Three Steps towards sustainable good governance

Three  Steps towards sustainable good governance

2nd October 2013

1.  Continuous & authentic measuring/indexing of public opinion on several matters that range from local to global (the degree of globality for each matter can be different).

2. Building new campuses of the elite institutions or their relocation, both  academic and R&D, into clusters of rural villages (from the mega/big cities or their immediate neighborhood).

3. Land only on rational lease for all uses  other than ‘fossil fuel free’ farming which also ensures a minimum index of biodiversity.

In brief:

1.  Continuous & authentic indexing of public opinion on several matters that range from local to global (the degree of globality for each matter can be different).

The necessity of freeing  democracy from just periodic voting arises from the multi-dimensional nature of the multiplicity of problems, policy issues included: no single party has any consensus even within, on many issues.

In addressing the step suggested above, can the current technology empower us in a practical/affordable way that has not been available earlier ?

The answer is 'Yes' and one powerful way is in routing the taxes of all sorts through appropriately tagged accounts with smart phones.  The only way every one participates in the collective process of governance is through paying taxes and using the very process of paying taxes itself, for continuous & authentic measuring/indexing of the public opinion, should have been a natural option.

2. Building new campuses of the elite institutions or their relocation, both  academic and R&D, into clusters of rural villages (from the mega/big cities or their immediate neighborhood).

The process of building the new campuses of elite institution or their relocation  can begin with some five  to ten such clusters in each state in a phased manner. 
Business as usual with struggles/debates on policies, tackling problems such as corruption only leads to unbridled growth of cities, unless chaos dictates otherwise.  Isn't this unbridled growth cancerous and at the cost of the hinter lands in the rural India, that is Bharat ?

The above idea of relocating the institutions is definitely 'an out of the box' but is ' neither impulse nor  step like changes: it has no negatives capable of destabilizing the current system - either economically or socially. In fact, given the right mandate, each such rural cluster  can be a true catalyst in education, including school education,   towards sustainable / holistic development.

A simple beginning can be to challenge the collective intellectual / institutional might of each cluster to be self sufficient in drinking water, food, energy and housing, all with the local renewable resources to the extent possible. And here, interaction of the elite with the local / traditional knowledge and skills can be mutually beneficial.

3. Land only on rational lease for all uses  other than ‘fossil fuel free’ farming which also ensures a minimum index of biodiversity.

Even the land preparation and other inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides should be free of the fossil fuels, with near zero carbon foot print for such a farming. Eventually, it would evolve into that ensures a minimum of biodiversity in every small unit of farmland as against vast farms of monoculture.

This can begin with the building of the rural clusters to host the elite institutions on leased lands, with the long term and gradually increasing lease incomes, commensurate to the increasing land value, to the farmers.

Again such a step  can neither cause nor induce  instability socially or economically.  Instead, it may inspire  planning of the institutions with mostly mobile assets. In shelters, this would mean using light weight structures and preference to local renewable resources even to build. After all, building sector is one of the most important ones of  of any country's economy and the use of local renewable resources improves local economy and environment with a sustainable development.         

In a bit more detail:

The basic criteria for good sustainable good governance
Before going into detail, two criteria are aimed at for any step envisaged for good sustainable governance:

a)  It should drive a wedge between the legal and vested interests of the main players.

b) It should not either cause or induce instability in the system.
A third one that is desirable would be that it should not require constitutional changes.

It is then recognized that the first prime step needs to be in strengthening the democratic processes. In the second step, the teachers - researchers should lead the society by setting the example in physically moving out into the rural hinterland as clusters of competing and diverse elite institutions and squarely facing the challenges of sustainability. The third step is aimed at land use alienation from ‘fossil fuel free’  farming in a country like India where land is the most precious natural resource with humanly infinite life (save  lunatic intervention by S&T empowered man). Further, land is in great scarcity with potential to adversely affect over six hundred millions of common folks immediately: treating land as any other man made commodity of very limited life span seems against all rationality, save the greed to make fast bucks through windfall capital gains, most of which only drive the twin evils of black economy & corruption. It is only pragmatic that the governing policies should have an element to contain the greed of humans, even while education should relentlessly try its best to drive it away from the inner self of humans, as part of its character building 'activities', that are productive & socially useful.  

