Comments on: What’s Choking India

By: smichet

smichet — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 16:53:07 +0000

Projects such as the $90 million monument are valid stimulus plans. There are so many laborers required to build such structures, and in India, most of it is done by hand. For all the time that the construction takes, people will have jobs, families will get fed. For millions of people in India, life is on a day to day survival basis and while in the end, there needs to be a more long term solution, there’s still a long way to go, in the meantime short term solutions such as these projects are necessary.
As far as Indian megacities go, there needs to be a strong focus on WHY all the people are migrating. India has always had a dense population, but they were more evenly dispersed through the countryside. Villages are failing, there is no work. Global warming has caused drastic changes in the rain cycle and famine is widespread. People move to the city for lack of other options.

By: gauravusc

gauravusc — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:42:41 +0000

Thanks for the post. I’m not very familiar with Indian politics (though enough to have an opinion about Mayawati) but if not for grand blinders like Mayawati, did Mr. Kumar have any other option to vote into power…someone who would not do what Mayawati is doing? I think the problem ultimately lies in lack of education among the lower class of India, which the beasts like Mayawati feed off of. And the lack of education can be attributed to over-population and we have a never-ending cycle to fuel the rise of people like Mayawati.

By: Indian Megacities | Urban Planning Blog

Indian Megacities | Urban Planning Blog — Wed, 13 May 2009 17:56:31 +0000

[...] Atanu Dey, noted economist and widely-respected proponent of urban India points at the real culprits of urban problems. [...]