The most incredible thing is that our country encourages public – private partnerships and also FDIs, and we do have land enough to unbolt new ventures all across our peninsulas, this would persuade the residents of those villages to work there and not cluster about in the metropolitans of the country and make more slums. It will also be a new destination for people to have more option to move about , especially the poor, in search of better economic and social conditions and have more option of employment other than fisheries and ship building, lots of construction and engineering work will be scheduled and thus a lot of employment options will be created.
And is it possible that in a high-tech village where such huge national and international projects are executed, be exclusive of schools and hospitals ? ofcourse not. Lets assume for example we convert karwar into a charter city. The government will put forward a proposal through the MLA in front of the locals of Karwar. Depending on the outcome of the votes implementation of the charter city will take place. If the city locals vote in favor of the charter city, they will then elect a charter commission board which will comprise of distinguished political bureaucrats and eminient industrialists of Karwar. They will then formulate a charter for the city which once after taking the approval of the citizens of karwar will be updated with the clerk. The copies of the charter will be submitted to the Secretary of State with (1) copies of all publications and notices in connection with the calling of the election; (2) certified copies of any arguments for or against the charter proposal which were mailed to the voters.
The time has come where instead of looking at the poverty of our nation with shame, we try to amend it, we have a solution right here.
The rules will not be very difficult to make, if we pursue the model of one set charter city and follow in its footstep , with a few modifications according to the constitution of our country here and there it will not be very difficult to implement.
We have an extremely warm and welcoming country, and we are always open to new modes of earning, im sure we will not have much of a problem.
With these charter cities in our country i can envision a nation which is prosperous and fair, and everybody will get equal rights and opportunities . e'l have rich people some less, but hardly any poor.
Lets make a better poverty free country!!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The reason I sought to talk about the charter of the Californian cities, is so that we have a better perceptive and an idea as to how are we are going to convert the ports and villages of the Indian coastline into charter cities. The 8,000 km long Indian coastline has 12 major ports and 181 minor/ intermediate ports out of which 139 are operable. Indian Ports are the gateways to India's international trade by sea and are handling over 90% of foreign trade.
The major ports are located at Calcutta/ Haldia, Chennai, Cochin, Ennore, Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva, Kandla, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, Tuticorin and Vishakhapatnam.
The 12 major Indian ports, which are managed by the Port Trust of India under Central Government jurisdiction, handle 90 percent of the all-India port throughput, and thus bear the brunt of sea borne trade. The 139 minor ports are under the jurisdiction of the respective State Governments. Dry and liquid bulk make up about 80 percent of the port traffic in volume with general cargo, including the containerised cargo, constituting the remaining traffic.
The Indian Government prioritized the expansion and modernization of ports as part of its five-year plan initiatives in 2007. It has been instrumental in redefining the role of ports from mere trade gateways to integral parts of the global and logistics chain. The Committee of Infrastructure constituted a Committee of Secretaries to recommend time-bound identification and complete connectivity projects to successfully address issues regarding port connectivity. Several projects are underway for the deepening of drafts at major ports as a part of the national maritime development program.
Although the ports in India have shown considerable improvement over years, benchmarking them against the ports in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Rotterdam reveals that there needs to be marked improvement in many parameters to get Indian ports at par with international standards.
The performance of Indian ports does not compare favorably with that of efficient international ports. On three important parameters- capacity, productivity and efficiency, Indian ports lack in comparison to some of the major international ports. In international terms, labor and equipment productivity levels are still very low due to the outdated equipment, poor training, low equipment handling levels by labor, uneconomic labor practices, idle time at berth, time loss at shift change and high mining scales and low datums.
Now we already have most of the ports in working condition, however we also have plenty of villages along the Indian coastline that are barren and not densely populated, if we are able to get the investments of private sectors into these barren villages and convert them into manamade modern cities then we can actually attract a lot of poor people who are clustering in the major cities in need of employment and better conditions to these places, hence spacing out the population of our country evenly instead of huddling in certain areas. So therefore instead of focusing on the poverty in India and how to change the rules of our country to support the poor lets move them somewhere with better rules.
Now I tried to dig in and I found out that we can have a lot of investments in these ports and villages which could boom the development of these places.
