A New Manifesto for Urban Area Development and Living -India- 1

A good and "smart" City is where people rich and poor are able to work and play
comfortably. And strive for a dignified journey thru the 'bhavsagar', i.e. work for
"arth" and "kaam" in a "dharmic" way to achieve "moksha".

There is no gainsaying that our cities leave a lot to be desired : many are just
dumps. Successive governments having realized this reality have launched many
Urban Development and Rehab schemes, unfortunately with little effect.
Albeit, exploding populations have put paid to the gains made under all such
schemes. The current PM Mr Narendra Modi has elevated the level of concern in a
manner that is uniquely his own. Jury is still out after two and half years.

I suspect that philosophical insights underpinning the Urban Development policies

have run their course and need rethink from basics. Most urban development
insights and rules have been developed in the west, mainly USA and Europe.

Let's first consider a few vital physical parameters of India and USA.

Area Land Arabl Perm. Perm Forest Other Populat

e Crops Pastures s ion
M Sq M Sq Millions
Km Km
USA 9.833 9.147 16.8 0.3% 27.4% 33.3% 22.2 321
% %
India 3.287 2.973 52.8 4.2% 3.5% 23.1% 16.4 1252
% %

USA (9.15 Million Sq Km land) has 3X area than India (2.973 Sq M). India serves 4X
population of USA (1252 Million vs 321 Million).

Per unit of land, a finite resource, India supports 12 people vs 1 person that USA
supports. Europeans are also blessed with similar geographical advantage.

This miracle has mainly been possible for the fact that we are largely vegetarians,
who need about 3.5 times less agricultural area vs the largely non vegetarian
populations of USA. The rest of the difference ~3.5 times is made up by poor
nutritional intake by us and by intensive cultivation. Please note that the arable
lands of USA -153.7 Million hectares is comparable to India's 157 million hectares.

Therefore, Land is critical to our well-being and must be used wisely. Our Land use
policies must recognize these realities, but don't.
Hence the need to rethink our Urban Development Policies. Our cities must be
compact -to be inclusive, green, multi-utility infrastructure, habitat and facilitate
"swachhta". The cities must be compact to minimize commuting distances and
ensure faster commutes .