Making in SCAM,Smart City Scam which might become SMARTGATE of India!
Even a Constitution Amendment task might not stop Reforms as Modi traps opponents like Rahul and Mamata in Smart Cities despite their declared opposition to indiscriminate land acquisition!
Unprecedented Urban DRIVE an infrastructure project some estimate would cost $1 trillion (Rs 63 lakh crore).
Excalibur Stevens Biswas
Even a Constitution Amendment task might not stop Reforms as Modi traps opponents like Rahul and Mamata in Smart Cities despite their declared opposition to indiscriminate land acquisition!Close on the heels of the Union Cabinet clearing the '100 Smart Cities Project' on Wednesday, Karnataka is hopeful that at least 10 of its cities would be included in this flagship programme that would give a fillip to infrastructure development.While,the 100 Smart City Projectncludes five cities - Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Burhanpur and Jabalpur - from MP, but not many here know about the transformation.
A minimum investment of Rs 2 lakh crore will flow in over the next five years for development of urban areas across the country, with nearly half the amount coming in from state and local bodies, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu claimed.Nevertheless,mainstream weekly OUTLOOK has already published yet another Making in SCAM,Smart City Scam which might become SMARTGATE of India involving each color and ideology.
Mind you,in a major triumph for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government in making the Goods and Services Tax (GST) a reality, the Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed theConstitution Amendment Bill for unified indirect tax regime in the country with a majority vote of 352 against 37.
This was, however, only the first step. The real test for it would be crossing the hurdle of opposition from Congress in theRajya Sabha (RS), where it is in minority.
Amendment of the Constitution needs two-thirds of both Houses to vote in its favour.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's smart cities project, under which he aims to build 100 such cities, is likely to get a fillip through guidelines of the European Union that would make Indian cities more liveable, sustainable and energy efficient. Modi succeeds to trap Opponents in the smart city trap as much as that Rahul Gandhi gets one right in his constituency in Amethi while Mamata Banerjee declares seven new Smart cities despite their declared opposition to indiscriminate land acquisition.
India will be the lone bright spot for Chinese steelmen trying to cut bloated inventories as Asia's third-largest economy embarks on a once-in-a-generation urbanisation drive under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Urban dwellers will double to more than 800 million by 2050, a scale of mass urbanisation only seen before in China. Ahead of PM Modi's election last May, he vowed to construct 100 so-called "smart" cities by 2022, an infrastructure project some estimate would cost $1 trillion (Rs 63 lakh crore).
As India builds new roads, office blocks and cities, its steel consumption growth will put the country at the top of the list of the world's 10 biggest steel users this year and the next, according to the World Steel Association. Demand from China and the United States, the two largest consumers, is forecast to either fall or stay flat.
Outside China, India is the best bet for Chinese steel mills. The sector in China has been saddled by excess capacity of around 300 million tonnes. The glut grew more pronounced last year as a slowing economy cut China's steel consumption for the first time since 1981.
"The China slowdown will give India an opportunity to emulate China's progress over the last few decades and emerge as a major global steel player in its own right," said analyst Manoj Mohta at CRISIL Research. As India urbanises and industralisation advances, infrastructure investment will rise 43 per cent to about $472 billion (Rs 29.7 lakh crore) over the next five years compared with the five years before.
India's steel consumption grew 2.2 per cent last year to 75.2 million tonnes. Cheap Chinese steel has forced some Indian mills to cut prices and post losses in recent quarters. Steel Authority of India, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Essar Steel, Jindal Steel and Power, Bhushan Steel and Visa Steel are planning to expand their combined capacity by 9 per cent in the fiscal year started last month to compete with low-cost imports.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's constituency Amethi is set to be developed as a Smart City by the Narendra Modi-led government.
The Centre has written to the Akhilesh Yadav led-state government in this regard and a communication has been further sent to the district authorities, Amethi ADM M P Saroj said. "The state Urban Development department has sent a letter to administration of Amethi in this regard. We have sought services of a town planner in this regard," Saroj said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that her government would develop seven smart cities in the state.