One such example is :
Magarpatta is a shining example of how urban areas can expand to accommodate the needs of urbanisation without hurting the interests of rural landowners through forced or unfair acquisition. Magarpatta is a 430 acre area located in the outskirts of the city of Pune, which itself is spread over an area of 60,000 acres. It has been part of the Pune Municipal Corporation since 1960, even though it was in the agricultural zone. Magarpatta has been developed over the past 10 years within the Pune metropolitan region as a modern sustainable urban habitat by the original inhabitants who were farming their ancestral land in that area.They have also attracted a lot of people from outside who have moved in as permanent residents. Today, with its emphasis on environment-friendly development, high quality of urban services, excellent modern facilities for education and health, and state-of-the-art working conditions, this city is home to over 35,000 residents and a working population of 65,000.
So yes charter cities can be formed in india, I found out that we already have some major projects under our belt –
• With capacities in traditional shipbuilding nations such as Japan, South Korea and Norway booked for the next few years, global fleet owners have started looking at new destinations such as China, India and Vietnam to build their ships. Indian firms are increasingly getting into ship building and repairing as shipbuilding orders are expected to rise significantly to meet the boom in seaborne trade and increased offshore oil exploration.
• India currently has a market share of just 0.5% of the global shipbuilding market. Indian yards such as ABG Shipyard Ltd., Bharati Shipyard Ltd., Larsen & Toubro, Cochin Shipyard Ltd., Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Tebma Shipyards Ltd. are looking to grab a bigger share of the global market and capture the space vacated by the closure of yards in Europe and other developed countries.
• Besides the location advantage that India enjoys since a large number of vessels sail through this part of Asia, Indian steel mills have started manufacturing steel plates used in shipbuilding.Earlier, shipbuilding steel used to be imported. Essar Steel is already manufacturing shipbuilding steel and plans to increase it with the commissioning of a 1.5-million-tonne plate plant in Gujarat next year.
• The government provided a 30-percent subsidy on value of ships built by Indian yards, which would sail under a foreign flag. The industry hopes this would be extended to help compete with their overseas competitors. This subsidy is also given to certain ships built for the local market. ABG Shipyard and its competitor Bharati Shipyard, which builds sophisticated offshore platform supply vessels, have started building rigs.
• Bharati Shipyard planning Rs2,000-crore shipbuilding joint venture on east coast
• Dubai ports world to invest $2 billion in Indian operations
• Dubai-based marine terminal operator Dubai Ports World (DP World) will invest $2 billion in its India operations.DP World operates five container terminals in the country and manages an estimated 40 per cent of the country’s container terminal operations.These include Chennai and Vishakapatnam on the east coast and Kochi, Mundhra and JNPT on the West coast.
• DP World owns the terminals at Kochi and Vishakapatnam while the Mundhra, JNPT and Chennai container terminals were acquired with P&O last year.
• DP World gained control of three terminals in India last year through its $6.8-billion acquisition of UK ports operator Peninsular & Oriental.DP World is eager to gain a presence in eastern India.
• India allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment for port development projects. It plans to raise 64 per cent of the proposed investments in ports from private companies. Container traffic is expected to clock growth rates of 15.5 per cent in the next five years and cargo traffic 7.7 per cent.DP World operates terminals in 24 countries.
These are just some of the projects, if these projects can be executed on not just the recognized ports but also the non recognized villages along the coast line it would give employment, residencey to an enormous mass
The major ports are located at Calcutta/ Haldia, Chennai, Cochin, Ennore, Jawaharlal Nehru Port at Nhava Sheva, Kandla, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, Tuticorin and Vishakhapatnam.
The 12 major Indian ports, which are managed by the Port Trust of India under Central Government jurisdiction, handle 90 percent of the all-India port throughput, and thus bear the brunt of sea borne trade. The 139 minor ports are under the jurisdiction of the respective State Governments. Dry and liquid bulk make up about 80 percent of the port traffic in volume with general cargo, including the containerised cargo, constituting the remaining traffic.
The Indian Government prioritized the expansion and modernization of ports as part of its five-year plan initiatives in 2007. It has been instrumental in redefining the role of ports from mere trade gateways to integral parts of the global and logistics chain. The Committee of Infrastructure constituted a Committee of Secretaries to recommend time-bound identification and complete connectivity projects to successfully address issues regarding port connectivity. Several projects are underway for the deepening of drafts at major ports as a part of the national maritime development program.
