We Want More

Last Friday evening (September 21), a number of Indians viewed the unfamiliar sight of their Prime Minister addressing them live on television. Yes them, directly. Some of them would have surely tuned in by choice, but others were caught by surprise as they flipped through channels at prime time.

Among the several things inexplicable about the largest democracy in the world is that its elected leaders, even the most popular ones, barely feel the need to converse with their constituents. The only predictable time that our Prime Minister talks to us every year is at 7 am on Independence Day. The people of India deserve better, don’t you think?

The ideal of a representative democracy is based on the notion that the elected representatives interpret and act on the expressed (and often unexpressed) needs of the society. There is an implicit bond of trust between the representative and the citizens, one which needs to be re-affirmed every once a while, especially when big decisions loom on the horizon.

Worldwide, the most popular public leaders are often the ones who talk to their constituents regularly, even weekly. In a long established tradition at the Whitehouse, US President Barack Obama releases weekly video recorded messages to the nation. President Obama has given out 169 such messages since he assumed office, each lasting for an average of four-and-half minutes, and adding up to a staggering 12 hours 19 minutes till date. The US President also gives a customary annual State of the Union speech at primetime, when a large chunk of the nation makes a point to tune in.

In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has been in office since 2002, gives a radio address to New Yorkers every Sunday morning talking about the most pressing issue facing the city, and sometimes their country, in simple and frank words. All of these addresses are recorded and made available on the Mayor’s website, so are the numerous press statements and videos of press briefings the Mayor holds every week. New Yorkers are rarely in doubt what their Mayor is thinking at any point in time.

In contrast, Friday’s speech by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an unprecedented effort by him to reach out directly to the nation after weeks if not months of cries from several quarters for him to speak up, not just on the recent big ticket policy decisions, but also on the corruption scams that have hit the news headlines nationally and globally. Until Friday, the PM relied on parliamentary speeches, infrequent press briefings, and written statements released on PMO’s website to get his message across to the people of India.

Friday’s speech was televised and webcast live by Doordarshan, and–for a first time for PMO–complimented by live tweeting, and a live Youtube feed that Google officials helped arrange. The speech was delivered at 8 pm, which meant that you didn’t have to put an alarm clock to listen to the PM this time. On the flip side, the exact time was revealed only around mid-afternoon via twitter.

The most popular global presentation forum, TED, gives twenty minutes to each of their presenters to talk about one big idea. At twelve-and-half minutes, the PM’s speech was a little too short to explain the rationale behind two big policy decisions taken last week that cracked up the UPA coalition and made the government run for cover: rise in prices of diesel and LPG, and opening up FDI in retail.

The PM made some very pertinent points linking both these issues to India’s macroeconomic condition, frequently using numbers to explain the need to reign in fiscal deficit, and to push back on declining economic growth. Interesting, but for most Indians in front of their TV sets, largely academic. They wanted to know how would FDI in retail affect them, how true was Mamatadi in claiming that these policies will hurt the poor? Alas, the PM’s explanations here lacked the same degree of punch. He claimed that FDI in retail will lead to more jobs, drive down wastage, and offer better prices to farmers and consumers. But stripped off any evidence or convincing arguments, these statements came across as mere claims, as unsubstantiated as those that UPA’s opponents are making.

Nevertheless, the PM’s message was cogent and well-articulated. It should be welcomed by everybody whose business does not involve trashing UPA 2 for every step it takes. The last year has been filled with acrimonious shouting contests, stalled parliaments, and a deluge of flawed or unsubstantiated arguments. The PM’s address was the first attempt to move the debate in a different direction.

For Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, this was a rare occasion when he took advantage of the bully pulpit that only being the head of a nation offers. As a widely admired public intellectual and the architect of the 1990s economic reforms, the ongoing policy debates are issues that the PM can and should lead the conversation on. In doing so, he might not only help reverse the tide of UPA’s declining popularity, but also make India a better representative democracy.

Book Review: ON WRITING by Stephen King

I bought On Writing by Stephen King–one of his rare detours into the world of nonfiction–earlier this year after a strong recommendation from Professor Kevin Coyne at the Columbia Journalism School. I was taking Kevin’s course on “Narrative Writing” then, and found him to be one of the best teachers I had come across at Columbia. It was in response to my question that Kevin recommended On Writing as one his favorite books that decode the art and craft of storytelling.

