Ramesh Hegde :
1. Pl see Note 1 below, wrt Kautilya's Arthashastra.
2. Do we have in IIT-D a copy of the excerpted -English interpretation with Sanskrit shlokas, pronounciation and transliteration of the Arthashasstra?
1. Pl see Note 1 below, wrt Kautilya's Arthashastra.
2. Do we have in IIT-D a copy of the excerpted -English interpretation with Sanskrit shlokas, pronounciation and transliteration of the Arthashasstra?
Partial Mitigation of the problems of mega cities as islands of
development amidst neglected/impoverished regions
A General Solution for the Andhra Pradesh like burning problems in the spirit of Hind Swaraj
A solution for mitigation:
Prima facie, let it be made clear that it is only a solution towards mitigation rather than a holistic cure.
1. The capital city of any state, upon growing beyond a certain size*, stops being governed by the state and
automatically goes under the central rule where
all the (Indian) nationals become 'sons of the soil' and
all the revenues of the mega city belong to the entire nation, administered by the parliament.
2. A logical extension down the line would bring#
any city with in a 'district' under the governance of the state legislature directly and not the 'district' body;
any town with in a 'mandal' under the district body and
any village with in a 'panchayat' under the mandal body.
3. Every income tax paying individual or organization to have an option of specifying a cerain region- village, mandal, district or state - to which a definite part of their tax payments would be allocated for its development; the particular way in which the money is to be spent may be decided by the local governing body.
* The critical size could be defined by a weighted average of population, geographic size and GDP, per capita income and carbon foot print etc.
# Village, Mandal, District and State are the units of regions in 'Indian' context; but it should be equally applicable universally.
The above would achieve the following:
The first two would bring in the natural vested interests of the local socio-political forces - a tendency to not give up the governing control to 'out-siders' even at the expense of loosing out on the flow of investments into their area;
These natural vested interests would drive them towards agreeing to and even encouraging
the diversion of the fund flow into a neighbour, but not too close** a city, town or village.
It would be in the best 'vested interests' of the two local bodies, the new and old growth centres,
to create a good communication/transport infra structure in between the two local regions.
The current tendency of the free market forces tending to invest only in the area that already has been well developed is hither to strongly supported by the local socio-political vested interests. It would then be balanced by the interests of the locals
In other words, the unholy alliance of the interests of the current free market elements and socio-political elements in colluding to create a few islands of development and prosperity amidst atrocious poverty all around the country side, a prime reason behind the sad and unfortunate social tensions, would be broken.
Not only is this consistent with the age old native wisdom in principles of good governance - Kautilya's 'Artha Sastra', nearly 2000 years ago suggests creation of new cities and villages once the same grow beyond some size- but these constitutional restrictions on the governance of the local regions may also not be inconsistant with any of the modern world's love for basic democratic rights either.
(Note-1 : (Pl see Architect -Lloyd George's suggestion below))
(Note-1 : (Pl see Architect -Lloyd George's suggestion below))
In fact the third item which empowers every individual to exercise one's will as to where the funds (at least part of one's own contribution) should go, can play a healthy role in one's natural urge to do some thing for the development of one's native soil, irrespective of where one has managed to generate the wealth.
** If they are too close, then the combination would run the risk of merging into one bigger twin city region with the control slipping out of the local body.
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It may not have been apparent at the time of Hind Swaraj, but it becomes increasingly clear that free market's sole aim of maximising profit albeit subject to some approved norms of society and governance, leads to mega centralized production in all spheres. More often than not, the famous 'economies of scale' originally guided by the 'square cube law', in practice, seems to suggest that the bigger the centralized production the better it would be for the free market economics.
Rapid growth of Hyderabad as a IT hub in the past decade, almost challenging Bangalore, is some times seen as a result of the badly planned / managed infra structure of Bangalore and not necessarily out of any love for Hyderabad on the part of the MNC giants in IT.
A young well meaning IT professional who has set up shop in Hyderabad, says with a great conviction that his decision to return to India from the lucrative silicon valley and choosing Hyderabad is strongly influenced by the mega investment of Micro Soft in Hyderabad.
That may be recognised as the power of 'square cube law' even out side its original domain of physical processing.
The mega city would in turn attract the nearly evenly distributed best talent from the distant interiors.
Even the growth of mega cities has its own multitude of problems.
Providing proper infrastructure, in practice, eats up a major part of the entire economic resource of the state to the horribe neglect of the other wise well distributed communities of the state in sevaral cities, towns and tens of thousands of villages.
And when the consequential social turmoil results in demands for separate smaller states, the problem literally burns not only the state but also the nation.
The burning of AP (similar troubles already brewing at other places in the country) is a case in point. The solution becomes intractable with the native community of the mega city region fiercely demanding sole possession of the mega city while the other communities, equally fiercely, fight back to retain what they see as their share in the mega city, that not only generates most of the tax revenues but also offers most of the economically lucrative work (employment/business) opportunities to the millions.
The problem is also fuelled by the human greed to invest in the real estate for making a fast buck by being at least in the periphery, if not in the heart, of the mega city. This is perceived, and may be rightly so, by the locals of the 'Greater City Region' as being dominated by the 'out-siders', in the process.
The mega cities no doubt contribute to most of the tax revenues of the nation, but are also forced to spend most of the its revenue in developing the infrastructure in their own limits, to make life more bearable to the growing millions in its cramped city limits.
The result is not very humane:
India(read, some of those in the few mega cities) shining while
Bharat(read, majority in most of the villages) bleeding.
The sad part of the story is that even those shining in the 'India shining' hardly get to lead a healthy life style.
But that is another story.
NOTE 1: Architect Lloyd George had remarked that once a city's population grows beyond 1.5 million, the cost of supplying utilities (water, electricity, drainage, basic healthservices and the like) and public amenities starts increasing disproportionately to the average cost of providing services for the first million population. Therefore the new cities like Silvasa (Pune) being established in our country, incorporate some of the principles of Lloyd George and Kautilya.
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