Although the ports in India have shown considerable improvement over years, benchmarking them against the ports in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Rotterdam reveals that there needs to be marked improvement in many parameters to get Indian ports at par with international standards.
The performance of Indian ports does not compare favorably with that of efficient international ports. On three important parameters- capacity, productivity and efficiency, Indian ports lack in comparison to some of the major international ports. In international terms, labor and equipment productivity levels are still very low due to the outdated equipment, poor training, low equipment handling levels by labor, uneconomic labor practices, idle time at berth, time loss at shift change and high mining scales and low datums.
Now we already have most of the ports in working condition, however we also have plenty of villages along the Indian coastline that are barren and not densely populated, if we are able to get the investments of private sectors into these barren villages and convert them into manamade modern cities then we can actually attract a lot of poor people who are clustering in the major cities in need of employment and better conditions to these places, hence spacing out the population of our country evenly instead of huddling in certain areas. So therefore instead of focusing on the poverty in India and how to change the rules of our country to support the poor lets move them somewhere with better rules.
Now I tried to dig in and I found out that we can have a lot of investments in these ports and villages which could boom the development of these places.
One such example is :
Magarpatta is a shining example of how urban areas can expand to accommodate the needs of urbanisation without hurting the interests of rural landowners through forced or unfair acquisition. Magarpatta is a 430 acre area located in the outskirts of the city of Pune, which itself is spread over an area of 60,000 acres. It has been part of the Pune Municipal Corporation since 1960, even though it was in the agricultural zone. Magarpatta has been developed over the past 10 years within the Pune metropolitan region as a modern sustainable urban habitat by the original inhabitants who were farming their ancestral land in that area.They have also attracted a lot of people from outside who have moved in as permanent residents. Today, with its emphasis on environment-friendly development, high quality of urban services, excellent modern facilities for education and health, and state-of-the-art working conditions, this city is home to over 35,000 residents and a working population of 65,000.
So yes charter cities can be formed in india, I found out that we already have some major projects under our belt –
• With capacities in traditional shipbuilding nations such as Japan, South Korea and Norway booked for the next few years, global fleet owners have started looking at new destinations such as China, India and Vietnam to build their ships. Indian firms are increasingly getting into ship building and repairing as shipbuilding orders are expected to rise significantly to meet the boom in seaborne trade and increased offshore oil exploration.
• India currently has a market share of just 0.5% of the global shipbuilding market. Indian yards such as ABG Shipyard Ltd., Bharati Shipyard Ltd., Larsen & Toubro, Cochin Shipyard Ltd., Hindustan Shipyard Ltd., Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Tebma Shipyards Ltd. are looking to grab a bigger share of the global market and capture the space vacated by the closure of yards in Europe and other developed countries.
• Besides the location advantage that India enjoys since a large number of vessels sail through this part of Asia, Indian steel mills have started manufacturing steel plates used in shipbuilding.Earlier, shipbuilding steel used to be imported. Essar Steel is already manufacturing shipbuilding steel and plans to increase it with the commissioning of a 1.5-million-tonne plate plant in Gujarat next year.
• The government provided a 30-percent subsidy on value of ships built by Indian yards, which would sail under a foreign flag. The industry hopes this would be extended to help compete with their overseas competitors. This subsidy is also given to certain ships built for the local market. ABG Shipyard and its competitor Bharati Shipyard, which builds sophisticated offshore platform supply vessels, have started building rigs.
• Bharati Shipyard planning Rs2,000-crore shipbuilding joint venture on east coast
• Dubai ports world to invest $2 billion in Indian operations
• Dubai-based marine terminal operator Dubai Ports World (DP World) will invest $2 billion in its India operations.DP World operates five container terminals in the country and manages an estimated 40 per cent of the country’s container terminal operations.These include Chennai and Vishakapatnam on the east coast and Kochi, Mundhra and JNPT on the West coast.
• DP World owns the terminals at Kochi and Vishakapatnam while the Mundhra, JNPT and Chennai container terminals were acquired with P&O last year.
• DP World gained control of three terminals in India last year through its $6.8-billion acquisition of UK ports operator Peninsular & Oriental.DP World is eager to gain a presence in eastern India.