I bet few writers as successful as King, author of over fifty books, would be willing to bare their chest of their success mantra, if there is one at all. It is an endeavor that poses huge risk, for several reasons: you could come across as saying things that aren’t quite generalizable (as can be expected in a creative field), or as too preachy (do this because it worked for me), or worse, too superficial–one among the many new publications that come out every year promising to transform absolute beginners into great writers.

Thankfully, King suffers no such delusion. Published in 2000, King wrote On Writing not because a successful novelist has to have something to teach others about writing, but to show that popular novelists care about the language and craft of storytelling too.

True to his craft, King deploys the narrative of his own life to depict how he came to be a writer, and the lessons that stood him well through his incredible journey as one of the most successful American writers of his generation. A big reason why King’s book is a delightful read is the humility and camaraderie with which he approaches this task. Before you even realize, you feel like you have settled into a friendly chat with the author over coffee.

The first part of this book is written as a series of memories from King’s childhood as he grew up with his elder brother and single mother, struggling to make ends meet, in Maine, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Connecticut. Some of these memories seem to have nothing to do with King’s growth as a writer; yet they provide the backdrop that helps us better relate to King as a person.

Woven into this tapestry are vignettes that tell us the story of King the Writer: how he made his first buck at age seven selling four stories–quarter a piece–to his mom; how he got his first story published in a horror fanzine in his early teens; his first reporting assignment covering a high school basketball game for a local publication; his job as an English teacher in a small town in Massachusetts; and finally, after marriage, two kids, and a long spell of financial trouble, the sweet success of his first book Carrie in 1974.

In the second part of the book, King tackles the subject of writing and storytelling head on. This part is filled with little gems every few pages. King begins by using the metaphor of a carpenter as he advises, “To write to your best abilities, it behooves you t0 construct your own toolbox and then build up enough muscle so you can carry it with you.”

The toolbox should have multiple levels. The topmost level should contain the most common tools a writer needs–vocabulary and grammar. On the layer beneath goes form (the way you construct paragraphs), and elements of style. And underneath them all, are the tools of storytelling.

For each of these tools, King offers sound, practical advice. For example, on vocabulary, King says “It ain’t how much you’ve got honey, it’s how you use it.” On style, King gleefully concedes territory to the 1959 Strunk and White classic, The Elements of Style. He emphasizes the power of using active versus passive verbs, and cautions against the overuse of adverbs–frequently quoting popular writers to make his point.

At this point, King launches into an extended conversation–almost like a Q and A session–with the reader on questions he believes to be important to aspiring writers, but which rarely get asked. This is easily the section that makes On Writing stand out as a classic in its genre, and a must read for any beginner.

King lays out a four level hierarchy of writers: bad writers at the bottom, followed by competent writers, good writers, and finally, great writers. As King shares his pearls of wisdom in the next hundred pages or so, he is driven by a strong belief that “while it is impossible to make a competent writer out of a bad writer, and while it is equally impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, it is possible, with lots of hard work, dedication, and timely help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one.”

The surest Commandment King delivers is “read a lot, write a lot.” Simple as it sounds, it is the bluntness with which King says it that shows he really means it. King advises four to six hours of serious reading and writing a day, every day, predicting failure for any wannabe writer who cannot make time for that.

In subsequent pages, King shares personal details of his daily routine (he sets a daily target to write 2000 words and doesn’t get up until he’s done), addresses questions on what one should write (write what you like, and know best), his thoughts on description, dialogue, and character development, and his (probably unique) approach to building plots. The book ends on a personal note as King recounts his tragic road accident in 1999, and how writing provided him a vehicle to fight his way back.

The most important point King makes that underscores everything else is that successful writers, like all successful professionals, all share a deep passion and love for the craft. They write as much for themselves, as they write to be read.

Home Away From Home

The thing most wonderful about New York City is that most people know they will fall in love with it even before stepping into it. Yet, when they eventually do, it’s for reasons often unique to themselves.

For me, the last two years of living in New York have been filled with innumerable firsts – commuting in a subway system that runs 24 x 7, living through a real sub-zero winter, tobogganing in three feet deep snow, watching a baseball game, watching world’s best musicals and classical concerts, eating pani poori and kati rolls at roadside joints at three in the morning, hating and then falling in love with bagels, among many others.

But the two things about New York that have struck a special cord with me are its rich and fascinating history, and the way the city has re-imagined the concept of public space.

Thinking about it, perhaps the surest way to fall in love with a city is to fall in love with its history. I stumbled into New York’s history by accident – while waiting for my US visa interview at the American Embassy Library in Chennai. In search of an interesting way to kill a few hours, I decided to watch Ric Burns’ extraordinary eight part documentary series on the history of New York.

