A. The Background:
Human resources are important in any society. The intellectual resources in science and technology are pivotal in human resources for sustainable development.
More than 95 % of the above intellectual resources are concentrated in a few mega cities of the country, of which Hyderabad happens to be one.
In turn, over 95% of the intellectual resources of the entire state of Andhra Pradesh are located in Hyderabad itself.
This, together with the mega development of Hyderabad by using the lion’s portion of the state’s other resources as well, is the main reason behind the clamour for Hyderabad by all - the separatists and others of all shades.
Here is a proposal that is not hitherto in the open discussion, for the consideration of one and all and involves relocation of the intellectual resources in several remote rural clusters of villages.
It would be a good beginning for decongesting mega cities without any significant dent in their finances when adopted in the country as a whole.
In appendix A, the possibility of relocating some of the public sector undertakings to the remote rural clusters and the villages around is presented.
Further it may actually help garner votes from the masses and provide immediate political benefits to those who dare to advocate/promote the out of the box idea besides giving a fillip to sustainable development through decentralisation.
B. The Proposal in brief:
1. Relocate all the elite institutions - academic and R&D - from their current locations in Hyderabad into rural hinterlands. In fact, intellectual training grounds make up the most important hither to urban amenity and in that respect the entire proposal would give the much needed completeness to the good old idea of ‘PURA’ (Provision of Urban amenities in Rural areas.)
2. Creation of healthy intellectual ecosystems in the rural areas:
a) 20 to 30 contiguous remote rural villages spread over at least two or more districts are to be identified as a cluster. About 10 to 15 such clusters of remote rural villages are to be selected covering all the 23 districts of Telugu people.
b) One of the several (four or more) campuses of every elite institution is to be hosted by one remote rural village in several of the above clusters; the total number of the elite institutions in each cluster would be equal to the number of villages in that cluster.
c) Each of the remote rural cluster of villages to host two or more institutions of similar kind, from schools/high schools for children to institutions for higher learning in engineering/technology/sciences, agriculture, medicine(including teaching hospitals), law business/finance and R&D establishments in various sectors.
d) The mandate of the institutions can be to make each of the villages in a cluster or at least each one of the clusters, self sustainable with local renewable resources in energy, water and food to the extent possible. This would help create an intellectual ecosystem with scope for a healthy competition and collaboration in driving each cluster towards becoming a centre of excellence for innovation at national and international levels in addressing the issues in decentralized development that is also sustainable.
3. Similarly, relocate the elite institutions in other big cities such as Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada-Guntur, Tirupati, Anantapur into these remote rural clusters, ensuring that at least one campus of each is located in each of the four different Telugu regions of the state, divided or united.
Each elite institute would then have several campuses under its own brand name and style in several of these remote rural clusters facing directly those of the others.
4. The human resources of each of the campuses of the institutions are to be derived from
i) the region of the cluster
ii) other regions of the Telugu state/s
iii) other states and
iv) other countries
in a rational ratio that prevents inbreeding and helps in enriching the ethnic diversity of the intellectual resource base while simultaneously promoting regional and national integration as well as a healthy international cooperation in gradually improving the centres of innovation excellence to the demanding international standards.
5. Proactive invitation to the elite institutions at the national and even international levels for setting up their campuses only in the different remote rural clusters of the state.
6. The above model could be studied and extended at the national level to all the 600 districts of this country through at least over 300 centres of innovation excellence for sustainable development by addressing the climate change and ecological concerns.
C. A few more details:
1. We can do it.
‘SRI CITY’ is only a baby step, but a right one, in this direction at the junction of two Telugu districts of Nellore and Chittoor, close to Tamilnadu . But some changes that would greatly help in social relations are suggested here.
2. The villagers who host the campus of an elite institution
are not to be driven out of their lands or habitat,
but are to partner with their traditional skills and knowledge in
the sustainable development of the greenery, biodiversity & ecology
besides actively participating in the sustainability in food, energy and other services.
3. The habitation of the exogenous population is to be homogeneously merged with that of the village with all their cattle and with due respect to their culture and traditions, by appropriate upgradation.
4. The needed lands for buildings, roads, greenery and other services are to be only leased from the local / farmer owners on a long term but rational basis that reflects the changes in the market value of the said lands on a year to year basis.
This would prevent to a great extent the fly by night operators from their dubious ways that are not only unethical but also antisocial / illegal, most of the times.
