Planning in India. What a Farce.

I always wonder why we face so many problems. No sooner is a problem solved, than the solution poses a new problem. Why don't we have long term solutions?
A recent example is the Mysore road-Sirsi Circle flyover. A much needed, much awaited solution to a long term problem. But it is now swamped with maintenance problems. The expansion joints are exposed and the solution is in importing the required materials, which is a problem in the long run.

A road is widened and ..... problems
An OFC cable is laid and .... problems.
LPG is introduced for autos and ..... problems
An airport is built and ..... problems
One common attribute to all these problems is 'lack of planning'. Are we bad at planning or don't our plans work?

In very simple terms, planning is looking at and forecasting the future and making provisions for change.

The future could be immediate, slightly ahead or far ahead and planning could be for individuals, corporates or government.

Now look at the irony of it all.

WE (Indians) are expected to plan for the future, a future on which we have absolutely no control whatsoever.

THEY (foreigners) who control it for us do not make their plans privy to us.

WE just finish furnishing our houses and make a niche to keep the latest 29" TV and THEY introduce Plasma TV's. WE build a 15 foot garage and THEY introduce 20 feet cars which we then park on congested streets. WE wire for the home theatre and THEY introduce wireless systems. WE put their huge 10' dish antennae on our roof tops and haphazardly run cables on our roads and they introduce DTH. WE get their window Ac's fixed and THEY introduce split Ac's. We just finish painting our building and they introduce no-maintenance ACP's and glass facades. WE buy their record players and 16 rpm's, 45 rpm's, LP's and THEY introduce spool players. WE buy these and THEY introduce cassette players. WE buy these and THEY invent Cd's - all the while changing from mono, stereo, dolby, surround sound, karoake etc.  THEY did the same with VCP's, VCR's, VCD's and DVD's. Now it is Bluray. And then there was the valve radios, transistors, walkman's etc. WE changed from 120 / 110 / 35mm, B&W / colour - Click III, Range Finder, TLR, SLR cameras. WE invest crores on a film processing plant and THEY introduce cheap Digital cameras and cheaper printers. WE invest in their printing machines and THEY invent digital desktop publishing and printing. WE get bell bottoms stitched and THEY introduce cargo's. WE buy coil stoves, hot plates, gas cooking ranges and THEY give us micro wave ovens and induction heaters and rice cookers. WE buy their washing machines and THEY introduce dryers. WE buy these and THEY introduce front loaders with heat dryers. WE wire our houses for calling bells and THEY introduce wireless security cameras. WE invest in stocks, shares, futures, gold, oil etc and THEY control the market.

WE (Corporates) get big expensive offices to accommodate big tables for CRT monitors and THEY introduce flat screens. WE buy their best push back chairs and THEY offer gas assist ergonomic chairs. WE get black boards and THEY say chalk is bad and introduce white boards and markers. WE put our data on their tape drives then big floppy's and then small floppy's and then Cd's and DVD's and pen drives, all the while changing systems accordingly as THEY deem. WE invest crores on switching to tube lights from incandescent and THEY introduce CFL's and white LED's. WE buy cycles and THEY introduce Segway's. WE invest in a new glass pane factory and THEY introduce float glass.

WE (Government) plan roads for cycles and 2 wheelers and THEY introduce cheap/efficient cars. WE widen roads for driving and parking their Suzuki's (Maruti) and THEY waste it all by introducing mini-truck sized SUV's.  When WE convert to LPG, THEY will introduce hybrids. WE mess our roads for their OFC and THEY introduce WiFi. WE upgrade our airports and fleet with their technology and their 400 seater planes and THEY introduce more efficient 800 seaters. WE buy their expensive mining equipment for coal mining and THEY introduce cheap nuclear power plants. WE build ports for their ships and oil tankers and THEY introduce QE's and Super Tankers. WE put up huge factories to make their rotary dial phones and their strowger exchanges and they invent digital technology and cellular phones. WE try to put satellites in space for remote sensing / mapping and THEY put an embargo on us and refuse to sell their hi-res cameras and then THEY put aerial maps free on the net. WE buy their steam locomotives and they introduce diesel electrics and bullet trains and Maglev's. WE buy their .303's, AK47's, tanks, missiles, fighters, aircraft carriers, submarines and THEY make it all redundant with stealth technology, smart weapons, ROV's and rewrite warfare.

(WE provide them thousands of acres of land, manpower, rail links, electricity etc, and THEY use their brains and do most of  this under our very own noses.)

This is a small scratch-on-the-surface list which all of us can relate to. It gets worse as we get to the brass tacks.