The location for six smart cities had already been finalised, while that of the seventh one would be finalised soon, Banerjee told reporters at the mini secretariat for north Bengal. The seven smart cities, which would have all modern facilities for decent living, would be located according to the importance of the places, Mamata said.
The smart cities will come up near Siliguri, near Gazol in Malda district, near Kalyani in Nadia district, near Bolpur in Birbhum district, near the industrial towns of Asansol-Durgapur covering Churulia, birth place of Kazi Nazrul Islam, near Garia in the southern outskirts of Kolkata and the last one near the state secretariat Nabanna.
The state government had adequate land for these projects which would be developed by the state Urban Development Department, the chief minister said without elaborating on the allocation of funds for the projects or other financial details.
Mamata Banerjee renames six cities in West Bengal
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday renamed six townships in the state, officials said.
Of them, Siliguri will be known as Teesta, a major river in North Bengal, and Bolpur as 'Gitabitan', a popular compilation of songs of Rabindranath Tagore.
The twin industrial towns of Asansol-Durgapur will be known as 'Agnibina', a collection of poems by poet Kazi Najrul Islam.
Gajaldoba in Malda district has been rechristened as 'Mukta Tirtha' while Garia near this metropolis will become 'Uttam City', after the late matinee idol Uttam Kumar, the officials said.
Banerjee renamed Kalyani, the township in Nadia district developed during the time of Bidhan Chandra Roy's chief ministership, as 'Samriddhi'.
A seventh satellite township, 'Viswa-Bangla' will come up later near the Eastern Metropolitan By-pass in the city to house government employees, the officials said. Banerjee had also renamed several stations in metro railway in the city when she was Railway Minister.
After Jan Dhan, the government will launch three mega social security initiatives on Saturday -- one pension and two insurance schemes. The schemes will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 9 in Kolkata, capital of West Bengal where assembly elections are due next year.
More than a dozen Union ministers will also fan out across the country that day for the roll-out of Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) and Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
A Finance Ministry statement said the initiatives are aimed at providing affordable universal access to essential social security protection in a convenient manner linked to auto-debit facility from bank accounts.
The schemes are expected to address the issue of very low coverage of life or accident insurance and old age income in the country, it said. The launch functions will also be held at 116 locations, including the national capital and major centres of different states and district headquarters.
Chief Ministers and Union Ministers will attend the functions at various locations in the country, it said. Senior Union Ministers including the Home Minister Rajnath Singh (Lucknow), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (Mumbai), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (Bhopal), Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu (Varanasi), Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan (Patna) and Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari (Bhagalpur) will launch the schemes.
PMSBY will offer a renewable one year accidental death-cum-disability cover of Rs 2 lakh for partial/permanent disability to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-70 years for a premium of Rs 12 per annum per subscriber.
The scheme would be administered through public sector general insurance companies or other general insurance firms willing to offer the product on similar terms on the choice of the bank concerned.
PMJJBY on the other hand will offer a renewable one year life cover of Rs 2 lakh to all savings bank account holders in the age group of 18-50 years, covering death due to any reason, for a premium of Rs 330 per annum per subscriber. The scheme would be offered or administered through LIC or other Life Insurance companies willing to offer the product on similar terms on the choice of the bank concerned.
The pension scheme will focus on the unorganised sector and provide subscribers a fixed minimum pension of Rs 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 or Rs 5,000 per month starting at the age of 60 years, depending on the contribution option exercised on entering at an age between 18 and 40 years. The period of contribution by any subscriber under APY would be 20 years or more.
The fixed minimum pension would be guaranteed by the government.
FILE - PTI PHOTO
OPINION
Smart City Scam
The Modi government's smart city is a techno-utopia which ignores the basic tenants of democratic urban governance.