As shall be seen, every one of the three prime steps satisfies the above two criteria for sustainable good governance besides being powerful novel ways to acheive the goals.

1.  Continuous indexing of public opinion on several matters that range from local to global (the degree of globality for each matter can be different).

The necessity of freeing democracy from just periodic voting arises from the multidimensional nature of the multiplicity of problems, including policy issues.  No single party has any consensus even within, on many issues. To know how much of the public are in favor of  what should be done in any specific problem or option, is, currently, at best a partially informed bad guess. It can’t be otherwise since the sources of information are non-authentic opinion polls, ‘dhar-nas’, bandhs, rasta rokos and strikes with the extent of violence becoming de facto measure of public support. But the later,  as reported in the media, spiced to highlight the already dangerous levels of sentiments and emotions of the masses only makes things worse. It just becomes a political game for a momentary win at any cost. Everything else takes the back seat and can wait, because an immediate loss would render politicians  totally ineffective for another five years.  That speaks of the fallacy in the democratic functioning that should be addressed first before anything else has a chance to work.

It is known that when events are constrained to just a few days temporally, the role of rationality decreases at the expense of sentiments and  emotions, which any day are  a lot easier to whip up. These are over and above the role of  the power of money and muscle, all supported by the old saying ‘all is fair in war and love’. Mathematically such temporally  constrained actions may be compared to impulses, which in engineering sciences are well understood to be main sources of instability and failure.  

It is thus a question of even the educated losing faith in the  ability of ‘once in five years (periodic) voting’  to resolve any complex  problem by any party or groups of parties or persons. Thus we see the unfortunate reality that a large part of the human resources that are good at heart, and are competent to  possibly make a difference, simply give up on participation. How else can we understand the indifference of close to half the population towards taking the trouble for some hours once in five years (for voting) ?    

To be fair to all those with differing degrees of sincerity in politics, they are familiar with all the above problems. Recognition of the need  for continuous indexing of public opinion on multiple issues has been there all along for better informed decisions. Only it has become more acute now in India.

However we need to continuously keep asking ourselves the same question, “Can the current technology empower us in a practical / affordable way that has not been available earlier in continuous indexing of public opinion?”

The answer is 'Yes'  and one powerful strategy lies in using the  smart phones for routing the taxes of all sorts through appropriately tagged accounts.

It may be noted that the only way every one already participates in the collective process of governance of any system, is through paying taxes. Thus every one is already  the real source of power of any government, even if only a few  have any say over the actual governance.  

Thus it would be natural to have a mechanism where every citizen has an option to exercise one’s opinion on matters and issues that matter most to oneself whenever one pay taxes of any type. It can be  by routing the taxes through a tagged account that stands  close to one’s opinion even while paying for any goods or service purchased.

One of the conclusions of Prof Miller in the early chapters of his book on game theory states that repeated play would be a true catalyst in promoting business honesty.  This should be  applicable quite as much to  politics as it is to economics. With virtually every adult citizen involved in buying some thing or the other all round the year,  what better opportunity would be there other than routing the taxes through tagged accounts to express one’s opinion, thus achieving accurate and continuous indexing of public opinion for the benefit of one and all, including those holding the reins of political groups.

This would have an added  bonus: groups, including political ones, would have a healthy incentive to see that every shop or service provider issues proper receipts with the applicable taxes to mobilize public opinion in their own favor. Thus a wedge would be driven between the legal and vested interests of politicians between winning the public opinion continuously and  raising unaccounted money for obviously illegal ways of winning the elections. Further, such a measure can in no way either induce or cause instability in the system.

Thus the suggested first prime step improves sustainable good governance by strengthening democratic process by meeting the two independent criteria stated in the beginning:

a) it does drive a wedge between legal interests and vested interests of the important players, namely the political and active groups who seek the reins of governance

b) it does not induce or cause instability in the system.