So what happens psychologically to an Indian planner is interesting. A phobia of the future sets in.
Do I buy this now? Do I commit myself to this technology? When will it become redundant? Can I then afford to reinvest? Do I wait for the latest? When will that happen?
Uncertainty and delays in the quest for stability galore.
This is what happened to the mass rapid transport system in Bangalore (and several other projects all over India). Metro? Elevated rail? Monorail?
The world is offering us the best. But what are they working on secretly to make these redundant in a few years?

WE use their shampoos, conditioners, hair colors and fairness creams to look like them. WE even try to talk like THEM. WE even use their computers in our ancient astrology to foretell our future. What more do THEY want? Why don't THEY just plan our future?

I am tired of being WE.

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An interesting aside:

The Golden gate bridge in the US was completed in 1937 ($1.3 million under budget) with 6 lanes for vehicles and a pedestrian walkway. Presently on an average day 118,000 vehicles cross this bridge and there were an estimated 250,851,833 registered passenger vehicles in the United States according to a 2006 DOT study.( I don't have figures for 1937, but there were 74 million in 1960. The number of motor vehicles in the US has risen by 157 million (212.16%) since 1960). How can they build a bridge wide enough for today's traffic 70 years ago?

(ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge 
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States)

Look at our Howrah (Kolkata) bridge. The older version Floating Pontoon Bridge was built in 1874 by Sir Bradford Leslie.

"bullock carts formed the eight - thirteenths of the vehicular traffic (as observed on 27th of August 1906, the heaviest days traffic observed in the port of commissioners" 16 day's Census of the vehicular traffic across the existing bridge). The road way on the existing bridge is 48 feet wide except at the shore spans where it is only 43 feet in road ways, each 21 feet 6 inches wide. The roadway on the new bridge would be wide enough to take at least two lines of vehicular traffic and one line of trans in each direction and two roadways each 30 feet wide, giving a total of 60 feet of road way which are quite sufficient for this purpose.......... The traffic across the existing floating bridge Calcutta & Howrah is very heavy and it is obvious if the new bridge is to be on the same site as the existing bridge, then unless a temporary bridge is provided, there will be serious interruptions to the traffic while existing bridge is being moved to one side to allow the new bridge to be erected on the same site as the present bridge".

(ref: http://www.howrahbridgekolkata.nic.in/)

The modern version was built by the Britishers between 1937 and 1943. The eight-lane bridge carries a steady flow of approx 150,000 vehicles, 4,000,000 pedestrians and thousands of cattle every day.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howrah_Bridge)


And then there is the Krishnarajapuram (Bangalore) bridge...........

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Our concept of social responsibility

I have already mentioned our inexplicable dependence on money. But see how adversely dependent we are. When ever there is a calamity, we always hear of NGO's asking for donations, either cash or kind. Most of us write a cheque, sleep peacefully. Wake up only when the scam breaks out and rue the fact that the money never reached the intended recipients.

Is this the only way of offering help?


Look at this photo.

Brad Pitt building houses for the poor in India.


How many of us can 'afford' to do the same?

Do It Yourself Club

Last time I ended with 2 comments. To discover the genius in you and the claim that I would offer a solution. Here is my take on the matter.

One thing I have experienced is that the average Indian is a very ingenious person. Even though not practically defined, the concept of self-help is innate in us too. But due to several socio-economic reasons, we have long suppressed this ability. My constant interactions with a varied range of people led me to believe that given an opportunity, every arm-chair critic will rise to the occasion.

My personal endeavour as an obsessive innovator confirmed the fact that we have no facilities to experiment.

That is why, I decided to start a Do-it-yourself club in Bangalore.

This will be situated on my farm which is about 23 kms from Bangalore on Kanakapura road.

Improve India

The best way to do this is by accepting there is a problem, several in fact. But if you are reading this, then you already have. There are several suggestions to improve India and they are right in their own ways.
But I have always believed, advocated and lived by the 'Self help is the best help' mantra.

Many of us want change. Change, for personal benefit or a social cause. Change, which has the power to alter ones own destiny or the future course of mankind. Change, which seldom happens due to several reasons, but rarely due to the lack of ideas. Everybody, right from the veggie vendor to the CEO of a MNC & their aunts have a thing or two to say about what's wrong and how to change it. But yet there is absolutely no change b’cos hypothetical ideas need a practical, physical form, else it is called bu @#%$ it .

It is true that there is an innovator lurking in all of us b’cos man is, by nature, a very curious and restless being. The quest for change & improvement is hardwired into all of us & is as old as mankind itself. We all have, at some point, been dissatisfied with the way things are. It is this dissatisfaction which has fuelled improvements (fire- tinderbox-strike anywhere matches- safety matches) & is the backbone of any invention.

But look at India. We hardly have any inventions to our credit. Does this mean we are a very content society? Not if you keep your ears open.