Along with "Make in India", "Smart Cities" seems to be the most hyped up and talked about endeavour of the Modi government. In Modi's recent foreign visits, both of these initiatives were brazenly promoted, most notably in Hannover Messe, Germany, the world's biggest industrial fair. These are not conventional policies (like the National Manufacturing Policy or the National Urban Renewal Mission) but seek to market a particular image of India to key global actors.
But beyond the hype, there is a need to understand what such initiatives seek to do. Just because of the corny sugarcoating, the core idea need not be problematic. Hence, for understanding Modi's "100 Smart Cities" agenda it is useful to look into the Draft Concept Note on Smart City Scheme made available by the Ministry of Urban Development. So what is the government's vision of a "Smart City"? The concept note is very clear that smart cities should provide "very high quality of life (comparable with any developed European City)".
The note states: "Smart Cities are those that are able to attract investments and experts & professionals. Good quality infrastructure, simple and transparent online business and public services processes that make it easy to practice one's profession or to establish an enterprise and run it efficiently without any bureaucratic hassles are essential features of a citizen centric and investor-friendly smart city." Essentially, it is vision of a tech-enabled, red-tape free, utopian world.
The use of Information Communication Technology to make transactions easier has been an essential element of the smart city discourse worldwide and is also evident in India's plan. The concept note further states that "Institutional Infrastructure (including Governance), Physical Infrastructure, Social Infrastructure and Economic Infrastructure constitute the four pillars" of the smart city. Interestingly, it is on questions of institutional infrastructure/governance that the smart city plan of the Modi government appears to be most ill-conceived.
The concept note provides very little clarity on what the governance system of smart cities would be. The focus of "institutional infrastructure" is on technology-based solutions to various public problems. The idea of democratic governance seems to be wholly missing in the smart city vision. While homilies of "citizen participation" are dutifully offered, there is no discussion on democracy or local government in the concept note. Buzzwords like smart governance, e-governance and citizen participation have essentially sidestepped the question of democracy.
Democratically elected local governments are an essential feature of Indian polity with appropriate constitutional recognition. With the passing of the 74th Constitutional Amendment in 1992, Urban Local Bodies became fundamental institutions of governance along with central and state governments. The Amendment provided for the devolution of functions, funds and functionaries to elected municipal bodies to ensure that they "function as institutions of self-government".
However, the smart city plan of the government either seems oblivious of the existence of constitutional provisions for urban governance or deliberately ignores the same. It is true that despite constitutional promises, municipal governments in India are often dysfunctional and hence would need reform. The Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) of the UPA government, despite issues regarding its formulation and implementation, had made the implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment and passing of community participation law and public disclosure law as mandatory reforms. However, the smart city agenda completely ignores the role of democratic urban governments.
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The absence of any reference to democracy or the Constitution in the concept note does not seem to be accidental. The very idea of "Smart Cities" is based on rhetoric of speed, efficiency and optimisation, all of which are perceived to be absent in our city governments and which technology firms like IBM and CISCO seek to provide. In this context, new institutional arrangements, which are free from politics, are sought to displace Luddite institutions like local governments.
Such institutional innovations are already being carried out in parts of India, in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other industrial areas. If the governor of a state declares a particular area to be an "industrial township" under Article 243Q of the Constitution, it need not have an elected municipal body. But as K C Sivaramakrishnan, one of the senior bureaucrats who was involved in the drafting of the 74th Amendment, has revealed, this was a loophole clause introduced at the last minute when the bill was being taken up for clause-by-clause consideration.
Now this provision is seen as an opportunity by enthusiasts of the smart city agenda to create cities that work like clockwork, without the inconveniences of politics and democracy. NITI Ayog member Bibek Debroy in a recent article argued that the reason some of the new greenfield cities "took off" was because it had "governance structures independent of the elected one".
In census towns and other areas that still have not become statutory towns, Debroy senses the opportunity to create smart cities since these are "no man's land". He argues "Since they don't possess elected representatives yet, there are no vested interests." For the set of smart cities coming up in the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, including the much touted Dholera project in Gujarat, Debroy wants Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) to drive urban reform. Hence, the NITI Ayog member seems to favour a form of urban governance free from the quandaries of local democracy.