2. Relocating elite institutions both  academic and R&D into clusters of rural villages (from the mega cities or their immediate neighborhood).

The relocation  can begin with some five  to ten such clusters in each state in a phased manner. Business as usual with struggles/debates on policies, tackling problems such as corruption only leads to unbridled growth of cities, unless or until chaos dictates otherwise.  Isn't this unbridled growth cancerous and at the cost of the hinterlands, namely the rural areas?

The above step can not be possibly an impulse like  step capable of destabilizing the current system - economically or socially. In fact given the right mandate, each such rural cluster  can be a true catalyst in education, including school education,   towards sustainable / holistic development.

A simple beginning can be to challenge the collective intellectual / institutional might of each cluster to be self sufficient in food, energy and housing by using only the renwables of the sub region . And here, interaction of the elite with the local / traditional knowledge and skills can be mutually beneficial.

Some more details in:

i)  Suggestion 1 to GOM wrt proposal of AP division

3. Land only on rational lease for all uses  other than ‘fossil fuel free’ farming.

Even the land preparation and other inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides should be free of the fossil fuels for such a farming. One also eventually may require that such a farming should ensure a minimum of biodiversity in every small unit of farmland as against vast farms of monoculture.

This can begin with the building of the rural clusters to host the elite institutions with long term lease incomes to the farmers.

For one, it reduces the upfront investment in relocating the institutions, while solving one of the most difficult problems of locating lands for the institutions.

Again such a step  can neither cause nor induce  instability, socially or economically.  Instead, it may inspire  planning of the institutions with mostly mobile assets. In shelters this would mean using lightweight structures. It is well recognized  that there is a lot that we need to learn from the  old civilizations who were/are masters in using  local renewable resources even to build. (‘Lightness’, aerospace engg   Delft University and Prof Gordon’s  ‘Theory of Structures or Why things don’t fall down?)

After all, building sector is one of the most important ones of  of any country's economy and the use of local renewable resources improves local economy and environment with a sustainable development.  

For more details also see:

1.Indexing public opinion by routing taxes through tagged accounts

2. Acquisition of Land from Agrarian use - Historic Injustice

3. Why can’t land be leased for all uses other than farming?

3. Decongesting Hyderabad - A way to  reduce pollution and resolve the conflict of Telangana / Andhra Pradesh

4.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 

2nd suggestion to GOM - relocate sanctioned ITIR in anantapur district closer to Bangalore from Forum for Inclusive, Equitable and Natural Development of Societies(FRIENDS)

Appeal to GOM on the proposed division of AP

“Major part of the approved ITIR for Hyderabad

to be located in Anantapur district,

the dry district in the rain shadow region”

FoRum for Inclusive, Equitable and Natural  Development of Societies

(FRIENDS)

Suggestion#2 to Group Of Ministers (GOM) regarding Andhra Pradesh

sent by email to                   <feedbacktogom-mha@nic.in>

[In making this appeal, we are guided by the pragmatism of the famous saying,

“A bird in hand is better than two in the bush” ]

1. We appeal  that a major  part of the recently announced ITIR package (for Greater Hyderabad) be located in Anantapur district closer to Karnataka border towards Bangalore and sufficiently close to Puttaparti with up gradation of the airport there. This is to be in addition to the priority in relocating the elite institutions mentioned in   II. 1.c dealing with the actions as appealed by FRIENDS in   ‘Equitable  Relocation of elite Higher Educational, Research  & Training Institutions and PSUs from Hyderabad and other big cities in AP into clusters of rural villages.’ This may kindly be noted as different from another ITIR apart from the one announced for Hyderabad.  

2. The whole idea is to recognize the need to help decentralize by distributing  the development investments and not promoting any more the  already over centralized development of one city, the sole cause for the current problem over Greater Hyderabad.   

3. There are severe constraints to bring water for irrigation to  the two particularly dry districts of Rayalaseema region for part natural and part historic reasons.

