be drawn just this side of the funeral pyre. 250 million people living in conditions that are a blot on our individual collective consciences is too grave a matter to be lightly dismissed.” (The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century, 2007)
The world is moving fast but the have-not humanity waits. The wake-up call given by President Pratibha Patil is timely to overcome the tragedy and travesty of today’s Bharat. In her Republic Day-eve address she said that the disadvantaged “too should find a place to enjoy the sunshine of the country’s growth and development.” The President added: “Our efforts and our commitment, while pursuing the goal of high growth rates, should be to ensure that all people of our country benefit from it. Our pledge will remain unfulfilled until, as Gandhi had said, ‘we have wiped every tear in every eye’.”
Will Dr. Manmohan Singh assert, as Nehru did, “I am a socialist?” Will Sonia Gandhi, as Indira Gandhi did, swear for nationalism or emphasise the Republic as being Socialist? Will President Pratibha Patil swear by the Gandhian conviction, “I have believed and repeated times without number that India is to be found not in its few cities but in its villages?”
Sky-high concrete jungles, five-star hotels, lunatic traffic, foreign-addicted luxury life, terrorism and sexism, robbery and privatisation everywhere: this corruption has assassinated all that Gandhi, Nehru and Indira represented. There is an anti-Gandhian crypto-terrorist campaign for globalisation and privatisation, which is a force for creative destruction and submission to colonialism. The finest capital of a country is its creative humanity, not lavishment in luxury and star-culture — which is but a negation of swaraj and socialist, secular, democratic constitutional sovereignty.
Indian humanity ought to battle afresh for swaraj.
V.R. Krishna Iyer
India needs democracy, development and a distributive strategy to salvage the lives of its have-nots.
Indian Independence is a political phenomenon that has the sovereignty of the people enshrined in the paramountcy of a Socialist Secular Democratic Republic created by the Constitution. Our administration comprises triune instrumentalities that are accountable and transparent. We, the People of India, who are over a billion strong, not you, the multinational corporations, the corrupt mafia, the freebooter billionaires and the imperial controllerate over the state’s r esources, are the final authority, since we are no colony. We are a rich nation albeit with poor people, a marvel of culture and rare talent, never to suffer submissive status and foreign pressure. We are a globally glorious jewel, the Kohinoor, but shine no longer as brave new Bharat. We are great, not under the shadow of another giant of the unipolar world but as a peer partner of a grand quadrilateral alliance of China, Russia, India and the U.S.
This vision was projected at a recent conference. Yes, India is no satellite but the co-author of Panch Sheel (the five principles of peaceful co-existence). Ever for non-alignment, never an international mendicant, our nation was allergic to the Soviet pattern of proletariat dictatorship. We also rejected as anathematic Western mega-industrial capitalism and surely regarded U.S imperialist disregard for other sovereign nations as bete noire. Feudalism was our curse and agrarian backwardness the symbol of a fossilised economy. Swaraj was a struggle against these savage vices as well as British imperialism. Thus, inevitably, compassionate humanism and democratic socialism became our socio-political culture without an alternative.
Globally powerful corporate privatisation of industries may make us a satellite and a banana republic unless we dare to defend our people’s tryst with destiny. But the state must run industries and services of strategic significance for the people’s survival. It should ensure non-exploitation, fair employment and workers’ participation in management, sound marketing facilities with community concern, and price control sans rackets. Cornering of land, real estate terrorism, mafia manoeuvres, business and trade corruption and professional lawlessness must be abolished by state authority. A planned economy and public morality with the common good of society are crying needs today.
We made a tryst with destiny upon awakening to Independence. Operation Swaraj was a wake-up call to abolish oppressive inhumanity and establish economic democracy. In substance, our pledge was not to create a creamy layer of wealthy industrialists, latifundists or toxic technologists, or to invite foreign investments and duty-free imports that will wipe out swadeshi. A socialistic pattern of society has been our dire desideratum. That “cyclonic sadhu,” Swami Vivekananda, declared: “I am a socialist because half a loaf [for the hungry Indian humanity] was better than none.”
Jawaharlal Nehru voiced in the Constituent Assembly the fundamental national proposition when he argued: “We have given the content of democracy in this resolution and not only the content of democracy but the content, if I may say so, of economic democracy. Well, I stand for Socialism. I hope India will stand for Socialism and that India will go towards the constitution of a Socialist State.”