• India allows 100 per cent foreign direct investment for port development projects. It plans to raise 64 per cent of the proposed investments in ports from private companies. Container traffic is expected to clock growth rates of 15.5 per cent in the next five years and cargo traffic 7.7 per cent.DP World operates terminals in 24 countries.
These are just some of the projects, if these projects can be executed on not just the recognized ports but also the non recognized villages along the coast line it would give employment, residencey to an enormous mass
Monday, December 6, 2010
Charter cities in the State of California
Let’s take an paradigm of consortium of charter cities in California and understand how it was put together –
Charter cities Vs general law cities –
The California constitution gives cities the power to become charter cities. The benefit of becoming a charter city is that the charter cities have supreme authority over “ municipal affairs”. In other words a charter city law concerning a municipal affair will trump a state law governing the same topic.
Cities that have not adopted a charter are general law cities. General law cities are bound by the state’s general law. Of California’s 478 cities, 120 of them are charter cities.
The charter city provision of the State Constitution, commonly referred to as the “home-rule” provision, is based on the principle that a city, rather than the state, is in the best position to know what it needs and how to satisfy those needs. The home-rule provision allows charter cities to conduct their own business and control their own affairs. A charter maximizes local control.
A city charter, in effect a city’s constitution, need not set out every municipal affair the city would like to govern. So long as the charter contains a declaration that the city intends to avail itself of the full power provided by the California Constitution, any city ordinance that regulates a municipal affair will govern over a general law of the state.
How to Become a Charter City?
To become a charter city, a city must adopt a charter. There are two ways to adopt a charter:
• The city’s voters elect a charter commission. The commission has the responsibility of drafting and debating the charter.
• The governing board of the city, on its own motion, drafts the charter.
In either case, the charter is not adopted by the city until it is ratified by a majority vote of the city's voters.
Foundational aspects of charter cities
What is the Constitutional Framework for Charter Cities?
Article XI, section 3(a) of the California Constitution authorizes the adoption of a city charter and provides such a charter has the force and effect of state law. Article XI, section 5(a), the "home rule" provision, affirmatively grants to charter cities supremacy over "municipal affairs." However, the California Constitution does not define the term "municipal affair."
What are "Municipal Affairs?"
The home rule provision of the California Constitution authorizes a charter city to exercise plenary authority over municipal affairs, free from any constraint imposed by the general law and subject only to constitutional limitations.
How Do the Courts Distinguish Between Municipal and Statewide Concerns?
Whether a given activity is a municipal affair over which a city has sovereignty, or a statewide concern, over which the legislature has authority, is a legal determination for the courts to resolve. Thus, the determination of whether a given activity is a municipal affair or statewide concern is done on a case-by-case basis. The court's determination will depend on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. Keep in mind that the concept of "municipal affairs" is a fluid one that changes over time as local issues become statewide concerns.
What Activities Have the Courts Classified As Municipal Affairs?
There are some areas that the courts have consistently classified as municipal affairs. Examples include the following:
• Municipal Election Matters.
• Procedures for Initiative, Referendum and Recall.
• Procedures for Adopting Ordinances.
• Compensation of City Officers and Employees.
• Processes Associated with City Contracts. (state law establishing employment policy may preempt local regulation of bidding criteria).
• Financing Public Improvements.
• Making Charitable Gifts of Public Funds for Public Purposes.
• Term Limits for Council Members. (regulating term limits).
• Land Use and Zoning Decisions (with a few exceptions).
What Activities Have the Courts Classified as Statewide Concerns?
The following have consistently been classified by the courts as matters of statewide concern:
• School Systems.
• Traffic and Vehicle Regulation.
• Licensing of Members of a Trade or Profession.
• Tort Claims against a Governmental Entity.
• Open and Public Meetings. Ralph M. Brown Act.
• Exercise of the Power of Eminent Domain.
What is in the Californian city charter?
While a city charter is not required to have any particular provisions in it, a city will often reserve for itself the greatest amount of power it can when it adopts a charter. To accomplish this goal, the charter must include a declaration that it is the intention of the city to avail itself of the full power provided by the state constitution to charter cities. However, the city is not required to extend the breadth of its charter any further than it wishes.