4. A special package of incentives to IT giants in Hyderabad and Bangalore to relocate some of their current operations into the above hub at the border district of Anantapur in close proximity to Bangalore,  would act as a nucleus for its growth. Such an ITIR hub in the dry area would be able to afford the expensive piped water supply from Krishna river basin and subsidize the supply of drinking water needs of the region. Further, the water could be traded for  the water that is planned to be transferred from Godavari river basin.

5. Given the right give and take with the state of Karnataka,  Bangalore may welcome the close neighbor hub as a way of reducing the undue pressure on its own infrastructure. To ensure mutual advantage, at the initiative of GOI, the two neighbor states can agree for the hub to be spread across the border in ‘a special economic zone status with shared benefits to Kannada and Telugu speaking border districts.’    

6.  Further, due to the above geographic proximity to Bangalore, the IT giants in the above hub   may compete better in attracting  high end talent even compared to the IT hub of  Hyderabad.

suggestion #1 to GOM from FoRum for Inclusive, Equitable and Natural Development of Societies (FRIENDS)-Relocate the govt institutions from Hyderabad into clusters of rural villages

Equitable Relocation of

Government funded Elite Higher Educational/Research and Training Institutions and PSUs

from Greater Hyderabad and other big cities of Andhra Pradesh, India into

Clusters of Rural Villages in the Remaining Districts as Multiple Campuses

An appeal / Feedback from

FoRum for Inclusive, Equitable and Natural Development of Societies : FRIENDS

Suggestion#1 to Group Of Ministers (GOM) regarding Andhra Pradesh   sent by email to feedbacktogom-mha@nic.in

[For reasons of brevity, the details of implementing the relocation process are not mentioned here which can be worked out by those who are familiar with the art and science of the process and several innovations are possible. For one, acquisition of needed lands in the rural village clusters is presumed to be  long term but rational ‘dynamic lease’. For another, some of the multiple campuses of a given elite institution under ‘its own name and style’ are to be located equitably   in different regions of the state and preferably face the campus of another institute from a different region in a cluster or a nearby cluster so that a healthy competition and cooperation can follow with due respect to the different cultures and styles. Relocation versus additional campuses or just new institutions is debatable, but for reasons of brevity, it is confined to ‘why and  how’ relocation can be a better option for not only the holistic development of the societies in an inclusive, equitable and natural manner but also  from  the market economics and mass support. The basis for the sustained mass support would be the sincerity of expert teachers’ efforts in which they are direct partners with their local ‘talents and renewable resources’ and the extent of success   of their innovative and operational production systems in the four vital sectors of local and global interest, namely, ‘drinking water, energy, food and housing’ which also figure in the millennium goals adopted by the UN.]

We, the FoRum for Inclusive, Equitable and Natural Development of Societies(FRIENDS), hereby humbly submit our suggestions regarding Andhra Pradesh in response to the invitation for the same from GOM under the Ministry of Home Affairs, GOI as detailed below for due  consideration in three parts:

Subject Matter Or The Appeal : Equitable Relocation of  Government Funded Elite & Higher Educational / Research and Training Institutions and PSUs,  from Greater Hyderabad and other big cities of AP  into  Clusters of Rural Villages in the Remaining Districts as Multiple Campuses.

I.   The positive outcome of implementing the above Appeal

II.  The action to be taken

III.  The mandate to the elite institutions

I.   The positive outcome of implementing the above Appeal

I.1. The actions, related to the relocation, is based on the age old pragmatism expressed in, “A bird in hand is better than two in the bush” and lend the vital completeness to the famed, much debated and nationally agreed ‘PURA’ since elite Education, Research and Training are hither to the most characteristic features of all the ‘Urban Amenities’. The relocation alone has the potential to exert a healthy influence on  the way path of development is chosen in our democracy. Further, the suggested actions   would also have ‘mass appeal and support’ with a huge potential even in the periodic election based multiparty democracy on several counts. But the prime ones that can be assessed immediately by snap opinion polls among the rural areas and emerging towns and cities would be:

I.1.a) the sheer joy of  the rural folks with the unheard and undreamt  possibility of

the   physical proximity of elite institutions that attract the best talent in students, youth and elders from all over the state and the country and

the sense of  ownership of every impactful  innovation that comes up from the cluster by some rural community or the other in the entire country,  if the same is replicated all over the country.  