The generation of Professor Harold Lasky; the political peers of Nehru and Subash Bose; Left intellectuals like E.M.S. Namboodiripad; P.C. Joshi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. Ambedkar; and all leading British thinkers such as Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Sydney Webb, belonged to the socialist fraternity. Small wonder, cadres and leaders of the nationalist movement were comrades against imperialism and capitalist ideology. Socialism was strengthened by that phenomenal expounder of dialectical materialism and Communism, Karl Marx.
Swaraj, that epic march for Indian liberation, had a crimson hue and the Constitution that our Founding Fathers forged spelt economic democracy. This tall goal was proclaimed by Nehru, the first Prime Minister, on Independence Day. But what has since found expression is a culpable reminder of our guilty, greedy ‘growth’ ideology that is unapproachable for the larger, weaker masses.
Nehru did organise basic institutions and instrumentalities such as the Planning Commission, public sector enterprises, strategic state-managed industries and river projects. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi did more: she nationalised key industries, abolished the privy purses, and set urban land ceiling. By means of an amendment to the Constitution she declared the Republic to be Socialist. This terminological transformation stood the test of time, despite parliamentary and Cabinet changes. Even today, under the Constitution India is a Socialist Republic, and every Member of Parliament and Minister, the President and the Governors, are oath-bound to uphold the Socialist mandate.
A cartoon recently pictured the status of the republic with sardonic veracity. Two hungry Indians hold the peels of a banana but the banana itself has been already eaten by the rich Indian and the alien. If we jettison the nation’s resources to be consumed by capitalists, the people below the poverty line will have to hold the peel. The fruit, euphemistically described as ‘growth’, would have been craftily consumed by corporate capitalists.
The glory of Bharat can be regained only if the democratic socialists of India unite without factions and divisions. They have to win, without discrimination, distributive justice by full and fair use of its resources. They should give a just opportunity for all to share its work, wealth and happiness. The latest technology should be geared to maximise the common people’s economic worth, and the educational facilities, in order that the needs of the underprivileged are met as the state’s first charge, far above the pampered seven-star pleasures of the millionaires. The health, egalite and income of “We the People of India” should desiderate socialist concern.
The patriotic, truly crimson comrades of India, the Communists of plural parties, will you listen to the noble command of Karl Marx as still relevant to India: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” The pathology of class-caste-creed communalism wrapped in fossil feudal socio-economic thralldom finds its finest pharmacopoeia in a democratic socialist diversity planned with sociologically scientific dialectical materialism, inspired by a moral-spiritual value glory.
Speaking generally, since 1991 the national economy has become noxiously contra-constitutional, anti-people and dollar drug-addicted. Let me cite Shashi Tharoor: “India annually gets richer by $200 billion. India’s foreign resources have exceeded $140 billion. Remember, the country had to mortgage its gold in London because the foreign exchange coffers were dry! In the list of the world’s billionaires, 27 of the world’s richest people are Indian, most of them staying in India. A large portion of the world’s poorest people live in India too and you don’t need to go to Davos to meet them. Our country’s poor live below a poverty line that seems to be drawn just this side of the funeral pyre. 250 million people living in conditions that are a blot on our individual collective consciences is too grave a matter to be lightly dismissed.” (The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cellphone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century, 2007)
The world is moving fast but the have-not humanity waits. The wake-up call given by President Pratibha Patil is timely to overcome the tragedy and travesty of today’s Bharat. In her Republic Day-eve address she said that the disadvantaged “too should find a place to enjoy the sunshine of the country’s growth and development.” The President added: “Our efforts and our commitment, while pursuing the goal of high growth rates, should be to ensure that all people of our country benefit from it. Our pledge will remain unfulfilled until, as Gandhi had said, ‘we have wiped every tear in every eye’.”
Will Dr. Manmohan Singh assert, as Nehru did, “I am a socialist?” Will Sonia Gandhi, as Indira Gandhi did, swear for nationalism or emphasise the Republic as being Socialist? Will President Pratibha Patil swear by the Gandhian conviction, “I have believed and repeated times without number that India is to be found not in its few cities but in its villages?”
Sky-high concrete jungles, five-star hotels, lunatic traffic, foreign-addicted luxury life, terrorism and sexism, robbery and privatisation everywhere: this corruption has assassinated all that Gandhi, Nehru and Indira represented. There is an anti-Gandhian crypto-terrorist campaign for globalisation and privatisation, which is a force for creative destruction and submission to colonialism. The finest capital of a country is its creative humanity, not lavishment in luxury and star-culture — which is but a negation of swaraj and socialist, secular, democratic constitutional sovereignty.
Indian humanity ought to battle afresh for swaraj.
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