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Infrastructure
Development- Some
Food for Thought
-- Chetan Pandit
With
about 70% of the land holdings already smaller than 10 Ha
in size, agriculture is already close to supporting as many
livelihoods as it can, and as the population increases from
1000 millions to 1600 millions, most of the additional numbers
will have to seek their livelihood from the industry. Industry
requires good quality infrastructurewater, electricity and
roads, particularly if it is to be globally competitive.
As of now, water is not even considered "infrastructure".
However, a situation is emerging where water could be a
limiting factor for industrial growth. Storage and delivery
of water on a reliable basis requires similar capital intensive
works as required for generation and delivery of electricity,
and inclusion of water in the "infrastructure"
could help in a change in approach towards supplying water
needs of the industry. During the past 20 years or so, a
class has emerged that is opposed to any infrastructure
development, particularly in India. What initially started
as a movement against large dams, in the name of protecting
the environment and those displaced by dams, has now degenerated
into an opposition to any infrastructure work, as is seen
from the opposition to not only the dams, but also Kalpasar
a dam in the ocean; the Golden quadrilateral highway project;
Sethusamudram shipping canal, etc. This organized opposition
to infrastructure has to be identified for what it is, and
countered effectively, if India is to remain in the race
with other developing economies. Therefore, in addition
to all other constraints for development of the economy,
constraints which have already been extensively analyzed,
"organized opposition to infrastructure" should
also be identified as an emerging constraint, and addressed
squarely.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Auroville
Universal Township The
Future City
-- Subhasis Ray
Auroville
is a unique example of futuristic urban planning in human
history. Envisioned and guided by the spiritual forces of
the great Indian yogi Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, Auroville
is a living laboratorywhere experimentations are taking
place on every aspect of human life. Auroville aims to bring
in harmony in every sphere of urban lifeindustry, culture
and environment. The township has a central area called
Peace. This area is surrounded by a `galactic design' which
has four broad zones residential, industrial, cultural and
international. Each area will try to bring in harmony in
its own way while being guided by the ultimate goal of human
unity. The residential area experiments with eco-friendly
building design, pathbreaking architecture and sustainable
use of energy. The industrial area aims to utilize local
material and human resources (from surrounding villages)
to come out with products (food, pharma, energy, garments,
stationery) developed in a more sustainable way. The cultural
zone tries to blend in different art and cultural forms
and promote them as a way of spiritual growth. The international
zone will house pavilions from different countries, which
will showcase the guiding spirit of each nationality. Started
in 1968, Auroville today has 1700 residents from 35 different
countries. While the township is growing, questions arise
on the design suitability. However, it must be borne in
mind, that the entire effort is not to build just another
township, but to guide the builders themselves towards spiritual
evolution.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Mumbai
Urban Transport Project - Development and Challenges
--
P
Nair and Deepak Kumar
The
Suburban Railway system in Mumbai is perhaps the most complex,
densely loaded and intensively utilized system in the world.
Due to the magnitude of the project and the need for continuous
assistance and involvement of the Government of Maharashtra,
a separate corporation, the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation
(MRVC) was set up jointly between the Ministry of Railways
and the Government of Maharashtra. MRVC has made substantial
improvements in the Mumbai suburban railway system since
its inception, but it has to go a long way. This paper discusses
the developments and the challenges of MRVC and a brief
description of suburban systems of different Indian metro
cities has also been presented.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Designing
e-ffective Websites for e-governance
-- Neeta
Verma and Sonal Kalra
In
the world wide web regime, e-governance has assumed the
shape of `cyber governance'. E-Governance is being looked
upon as an accepted methodology in improving transparency
providing accurate and speedy information to citizens and
improving administrative efficiency and public services.
Lately, India seems to have realized, to its advantage,
that it is important to start early and learn fast in this
digital era of hyper growth. It would take a lot of commitment
and planned efforts on the part of the governments to make
the concept work and bear fruit.
©
2001 Neeta Verma and Sonal Kalra (www.cddc.vt.edu). Reprinted
with permission.
Broadband
as a commodity: A review
-- S
Latha
This
write up is a review on the study of the paper "Broadband
as a Commodity: Hong Kong, China Internet Case study".
The study was conducted by International Telecommunication
Union, Geneva. An effort is made to bring Indian situations
in appropriate places for comparative purposes. Since
development in Internet and Broadband has been considered
as an indirect measure of nation's economy and also social
development, International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
has made a study on the development of the Internet, particularly
broadband access in the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region of the People's Republic of China. In the study paper,
therefore, both China and Hong Kong are used to indicate
People's Republic of China. The same conventions are used
in this paper also.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Role
of Information Technology in Rural Development Towards E-Governance
-- N
R Ananthanarayanan and S K Srivatsa
India
is a successful model for the growth of E-Education and
Information Technology. In India, E-Education in the Information
Technology sector is vital. With technologies evolving ever
faster, people are required to learn new skills with the
prominence of E-Education in India. With the number of colleges
and equally well-managed government schools, the information
technology in education has been offered to the people as
a social need and this has helped in bringing out the top
class professionals in India. In India, computer literacy
rate is going up. E-Education can bring out and converge
the nation to grow up to the extent of Electronic Information.
The overall theme is, the steps required to be taken up
by the government to ensure enabling and empowerment of
people to facilitate mass scale spread of information technology
and its benefits to the country. This paper focuses on E-Education,
which leads to the formation of E-Government. E-Education
focuses on rural masses, and their standards of living.
Working group of information technology has come out with
the idea of promoting IT education to the rural masses.
Keeping IT awareness on education will motivate the people
to form a digital environment, which helps in the formation
of E-Government.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
on the Information Technology Act
2000 (No. 21 of 2000)
-- B
Krishnamurthy
The
IT Policy has been declared four years ago. But does it
actually mean in terms of practical application. Much of
IT activity is given over to the preparation of banking,
government and communication systems and the Internet. Another
very important section is e-governance and its urban area.
Some suggestions have been given as how it could have been
adopted into the network in the rural areas. Some aspects
of cyber regulation and licensing have also been discussed.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Impact
of Electricity Reforms on
the Performance of the Indian Power Sector
--
Leena
Mary Eapen
India
resolved to revamp the power sector with a series of reform
measures ranging from allowing private participation in
the power sector to restructuring and privatization of the
SEBs. This study critically reviews the reform measures
initiated in the Indian power sector during the past one
decade with the objective of evaluating its outcome. An
evaluation of the achievements of various reform measures
reveals that except in a few cases like improvement in Plant
Load Factor (PLF) the old problems still persist and the
states are finding it difficult to enforce the reforms.
The parameters used to assess the achievement of reforms
include (i) the extent of participation by private sector
in power development, (ii) the achievements of regulatory
commissions, and (iii) the progress and achievement of reforms
and restructuring of the SEBs. The data for the analysis
are collected from secondary sources.
©
2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
Book
Review
e-Government:
The Science of the Possible
-- J
Satyanarayana
©
2004 Prentice-Hall of India Private Limited. All Rights
Reserved. IUP holds the copyright
for the review. |