The general perception, wrongly though, is that we Indians want only social changes. Is this true? In a way, Yes. But the path to this change, crazy as it may sound, is technical. Technological solutions are tangible components and once in place applies to one and all, low and mighty, poor and rich, tall and short, Hindu or Muslim.

Submit yourself to a small test. Rage and Corruption are very prevalent in our society. Though seemingly unrelated, these two "social problems" do have a technical solution. Let us also assume for a moment that since modern man's (especially an Indian's) happiness is largely due to materialistic things, it is safe to say that, conversely, any anger or embitterment is caused due the lack of the same.

1. Rage, anger, road rage: Several manifestations of the same emotion, an emotion so strong that it has caused death & genocide and on a more personal scale, causes family discord, workplace friction and general unhappiness. But how is this a technical issue? Take an average day in our lives.

If there is a power outage, the rage caused by things like uncooked rice, discharged mobile, dead elevator etc., are not social but technological.

If my mo-bike needs several, shin-hurting kicks each morning, isn't my neighbour happier with a self starter equipped mobike?

If my fav Darshini irritatingly serves me inconsistent (light/strong) coffee, can’t this human-error-problem be solved with a simple volumetric dispenser for the decoction?

A more specific example. Notice how buses park randomly, blocking traffic. Wrongly assuming this to be a social problem, several attempts have been made to 'educate' the commuter to stand on the footpath, auto drivers to not park at bus stops and the bus driver to park next to the kerb and only at designated stops. But to no avail.

An associated problem of random boarding / alighting at signal lights & unscheduled stops as also dangerous foot board travelling was solved with expensive automatic doors. But the ability to control these doors was again vested with the same callous, couldn't-care-less driver. And he ended up subverting a good system by either not closing the doors or opening them at signal lights. And how did we 'Indians' react? Stop fixing buses with these doors thinking they did not serve the intended purpose. Whose fault was it? The door or the human behind it?

The solution to any social problem is a balance between usage of machines and humans. And it is also true that lesser the human interference, the better the efficiency of machines. This is the way the developed countries developed. If our approach had been technological, what would the solution have been?

Factor out the rarely ‘responsible, conscientious, Human’. Devise a simple system whereby these doors can be opened only at the bus stops. A very simple lever mechanism which is tripped to open the doors only if the bus is parked within a certain distance from the kerb and only at the designated bus stop. When the bus moves away, the doors automatically close. Like with trains & trams, you have created an exclusive corridor, sans the track. Human psychology does the rest.

When people realize that there is no ’adjust-maadi’ human in charge, other vehicles and people automatically keep off this area. The bus drivers have no option. Civic authorities will ensure proper tarmac. Its either that or ‘inoperable doors & no bus service’ . And the same commuters who stood on the roads will ensure adherence coz the machine can't be manipulated.

Simple, ingenious, cost-effective, long-term? But why hasn’t it been done yet? That’s because the people ‘capable’ of suggesting such change are busy assembling billion dollar imported toys to send to the moon, debating e=mc2 & The Big Bang Theory or building useless, outdated planes, tanks, guns & ships which even our own armed forces shun. The rest of us are busy financing this addiction for all things hi-tech and phoren.

2. Corruption: Corruption begins with the excess need for money and the most corrupt are the most inept. Why does this need arise? The average Indian is so helpless (or lazy) that his inability to solve any of his own problems forces him to rely on others and hence he ends up buying their services. This may sound farfetched and absurd, but it is a major part of the malaise.

If a mixie fails to work, the intelligent person analyses the problem, zeroes in on a loose connection, takes a screw driver and sets it right in 5 minutes flat, all for the price of a 'one-time-investment-on-simple-tools'. But most of us, including qualified engineers, prefer to lug it to the neighborhood electrician, take his word on the ‘serious’ problem and end up spending several hundreds. Multiply this with the many appliances, gadgets, furniture and automobiles we own & our spending on such trivia is enormous. The more you acquire, the more you spend on maintenance. Self help means less reliance on others, less services to pay for, lesser the expenses and hence lesser the need for money.

This is the DIY concept. A skill powerful enough to change our lives & society itself. DIY is the mantra for self reliance & self confidence. (Remember Gandhiji, the Charaka, salt satyagraha?) The move away from a buying society. It also ensures that people with theoretical knowledge acquire practical skills so that corrections can be made to the theory. The people with just skills have, unfortunately, limited or no knowledge, can’t upgrade b’cos they cant read, write, communicate or surf the net. This imbalance has to change.

If we make a honest analysis of our problems, we will realize, It is undeniably technology, its failure, its misuse or the utter lack of it which is the cause of many problems. And fuelling this problem is our inability to correct things.

Discover the genius in you. See how practical your ‘over-a-drink’, ‘improve-the-world’ ideas really are.

I am no arm chair critic. I will tell, what I feel we can all do, in my next post.