5. Each elite institution may retain only a small part of the land in their current location for building an international level convention centre complete with the necessary hospitality services and surrender the rest of the land to the public. These lands may be preferentially used for the much needed enhancement of urban greenery and natural biodiversity that can promote eco and health tourism.
6. In return to the above, the government/s are to compensate the institution financially for relocating into multiple campuses with the state of the art equipment, but green infrastructure. Or else, each of the elite institutions should be left with a complete freedom to use the vacated prime urban lands in the free market in the best interests of the Indian society as per its own community’s democratic judgement.
7. Industries can offer sponsorship in developing the clusters even while participating in the human resource development alongside the R&D efforts of their interest.
8. Needless to add that the above relocation into multiple campuses is to be done in a well planned, phased, but time bound manner at both the state and national levels.
9. If any cluster experiences the pressure of expansion, new similar remote rural clusters have to be opened with geographic equity as priority even among the many possible remote rural areas. The unbounded expansion of any / a few cluster/s would only be a backward step and should be prohibited.
10. An elite institution may be defined as one that finds its place in the top, as an example, say 20 or 50 with in the country over a majority any 5 consecutive years.
This would immediately drive a wedge between the valid interest of an institution to excel in its field thus qualifying to relocate into multiple campuses in the remote rural clusters of innovation excellence and
the immediate financial vested interest in clinging to a big city by not trying to excel in its field.
This kind of wedge between valid interest and vested interests would be the hallmark of any good governance.
11. The above, together with the true financial autonomy for the local bodies, would largely address the concerns of the separatists besides having a huge potential in handling the extremist violence of all shades. After all, it is well recognized that the latter are fanned primarily by the hitherto massively centralised development strategies that have result in the blatant denial of geographic equity, some thing which should be viewed as nothing short of the denial of natural justice to the remote rural and often tribal populations.
Appendix A: Selective Relocation of PSUs and Industries
1. While private industry may not be pressured by governments into relocation, it is possible to relocate some of the PSUs partially or completely into the and around the remote rural clusters and provide fiscal incentives to the private sector to follow the path. Some possibilities are presented here.
2. The design cum R&D centres / insttutes can be shifted directly into the remote rural clusters as these would be on par with other R&D institutions of CSIR /DST/ defence and other ministries. R&D institutions under other ministries, like those under Agriculture, MHRD only serve as examples.
3. The production of some PSUs such as those in electronics, IT, pharma etc., do not need much of local raw materials any way. These can be relocated around the remote rural clusters but not very close to them. Subject to economy of scales, a massive single production unit may be split into a few, each one located in a different cluster.
4. Some of the PSUs and of the private industries may actually clamour to open their shops in these clusters. They may be permitted, but should be mandated to develop similar partnerships in a few villages, but not close to the above clusters.
Even at the expense of repetition, following should be strictly adhered to:
a) all the lands needed are only to be leased;
b) the lands needed for their greenery: farmer owners of the lands are to grow and maintain the greenery in a mutually agreeable manner either by contract farming or otherwise.
c) support services are to be obtained to the extent possible through inhabitants of local villages trained specifically for the purpose. The ITC (Industrial Training Centre)set up by M/s Nava Bharat Ferro Alloys Ltd at Paloncha, Khammam district is a good example.
d) The industries can build the green infrastructure for schools and colleges, again on lands by long term lease as part of the CSR.
e) The habitation/s of all the exogenous population including their own employees or of the support service providers are to be homogeneously merged with that of their host village with appropriate upgradation. The lands for habitation would be only on a long term lease basis and never by ownership.
f) as part of CSR, corporations located anywhere may pay for
lease amounts for lands under any permitted use in the clusters,
running expenses of schools, colleges and teaching hospitals etc.,
sponsor longterm chairs/ fellowships for the elite institutions in the clusters building / operating green rapid public transportation between the villages of a given cluster or between the cluster and neighboring villages
building helipads in each cluster and contribute to air services in emergencies
the green energy generation and distribution by smart grids within the cluster
the rain water harvesting and recycling of water locally.
g) the revenue from the enormous prime urban lands that are vacated by the institutions in the mega cities may be used for building rapid public transportation between
the different remote clusters
a given cluster and the district headquarter and / or the nearby bigger town
a given cluster and the nearest railway junction
operating air connectivity for the clusters