I.1.b) the poor farmers, including the landless ones, would be thrilled by the economic prospects, some of which would be

i)  the very possibility of guaranteed monthly lease incomes from the state, like inflation compensated salaries for generations to come,  the most secure insurance against the vagaries  of Nature. (land is only by  lease for the institutions in the new clusters and the lease is tied to the land rates) .

ii) it would be they who would take care of the plants and all the greenery of every beautiful campus in which ever capacity: either as the sole owner  of the approved horticulture horticulture / floriculture plantations that they are comfortable with or as contract farmer  for the fancy greenery like exotic lawns, shrubs or trees,  that bring  beautiful biodiversity  to the campus.  

I.1.2. The finance ministry should be happy to note that the lease cost of the land in the remote rural areas would be a tiny fraction of the astronomical opportunity cost of the prime urban lands that would become  available to GOI  in the mega / big cities anywhere in the country.

I.3. The institutions and PSUs would act as catalysts for inclusive, equitable and natural development of rural societies that is sustainable. Thus the above initiative has the potential to address the projected mega  problems of  mass migration to urban areas by containing/limiting the very migration from the rural areas  in the first place.

I.4.   The above would naturally spur a healthy growth of urban societies as well.  The immediate pain of the loss of the proximity of elite institutions would be soon  compensated to a large extent by the  quantum jump in the primary and secondary school facilities, enormous urban beautiful green and open spaces with several world class facilities in sports and convention centres with the attendant hospitality services.

Further, everyone in the communities at the bottom of the urban pyramid should also be thrilled by the prospect of a tiny home that they can call their own. It would give a great opportunity  to the  urban politicians of promising homes to homeless and  the poorest of the poor in the prime urban areas. None of these could ever even be dreamt of so far.

I.5. Right now the urban growth is near chaotic at best and is more like a cancerous one, with the successive governments( of whatever parties) for ever engaged merely in fire fighting and  often resorting to appease some one or the other of the societies. Such short sighted actions and knee jerk reactions ultimately threaten the very unity and survival of Indian democracy.

II.  The action to be taken

II.1.a) All the central and state government institutions and public sector undertakings presently located in the Greater Hyderabad of today spreading over four districts, about  160 or so,  may kindly be relocated equitably in the remaining 19 districts of Andhra Pradesh (remaining six of the districts in Telangana region and the thirteen districts of the rest of Andhra Pradesh).

II.1.b) The four districts, which have the Greater Hyderabad, any way have the benefit of  disproportionately large  investments in all other areas such as infrastructure, private investments etc.,

II.1.c) The backward districts identified by Sri Krishna Committee and water problem districts like Nalgonda, Anantapur may be given priority.  

II.1.d) The relocation of the government institutions/undertakings from Greater Hyderabad is unlikely to affect  the economy of either Greater Hyderabad or of the state or, for that matter, of the nation with no trace of any  detriment to the interests of  the common man.  

II.2. Of the above  institutions/ commercial undertakings, either  under state or central government control, all the academic ones involved in educational, research and/or training activities may be helped to set up more than one campus under their own current brand name and style but in different regions. It gives a fillip to the higher education, research and training in the entire state while ensuring equity to all the districts of the state. In comparison, a new institution would take much longer (more than a few decades) to grow to compete with the existing elite ones, if at all they do grow. If the new campus carries the brand name of an elite institution, it would be in the interest of its own faculty to ensure that it begins and grows properly while providing a healthy growth opportunity to themselves besides others.

II.3. Similarly, all such elite institutions / commercial undertakings in other major cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Guntur corridor, Tirupati, Kakinada, Anantapur,  Kurnool  and   Warangal, in the rest of AP (other than Greater Hyderabad), can be relocated into the interior rural areas of the above mentioned nineteen  districts  of the state. It is a different matter that all of them put together would be no match to even a fraction of the ones in the current Greater Hyderabad.