In case of Dholera, Modi's showpiece project initiated when he was Chief Minister, a legislation called the Gujarat Special Investment Region Act 2009 was passed to create a system of governance without any local democracy for a stretch of 920 sq.km. This area is deemed to be an industrial township and hence instead of a municipal government, it is the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board, Regional Development Authority and project specific SPVs that are responsible for governance.
The idea of "smart governance" emerging from the Modi government seems to be that of a technology driven networked system free from all the "vested interests" of democracy and local government. The endless promotion of smart cities as symbols of a new prosperous India lets the state exercise a form of discursive power which can make people reluctant to oppose such measures. However, if we still believe in the ideas associated with democracy, we need to question such techno-utopias.
Mathew Idiculla is a Research Associate at the School of Policy and Governance, Azim Premji University, Bangalore.
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What the hell is a smart city anyway?
Manu Joseph
| Updated: May 04, 2015 10:15 IST
We the people of Gurgaon heard great laughter fill its haze. The sounds were coming from all directions, and from men, women and camels. It was probably desert delirium that made us hear these sounds, but our enquiries revealed there was indeed an occurrence that could cause such behaviour: A cabinet minister had stated, "Gurgaon will become a smart city in the next one year."
It was only recently that we had understood the meaning of 'millennium city', which is the official honorific of a town that some people call 'Builder's Shit' or 'DLF PhasePalm'.
The meaning of 'millennium city' had revealed itself when a clever girl pointed out to the morons who live here that AD 1000, too, is technically a millennium. Now we have to nervously but swiftly ascertain the meaning of 'smart city'. We know it only as the prime minister's "vision".
We are, of course, acquainted with Wikipedia but it did not help. The minister also said, "We have chosen Gurgaon city as a pilot project to develop the smart city. We have directed the concerned officials to come up with a blue print in the next 15 days."
The laughter rose from the motorists who were driving on the right (it is legal; driving on the left, too, is legal) on the National Highway 8 from Manesar towards Rajiv Chowk.
The school bus driver who was about to run over a pilot on Sohna Road, too, laughed. The pilot who was returning from a gym and had been trying to cross the road safely, too, let out a final laugh. The ophthalmologist laughed but turned serious as she told her child patient that dry eyes, like respiratory ailments, were normal in Gurgaon because of "suspended particles in the air". Labourers who were digging a ditch near Cyber City laughed though they usually laugh only when asked why they were digging.
Truck drivers who were mugging a recreational cyclist on the Faridabad highway and relieving him of his Garmin watch; and the whole village of almost beautiful prostitutes in the shrubs shook with laughter.
So did the former farmers in paramilitary uniform who work as guards even though they are malnourished. The cops who run a police station whose two holding cells contain human excrement that have gathered over months, laughed the most. One woman laughed but that was because someone had asked her, "Does Gurgaon have a sewage system?"
A terrifying fact then that Gurgaon is among the better cities of India.
The chief reason why the government believes that it can convert Gurgaon into a smart city in a year is that it plans to put in place a power grid that would supply unfaltering electric supply to most of the city. Such a grid would be called 'Smart Grid'.
Is that all it takes to build a smart city? Gurgaon is among 100 cities that would be deemed potential smart cities.
The Centre would provide Rs 100 crore to develop every chosen city, a small fraction of the actual cost of bringing meaningful change to any Indian city, a cost that would be largely borne, to an unknown extent, by private enterprise.
There have been statements made by government officials that give the impression that the future of Indian cities is in the hands of rustics. In January, the urban development minister, Venkaiah Naidu, said that Delhi would be developed into a "global city", and, of course, a "smart city", and that the government wanted "to have world-class entertainment venues like Disneyland or Universal Studios here".
He also announced that a "lake city" would be developed near Sanjay Lake in East Delhi. "The lake city and the smart city should be a place where tourists can go…"
It is a mystery why so much nonsense has to be uttered to describe what is essentially an important and a humane idea, which is that India must modernise its urban planning. Indians are fleeing their villages in large numbers, and all cities and towns are beginning to collapse. In the coming decades population that would fit into republics would live in several Indian cities.