It’s a tragedy that cities with a history spread over centuries – like many in India – have very little written about them, while others enjoy the uninterrupted focus and dedication of historians in every generation. New York certainly belongs to the latter group. But then, for a 400 year old city, it has perhaps the most interesting histories of them all.

Ever since the Dutch occupied the city in the early 17th century, the city has been the epicentre of action on the American continent. Conquest by the British, and the war of the American independence in late 17th century; growth as a thriving economic centre and a regional transport hub in the 18th century; receiving massive waves of European immigrants, Tammany Hall politics, construction of iconic infrastructure such as Manhattan’s grid, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, and the world’s first electric distribution system in the 19th century; emergence as the cultural and financial capital of the world, witnessing an unprecedented skyscraper boom, economic fall and resurgence of the city in the 20th century; and finally, the tragic 9/11 disaster that marked the arrival of 21st century and the spirited response of the city – New York has seen it all.

It is almost impossible to live in the city and not marvel at the spirit, resilience, and imagination of the generations of people who have called New York their home. It’s for that reason that my favorite museum in the city, practically unknown to the tourists, is a museum dedicated to the past and the present of the city, Museum of the City of New York.

Yet another incredible aspect of this city is the way it treats its public spaces.

Most people would dismiss the idea of a big, dense, thriving metropolis with skyrocketing property rates as being capable of creating an ever expanding public space for its residents. Fortunately, New York was blessed with public leaders and visionaries who thought otherwise. For me, and presumably for most New Yorkers, the joy of living in New York does not come from being able to go to expensive concerts and restaurants, but from being able to visit and enjoy the vast number of its public spaces – small and large parks, playgrounds, waterfronts – for free.

The place that easily tops this list is the Central Park, deservingly called as “lungs of the city.” My fondest memories of the park are when I put its six mile outer loop to good use for my numerous training runs for the New York City Marathon 2010. But the park is so much more than a runner’s paradise. Walk into the Central Park on a summer weekend and you will be spoilt for choices: watching a free concert or a Shakespeare play; taking a boat ride; listening to one of the several solo musicians spread all over the park; sitting by the magnificent Bethesda fountain; joining a street dance party; or just relaxing on it lawns and reading a book – all of which I have done at some point. That a park designed in 1857 is still the most popular spot for its residents, and is visited by 35 million people annually, is the greatest testimony to the vision of its architects – Olmsted and Vaux.

But not all New Yorkers live close to Central Park or any of its other big parks. Enter Mayor Bloomberg with his ambitious PlaNYC 2030, which is working towards a vision where every New Yorker lives within ten-minute walk of a park. What’s remarkable is that, over the last few years, New York has made rapid progress towards realizing PlaNYC’s vision through supporting the creation of innovative urban parks like The High Line, and now, the LowLine.

But New York City isn’t just innovating how it creates new public space, it is also constantly innovating in the way it uses them. On a Saturday morning last August, I hired free roller blades to skate down Park Avenue – one of the busiest streets in New York. The street was shut for half a day under the “Summer Streets” program of the city government, so that residents could use this extra public space to run, bike, rock climb, and fly through the air on a zip line.

That summer, the city government partnered with Sing For Hope, a nonprofit, under the “Pop-Up Pianos” program to install 80 street pianos at locations across the city and to let anybody play them. Several of my lunch breaks when interning for the Mayor’s office last summer, were spent at a cozy spot in the City Hall Park, right next to a Pop-Up piano under use. It was at moments like these when, with little loving embraces, the city endeared itself to me.

A couple of months ago, I moved out of New York after completing my Masters at Columbia. In the few months that led up to it, I made frequent day trips to Washington, DC, most of which ended with a bus ride back into New York around midnight. Every time the bus approached Manhattan from New Jersey, I would sit still with my nose pressed up against the window, eyes staring far into the dark night, taking in as much of the glimmering Manhattan skyline as they could.

It was during one such moment that I realized this. For only the second time in my life, after a quiet little town in western India where I spent fourteen years of my childhood, I had found a place that I could call home. So what if it is as far away from my childhood town in distance, as it is in its character. It is, ultimately, a place that I can never get tired of, and a place I will always look for an excuse to visit: a home away from home.

Students from SIPA visit India, Meet Indian Prime Minister

(with contributions from my co-organizer Monoswita Saha, and trip participants – Eric Turner, Jiaming Ju, Adrian Talbott and Pablo Alfaro)

India has a way of wrapping its visitors into a bear hug of colors, smells, sights and sounds.  As the organizers, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the SIPA South Asia Association’s first ever SIPA India Trip was watching our 13 trip participants experience India for the first time.  Through their awe, surprise, appreciation, and delight, we saw India through fresh eyes once again.

