Brand India
Long after BJP was ousted in the 2004 elections, the former deputy premier L K Advani had accepted that ‘India Shining’ campaign was not appropriate. A year later Team India and the ever hyper media claimed ‘India Everywhere’ campaign at World Economic Forum as a coup of sorts in the recently held Davos meet. Once again such chest-thumping appears hollow and ironical in view of the tragedy unleashed at the ‘Brand India’ fair held at Meerut. Human lives were and still are the cheapest priced products in India. The Western media seem intrigued and rightly so by the confusing messages being sent from the world’s largest democracy.
350 million strong population comfortable with English language resulting in successful offbeat movies such as Being Cyrus , or mushrooming shopping malls in posh residential areas does not suffice as a worthy justification for miles of half-naked bodies sleeping on platforms in what constitutes as modern Indian cities. Do the cities and urban towns have a scalable Urban development plan that could viably implemented? While politicians have accepted that economic gains have still not percolated to the rural areas, supposedly developed parts of the country still face electricity shortages, infrastructure collapses, floods, name it!
For Urban planning and development to take place in crowded cities such as Bangalore and Delhi requires more importantly the participation of citizens and strength of will from the political bodies. While selfishness has always been the tracks on which individuals and communities view potential benefits, for us to take a major leap, providing developed world benefits to our citizens requires strong measures along with courage of action.
This is probably a ranting of an arm-chair dilettante disgusted with the sorry state of affairs or the generic rat-race team member not having had much of an experience in living it rough in the capital city. With no end in sight and hardly a step taken in right direction one has to marvel at the smooth functioning and coordination of various government and private machineries to sustain development through these years.
350 million strong population comfortable with English language resulting in successful offbeat movies such as Being Cyrus , or mushrooming shopping malls in posh residential areas does not suffice as a worthy justification for miles of half-naked bodies sleeping on platforms in what constitutes as modern Indian cities. Do the cities and urban towns have a scalable Urban development plan that could viably implemented? While politicians have accepted that economic gains have still not percolated to the rural areas, supposedly developed parts of the country still face electricity shortages, infrastructure collapses, floods, name it!
For Urban planning and development to take place in crowded cities such as Bangalore and Delhi requires more importantly the participation of citizens and strength of will from the political bodies. While selfishness has always been the tracks on which individuals and communities view potential benefits, for us to take a major leap, providing developed world benefits to our citizens requires strong measures along with courage of action.
This is probably a ranting of an arm-chair dilettante disgusted with the sorry state of affairs or the generic rat-race team member not having had much of an experience in living it rough in the capital city. With no end in sight and hardly a step taken in right direction one has to marvel at the smooth functioning and coordination of various government and private machineries to sustain development through these years.
posted by Knaves at 3:57 PM
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