II.4. The above institutions should also include all the teaching hospitals as well, thus improving  healthcare to rural areas and give an incentive for the young  medicos to serve in rural areas at the end of their UG/PG degrees, a perennial and all pervasive problem in India. Even then, the big cities would still  have a far higher number of doctors and/or beds per thousand population.

II.5.a)  The new location of all the above institutions and public sector units  may be equitably distributed  in 19 clusters of rural villages, at least one but no more than a few, in each of the 19 districts, subject to 1.d above in reference to the districts with water scarcity/ fluoride/specific water problems.   Each cluster may have some 15 to 20 villages of the district, and at considerable distance from even the tier 2 or tier 3 cities of the district with each village of the cluster hosting one or at the most two institutions.

II.5.b) It is preferable to have each cluster spread out in more than one mandal; may be two clusters of neighbouring districts could be close by so that the pair could be viewed as one big cluster.   

II.6.a) The new rural clusters may be given due financial packages so that the necessary infrastructure may be created enabling them to  act as nuclei for growing into centres of innovation excellence at national and international levels.

II.6.b) The cause would be well served by inviting/allowing only the top of the very elite institutions, either public or private, at the national and international levels into these clusters, under their own name and style by mandating them to address the issues and challenges of sustainability while regenerating local resources and restoring the badly damaged ecology and environment as detailed in Part III.

II.7. The vast prime urban lands that get vacated in Greater Hyderabad and the few other big cities of the state can be utilized primarily for advancing primary and secondary schools with playgrounds, greenery and other amenities, all of which could be part of complexes of ‘eco tourism, health tourism, sports tourism and world class convention centres’. Further, huge financial resources can be raised to improve the school education, healthcare and communication infrastructure, including wide band internet all over the state. This alone can ensure the much needed quality manpower for higher education and R&D and transforming the agriculture and industry to meet the national and global challenges.

II.8. A part of the vacated urban lands in the big cities can be used/reserved for housing the urban slum dwellers.

III.  The mandate to the elite institutions:

III.1. Strive to make every ‘village or  sub group of villages in a cluster or a cluster as a whole ‘self sufficient’ in drinking water, energy,  food and housing, with appropriate smart grids and networked logistics using only the various local renewable resources. A national level mission mode approach with experts drawn from academics, R&D, industry, NGOs of even other countries to help achieve the above mandate.  Where local resources of a village or cluster are inadequate, in any sector, priority to be given to those available in the entire district or the neighboring districts.

III.2. The units of PSUs located in a cluster to adopt all the schools (at primary & secondary levels) and teaching hospitals in  all the clusters as part of their CSR, with the respective institutions sharing and owning the responsibility.  The schools are to be on par with the best in the country since all the  children of the cluster ‘should share’ the same schools. Thus the state of the art ‘schools and teaching hospitals’ available in the neighborhood would help in attracting the talented and inspired faculty and others to the rural clusters, besides a unique and healthy  intellectual ecosystem bringing out and rewarding  creativity and innovation in meeting the challenges of sustainability.

III.3. All the possible kinds of renewable energy power plants in each  cluster at appropriate capacities to be planned on ‘BOT’ basis under the direct responsibility of the experts of the different institutions and in collaboration with industry. The Operation part to continue till about 80% of the mandated time so that all the necessary tests for reliability are done and  glitches are solved, before Transfer to local entrepreneurs. The Build part to include design and implementing the integration of the already technically proven ‘individual technologies in isolation’ but may not have been tried and tested in any hybrid integrated  form.  The team/s to pay attention to the local traditional practices, old or on going,  and the skills and knowledge of the local communities in the whole process.    

III.4.  In providing the housing either in the new clusters or in the lands that would be available in the urban prime lands (for the slum dwellers and other bottom of the urban pyramid) priority to be given for ‘relocatable light weight per-engineered multi level buildings’  with local renewable building materials.    

III.5. In the villages that host the institutions, the habitat to provide housing to all (the locals and the outsiders) in a homogeneous manner with priority and respect to the traditional local culture and with a minimal of increase in the area of the village, including that of schools. Land area constraint may be rationally relaxed in case of schools since all the children of the locals and the others would have to share the same schools.