Starting from January 5th 2012, in 11 days, we traveled from the orderly layout of Delhi to the enchanting city of Agra. We crossed the hectic streets of Mumbai in the quest for cool green coconuts, and finally, it was in Kerala, after a meeting with the chief minister, that time stopped for a moment.  We enjoyed the ocean breeze under the moon light, and quietly took in the sunset while lounging on a house boat in the beautiful backwaters.

Over the course of our trip, we met with ten of India’s foremost public and nonprofit leaders to learn from their experiences in tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Each meeting was as varied as each day we spent in India. Our first meeting was with the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, who framed the problems of India in the right context.

In our subsequent meetings, we focused on the micro realities, for example through site visits to primary school education initiatives run by Pratham in slums of Mumbai. Although India defies summarization, our participants have created vignettes on each destination that provide an overall flavor for the trip.

Delhi

On January 5, after a 25 hour long flight from JFK, fifteen weary Columbia graduate students landed amidst the thick fog of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. Despite the inauspicious weather, it was the start of a memorable journey – the first-ever, student-planned, student-led SIPA trip to this magical country. The group wasted little time.  Rest, it seemed, was for the weary. After a half-day of some quick sight-seeing, the group visited Hazrat Nizammudin Dargah, where we jostled our way amidst the crowded streets to view a Qawwali performance, a form of Sufi devotional music popular in South Asia that stretches back more than 700 years.

Next day, the country’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, surprised the group by making time in his busy schedule to welcome our group at his official residence for a twenty-minute question-and-answer session. From there, we quickly hustled to meet Dr. C. Rangarajan, Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister who gave us a crash-course lesson in the dynamics of India’s burgeoning economy. Our full day of meetings culminated with a session at a nonprofit called PRS Legislative Research, where one of the co-founders, Mr. Madhavan, explained their work on promoting transparency and accountability in the Indian Parliament through watch-dog research.

On our final day in Delhi, we met with Dr. Madhav Chavan, co-founder and CEO of Pratham, the largest NGO providing quality education to the underprivileged children of India.  The scale and efficacy of Pratham, and Dr. Chavan’s legacy, was virtually unfathomable: 2.4 million children had been reached through the organization’s Read India Program, 61,000 teachers had been trained, and 65,000 volunteers had been recruited in more than 47,000 villages across India to achieve this ambitious mission.

Agra

Even though our one-day trip to Agra was our shortest visit to any of the Indian cities, it left the deepest memories in all of us. Our journey began from our hotel at 5 am, watching the empty streets of Delhi while we headed to the train station. Once in the train, the “Brides and Grooms wanted” newspaper sections kept many of us busy. In Agra, we first visited Fatehpur Sikhri, capital of the Mughal Empire for a short time in the 16^th century under the reign of Akbar, and also a filming location for the Bollywood movie “Jodhaa Akbar” (highly recommended!). Soon thereafter, we were heading to the Taj Mahal.

“The Taj”, as it is called by the locals, surprised us with a sight even more beautiful and impressive than our initial expectations. We went into the Taj watching its white marble walls decorated with beautiful figures, made with semi-precious stones perfectly inlayed into the marble as if they were drawings. After taking hundreds of pictures trying to treasure all these memories (jumping, watching the horizon, smiling romantically, etc.), we addressed the impossible mission of getting the perfect marble souvenir at “the fair price”. We tried showing off our bargaining skills, but with limited success. Anyways, this marble craft was one of the most beautiful handicrafts many of us had ever seen.

Mumbai

Descending into Mumbai, with its sprawling slums and high-rise buildings lining the horizon, the contrasts with Delhi were immediately apparent. The weather was perfect for an afternoon tour that featured the Gateway of India, a public bus ride down Marine Drive, Gandhi’s residence in the 1920s, the seemingly endless open-air laundromat or Dhobi Ghat, and one of Mumbai’s most impressive structures, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.

Mumbai was an ideal setting to address major urban policy issues, which we had the opportunity to discuss with the city’s Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Subodh Kumar. As the leading policymaker for the city, Mr. Kumar emphasized the difficulty involved in managing a city with over 15 million residents, 53% of who live in slums. Soon after, we met Ms. Chetna Sinha and her colleagues from Mann Deshi Bank. They traveled for 10 hours by bus to meet us, and provided us with an overview of the microfinance services they provide to rural women entrepreneurs in India. Their bus also serves as the Mobile Business School for rural women. It was exciting to be able to board the bus, and observe participants learning computer processing skills side-by-side with women sewing handbags and other crafts.