Some of the common areas that are explicitly regulated in a charter are:
• The date and conduct of city elections;
• Regulations on the appointment of municipal officials;
• The terms and payment of municipal officials;
• The process for removal of municipal officials;
• Form of government;
• Budget adoption;
• The number, pay, qualifications, and appointment of deputies, clerks, and other employees that each municipal officer will have;
• Sub-government in all or part of the city;
• The tenure of office for deputies, clerks, and other employees;
• The process for removal of such deputies, clerks, and other employees; and
• The constitution, regulation, and government of the local police force.
A number of California cities' charters are available online. The National Civic League also has a model charter project.
Process used to adopt a charter
There are two ways to draft and adopt a city charter. The first is to elect a charter commission. The commission then has the responsibility of debating over the provisions and the drafting of the charter. The other alternative allows the governing board of the city, on its own motion, to draft the charter. In either case, the charter is not adopted by the city until it is ratified by a majority vote of the city's voters.
When using the charter commission approach, the first step is to elect the commission. The vote to elect a charter commission is called for by either a majority vote of the city's governing body or by a petition signed by not less than fifteen percent of the registered voters within the city. If the formation of a charter commission is requested by a petition, the authority in charge of the city's registration records must verify the signatures on the petition. The expense of this verification must be paid for by the city's governing board. If the petition is verified, the city's governing board must call for an election in accordance with sections 1000 and 10403 of the California Elections Code. Cal. Gov't Code section 34452.
Once it has been decided that a charter commission election will take place, candidates for commissioners must be nominated. Candidates for the office of charter commissioner are nominated either in the same manner as officers of the city or by petition. A candidate for charter commissioner must be a registered voter of the city. After the election of commissioners, any vacancy on the commission will be filled by a mayoral appointment. Cal. Gov't Code section 34452.
At an election for charter commission members, the voters will vote first on the following question: "Shall a charter commission be elected to propose a new charter?" After voting on this question, the voters will then vote for the charter commission candidates. If a majority of the voters vote for the formation of a charter commission, then the top fifteen candidates for the office of charter commissioner will be organized as the city's charter commission. No commission will be formed if a majority of voters vote against the election of a charter commission. Cal. Gov't Code section 34453.
Once formed, the charter commission will have the responsibility of developing the city's charter. After a simple majority of commissioners have decided that the proposed charter is appropriate, they file the charter with the city's clerk in preparation for a vote by the city's electorate. Cal. Gov't Code section 34455. However, instead of sending the whole charter at once, periodically the commission may send portions of the charter to the city's electorate for a vote. Cal. Gov't Code section 34462.
After the charter (or portions of it) has been filed, it must be copied in type greater than 10 point and either mailed to all the voters of the city or made available to those citizens who wish to review it before the election. The city may show the difference between existing provisions of law and the new charter through the use of distinguished type styles, but this is not required. Cal. Gov't Code section 34456.
After the charter has been filed with the city clerk, the city's governing board must decide whether to call a special election or to wait until the next established municipal election to submit the charter to the voters. If the city's governing board determines that a special election should be held, then they must call for that special election within 14 days of the charter being filed. The special election must be set at least 95 days after the date from which the special election was called. Cal. Gov't Code section 34457. In any case, the charter commission must send the charter to the voters within two years of the vote that formed the commission. Upon the expiration of the two-year time period, the commission is abolished. Cal. Gov't Code section 34462.
The alternative to electing a charter commission is to have the city's governing board develop and draft the charter. An election to decide on the adoption of a charter may be called by initiative or the city council. Cal. Const. art. XI, § 3. On its own motion, the city's governing board may propose a charter and submit it to the voters for adoption. See Cal. Gov't Code section 34458. With this option, the governing board can call a special election or allow the charter to be voted on at any established election date, as long as that election date is at least 88 days after the proposed charter was filed with the city clerk. See Cal. Gov't Code section 34458. As a practical matter, an election may have to be called sooner than 88 days before the election in order to meet certain notice and ballot printing deadlines.
