Right Now!

In the good old days before anyone knew anything about Economics, a great king was always known as a “builder of great cities.”

In the modern world, centuries after Adam Smith, Gandhi and his followers in the Congress party wanted to be “builders of great villages.” They also exported their idea – to Julius Nyrere of Tanzania, whose socialism was centered on the self-sufficient village, and failed spectacularly.

I have recently written on why cities are rich, and why India should aim at being a nation of over 500 free trading and self-governing cities (plus 5000 similar smaller towns), and will not repeat those eternal verities of the science of Economics here. This is the link to that previous post.

Today, I am happy to note that our economists are finally waking up. According to a news report, the National Council for Applied Economic Research has come out with a study entitled "Next Urban Frontier: 20 Cities to Watch.” These 20 cities have just 10 per cent of India’s population yet account for over 30 per cent of disposable income. The cities are divided into 3 categories: mega cities, boom cities and niche cities. They are:

The eight mega-cities are the four metros, along with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune.

The seven boom towns are Surat, Kanpur, Jaipur, Lucknow, Nagpur, Bhopal and Coimbatore.

The five niche cities are Faridabad, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Jalandhar.

I could add one more to the list – Mangalore, and I do feel the study has missed out on many other cities that are booming. But it is still a sign that these dudes are waking up. Good. Very good.

Now for the bad news: a study conducted among expats worldwide has revealed that India is the least preferred place to live and work.

In other words, not one of our cities is “liveable.” If an expat is sent here, his company gives him a “hard duty allowance” – similar to what our soldiers get for serving on the Siachen glacier. Something is seriously wrong with all our cities and towns. We are producing wealth alright, but living conditions are horrible.

This has happened because the theories of our central planners are all wrong – and yes, they want to teach.

Now that the NCAER is waking up to the right theories, perhaps The State will wake up too.

As Mr. Morrison shouted – “Save Our Cities.”

He then added: “Right Now!”

Yes, Right Now!

There is no time to waste. We have wasted 60 years already on this bullshit village vision. Let us now urbanize aggressively – and look after all our urban areas. They are the centres of our civilization and its commercial culture. And let’s do it RIGHT NOW!