Contrary to the image that the government has portrayed in its boyish small-town enthusiasm through the branding of 'smart cities', an image that is dominated by the cheap brochure art of gleaming buildings as though the government wishes nothing more than carving out business districts for a minority, the actual goal of this government's urban project is exemplary. India is planning for an urban future. Narendra Modi does not have to make this story sexy.
There is a feeling among Indians that no matter what the quality of infrastructure, Indian cities will be in absolute disorder because of the fundamental nature of Indians, who are, at a civic level, the freest humans that ever lived. We can do things that people in most nations cannot imagine, and an interaction between extreme freedoms is always chaos. What disproves the hypothesis that disorder is the natural state of Indians is the Delhi Metro, which deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for the way it has transformed lives and inspired several metro systems across India.
In the Delhi Metro system, commuters do not spit or urinate in the trains or on the platforms. They even stand in queues. They behave differently within and outside the metro system. There are three chief reasons for this. The Delhi Metro is impressive; it provides adequate facilities for all reasonable human needs; and finally it threatens to penalise, a threat that is taken seriously by commuters because of the first reason — the metro is efficient, hence it must also be efficient in carrying out its threats. That is what a city must ideally do: Impress, provide and punish. To that end, Delhi Metro is a smart city in transit.
If you say that in Gurgaon, we won't laugh.
Manu Joseph is a journalist and the author of the novel, The Illicit Happiness of Other People
Twitter: @manujosephsan
The views expressed by the author are personal
The Delhi Metro is impressive; it provides adequate facilities for all reasonable human needs; and finally it threatens to penalise, a threat that is taken seriously by commuters. Pankaj Savita/HT
India's urban challenges
OPINION » EDITORIAL
The Union Cabinet's nod on Wednesday to the 100 smart cities project and a new urban renewal mission is an important first step toward dealing with an old problem that has only got progressively worse over the years: urban liveability. A shade less than a third of India's population now lives in urban areas, overcrowded cities and towns with infrastructure bursting at the seams. This problem will only worsen with little or no intervention happening. The proportion of the urban population can only go in one direction — upward — as more Indians migrate to the cities and towns in search of jobs. Cities are engines of growth, and as a result attract a lot of people. The country's urban population contributes over 60 per cent of India's GDP; in 15 years this will be 70 per cent. On the other hand, there is little incentive for people to migrate out of cities. Earlier attempts at providing better urban infrastructure or at creating new townships have not been able to deal with the issue of liveability satisfactorily. Even successful special economic zones have had to contend with the issue of lack of social infrastructure, which usually means access to avenues of education, health, arts, sports, and so on. There are numerous definitions of a smart city but the Modi government's idea of one usefully encompasses institutional infrastructure (governance), physical infrastructure, as also social infrastructure.
The Cabinet approval marks the first of many steps, as also the easiest, that will be required for the project. The challenges start now. Of course there is no doubt that this has created tremendous enthusiasm amongst many possible stakeholders, including service providers who have been part of smart city projects elsewhere in the world. Countries such as Japan, Singapore and Germany, among many others, have evinced interest to be a part of this. Yet, in its scale and complexity the project will be second to none. The official estimates of per capita investment requirement is Rs.43,386 for a 20-year period, or a total investment of Rs.7 lakh crore. Creating a smart city isn't just about creating the physical infrastructure — roads, clean water, power, transport and so on, things India finds difficult to deliver to its citizens nearly seven decades after Independence. It is hoped that public private partnerships (PPP) will deliver but the mechanism seems to need a lot of tweaking in order for it to work, a fact acknowledged in the recent Budget. The big challenge will be to create self-sustaining cities, which create jobs, use resources wisely and also train people. This also means more autonomy for these cities. Whether that can happen is a moot question depending heavily on the maturity of the Indian political system.
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