In either case, the majority of voters must vote in favor of the proposed charter for it to be ratified. The charter will not go into effect until it has been filed and accepted by the Secretary of State. See Cal. Gov't Code section 34459. After a charter is approved by a majority vote of the voters, the mayor and city clerk shall certify that the charter was submitted to the voters of the city and that it was approved by a majority vote. Cal. Gov't Code section 34460. One copy of the approved charter shall be filed with the County Recorder's office and one shall be kept in the City's archive. See Cal. Gov't Code section 34460. A third copy of the charter must be submitted to the Secretary of State with (1) copies of all publications and notices in connection with the calling of the election; (2) certified copies of any arguments for or against the charter proposal which were mailed to the voters; (3) a certified abstract of the vote at the election on the charter. Cal. Gov't Code section 34460.
How to amend or repeal a charter ?
If a citizens group, or the city's governing body, wishes to amend or repeal a portion of the city's charter, the steps remain largely the same as they are for drafting a charter. There are, however, two notable exceptions. First, the petition calling for the repeal or amendment needs only ten percent of the electorate's signatures, instead of the previous fifteen percent. Cal. Elec. Code sections 9215 and 9255. The other notable difference has to do with the charter itself. A city charter may establish different rules for the municipal elections process than those laid out by the state legislature in the Elections Code. If this is the case, the city's charter will govern the elections process used to appeal or amend the city's charter, instead of the general laws laid out in the Elections Code.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Creating More Hong Kongs in India..
"The idea is that rules—whether laws, social norms or corporate practices—matter a great deal in determining outcomes and so therefore we should seek innovation and improvement in rules exactly as we do in technology". - Paul Romer's TED lecture on charter cities.
Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we have developed and shown the world the progress of our country still whenever any nation talks about India they still see us as a developing, poverty stricken nation and my answer to this is they are right. People see in us only what we show them. The second you goggle poverty stricken countries, India is number 3 not very difficult to find. Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor now reside in India. If you take a look at the 2005 World Bank estimate 42% of Indians fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms 21.6 a day in urban areas and 14.3 in rural areas). How can we call ourselves a developed nation where a little less than half of the population of our country doesn’t have the basics that one needs for survival?
We keep hearing time to time that the government and some nongovernmental organizations are initiating several programs to alleviate poverty from our country, but the rate of success of these programs lies in this very figure “42% poor reside in India”. So the question lies whether we should wait for the government to come up with plans or programs to assuage poverty or we as citizens should come up with a hard core elucidation for this crisis.
I see one such solution, but this solution will bring about a revolution in our country. The road to any such big change is not easy there are lots of dynamics involved which together bring about the transformation. To influence people to come out of their comfort zones and try something new will not be a piece of cake. We live in a democratic country, we have certain rights and privileges, but our entire constitution is designed in such way that to bring about any new reform in the constitution, can take ages together. I believe that the only time people hear you is when you put into their ears a way in which they will reap more profits. Now the whole idea is to innovate a business sculpt which brings a revolutionized growth in all sects of our country.
The concept of “charter city” is what supports my above statement “These cities address global poverty by giving people the chance to escape from precarious and harmful subsistence agriculture or dangerous urban slums. Charter cities let people move to a place with rules that provide security, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life. Charter cities also give leaders more options for improving governance and investors more opportunities to finance socially beneficial infrastructure projects” as defined by Paul Romer.
Let’s look at geographical boundaries of our country from an eye of a designer, if we compare with all the continents on the planet our country has an exquisite form. Now the question arises, can we use this formation of our country to our pro or not. Yes we can, now the basic requirements of a charter city are an unoccupied piece of land and a charter, and this is where our first amendment transpires. Our very first charter is to find an unoccupied piece of land, in a nation where the population count is 1,173,108,000 (2010 est), this basic requirement might be a little difficult to accomplish but this cannot stop us from thinking about the alternatives.
The Indian peninsula, hemmed in by the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, boasts of a magnificent marine ecosystem. A combination of geo-morphological and climatic factors and the nutrients supplied by the rivers along the coast, make it exceptionally productive and biologically rich. Indian Coastline stretches across 8000 km. India has a significant marine fisheries sector that has long been an important source of employment and livelihood for coastal communities. A conservative estimate suggests that at least 3.5 million people derive their livelihood from marine capture fisheries in the over 4000 fishing villages situated along the Indian coastline, though other estimates put the number of people dependent on marine fisheries as much higher.
If you travel along the coastline of India you will notice that the population here is much lesser in comparison to the central part of the country. Most of the residents migrate to the planes in search of better jobs, more money and better education for their children.
So what I am proposing is- What if we convert the entire Indian coastline into a stretch of charter cities? So for this we will start with a charter that specifies all the rules that we need to build a charter city to attract the investors who will build out the infrastructure, the power system , the roads, the ports, the buildings, we need to attract firms that will hire the people who move their first. We will also need to attract families who instead of migrating to the plains, want to come and live there permanently. To make the charter city we need good rules that will be captured in the charter and choices for people. We also need choices for leaders, we need to allow potential partnership between nations or cities to grow. (For eg: India and Sri-lanka or Bangladesh etc) So if we allow these partnerships to foster we get the benefits of reducing poverty scale throughout the country.
Have you ever noticed that no matter how much we have developed and shown the world the progress of our country still whenever any nation talks about India they still see us as a developing, poverty stricken nation and my answer to this is they are right. People see in us only what we show them. The second you goggle poverty stricken countries, India is number 3 not very difficult to find. Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor now reside in India. If you take a look at the 2005 World Bank estimate 42% of Indians fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms 21.6 a day in urban areas and 14.3 in rural areas). How can we call ourselves a developed nation where a little less than half of the population of our country doesn’t have the basics that one needs for survival?
We keep hearing time to time that the government and some nongovernmental organizations are initiating several programs to alleviate poverty from our country, but the rate of success of these programs lies in this very figure “42% poor reside in India”. So the question lies whether we should wait for the government to come up with plans or programs to assuage poverty or we as citizens should come up with a hard core elucidation for this crisis.
I see one such solution, but this solution will bring about a revolution in our country. The road to any such big change is not easy there are lots of dynamics involved which together bring about the transformation. To influence people to come out of their comfort zones and try something new will not be a piece of cake. We live in a democratic country, we have certain rights and privileges, but our entire constitution is designed in such way that to bring about any new reform in the constitution, can take ages together. I believe that the only time people hear you is when you put into their ears a way in which they will reap more profits. Now the whole idea is to innovate a business sculpt which brings a revolutionized growth in all sects of our country.
The concept of “charter city” is what supports my above statement “These cities address global poverty by giving people the chance to escape from precarious and harmful subsistence agriculture or dangerous urban slums. Charter cities let people move to a place with rules that provide security, economic opportunity, and improved quality of life. Charter cities also give leaders more options for improving governance and investors more opportunities to finance socially beneficial infrastructure projects” as defined by Paul Romer.
Let’s look at geographical boundaries of our country from an eye of a designer, if we compare with all the continents on the planet our country has an exquisite form. Now the question arises, can we use this formation of our country to our pro or not. Yes we can, now the basic requirements of a charter city are an unoccupied piece of land and a charter, and this is where our first amendment transpires. Our very first charter is to find an unoccupied piece of land, in a nation where the population count is 1,173,108,000 (2010 est), this basic requirement might be a little difficult to accomplish but this cannot stop us from thinking about the alternatives.
The Indian peninsula, hemmed in by the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, boasts of a magnificent marine ecosystem. A combination of geo-morphological and climatic factors and the nutrients supplied by the rivers along the coast, make it exceptionally productive and biologically rich. Indian Coastline stretches across 8000 km. India has a significant marine fisheries sector that has long been an important source of employment and livelihood for coastal communities. A conservative estimate suggests that at least 3.5 million people derive their livelihood from marine capture fisheries in the over 4000 fishing villages situated along the Indian coastline, though other estimates put the number of people dependent on marine fisheries as much higher.
If you travel along the coastline of India you will notice that the population here is much lesser in comparison to the central part of the country. Most of the residents migrate to the planes in search of better jobs, more money and better education for their children.
So what I am proposing is- What if we convert the entire Indian coastline into a stretch of charter cities? So for this we will start with a charter that specifies all the rules that we need to build a charter city to attract the investors who will build out the infrastructure, the power system , the roads, the ports, the buildings, we need to attract firms that will hire the people who move their first. We will also need to attract families who instead of migrating to the plains, want to come and live there permanently. To make the charter city we need good rules that will be captured in the charter and choices for people. We also need choices for leaders, we need to allow potential partnership between nations or cities to grow. (For eg: India and Sri-lanka or Bangladesh etc) So if we allow these partnerships to foster we get the benefits of reducing poverty scale throughout the country.
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