Next day, we visited a relocation facility of the nonprofit organization – Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC), which advocates for housing rights of the neediest slum-dwellers and the homeless. This was followed by a visit to pre-school learning centres operated by the NGO Pratham in slums of Mumbai. The evening ended with a networking reception organized by the Columbia Alumni Association for our group. It was good to see many past and current SIPA students join us for this event.

Kerala

The warmth immediately embraced us upon our arrival in Kerala. The abundant coconut plantations, sweet sunshine and verdant landscape made Kerala the perfect final destination.  On our ride from the airport, communist flags and political banners signaled an upcoming election but were in strange contrast with the overall relaxed atmosphere.

At first glance, Kerala doesn’t seem to be a place of interest for policy wonks. But the state with the highest literacy rate and gender equality in India has been on the frontier of human development for years. We had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Oommen Chandy, Honorable Chief minister of Kerala. Mr. Chandy touched on challenges such as low growth, and the difficulty to maintain a healthy eco-system with a tourism driven economy.  To gain a different perspective, we visited the Center for Development Studies, India’s leading development economics institution. Here, Prof. Joseph Tharamangalam gave a historical overview of the Kerala development model, and suggested solutions to the challenges ahead.

Kerala is famous for its sandy beaches, flavorsome cuisine and unique culture. The mouthwatering fish fried in coconut oil, crunchy mango pickles and fresh stir-fry were a refreshing change from the curry dishes. The colorful Kathakali performance, Kalari Payattu (Kerala martial arts) and the traditional Ayurvedic massages gave us a sense of the incredible diversity and culture Kerala is home to. After a long bus ride, our trip ended with an overnight stay at a houseboat on the quiet and scenic backwaters of Kerala.

Should India Receive Development Aid?

(Cross-posted from The Morningside Post, November 18, 2011)

Last month, Japan announced that it will make significant cuts to its Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) program to other Asian countries, with the exception of one – India. Despite a declining economy and the twin calamities of the tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan has increased its commitment to fund development projects in India to the tune of $2.6 billion this year, making India the largest recipient of ODA funds from Japan for eight years in a row.

Japan’s decision underlines an important yet surprising trend in the murky and sometimes comical world of international development aid: as India continues to register strong economic growth and accumulates vast amounts of foreign reserves, it is rising to become world’s largest borrower of bilateral and multilateral development aid funds.

India’s sovereign external debt has risen steadily over the last decade to $ 78 billion, with an average growth of 18% over the last two years. Last year, India was the single largest borrower of funds from the World Bank ($9.3 billion) and the Asian Development Bank ($2.1 billion). Besides Japan, the UK too has been a longstanding bilateral donor to India. Notwithstanding the Euro zone crisis or its domestic budget cuts, UK recently announced a $1.6 billion aid package to India to be disbursed over next 5 years.

The other half of the story is even more interesting.

The Indian economy has grown at an impressive rate of 7 to 8% since 2000, resulting in growing national wealth and a rapid rise in government expenditure in infrastructure and social programs. Last week, India’s central bank reported a total of $320 billion held in foreign exchange reserves, making India the world’s seventh richest country by the size of its reserves, above Germany, South Korea, and France.

Over the past few years, India has steadily increased its aid commitments to countries in Africa and South Asia. This year, India confirmed its intention to join the ranks of big donor countries by announcing plans to set up its own development aid agency on the lines of USAID to disburse $11 billion in aid over the next five to seven years. If this wasn’t enough, India also decided to contribute $2 billion to the fund setup to fund bailouts of troubled Euro nations.

This paradox in India’s foreign aid policy has upset many analysts.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal’s blog, Rupa Dahejia questions the need for India to receive charity to build its roads when it can afford to splash money on Commonwealth Games, or for the World Bank to continue giving interest free loans to India when the money is more badly needed in the poorest nations of sub-Saharan Africa. The UK’s decision to extend aid to India was heavily criticized by its national media and politicians. Gerri Peev, writing for the Daily Mail, noted, “surely it is madness for us to be channeling precious funds to a country which… is the fourth largest economy in the world… and chooses to have prestige projects (nuclear and space programs) that are beyond our own means.”

Is India’s foreign aid policy really contradictory? Should India set its record straight, stop receiving outside development assistance and start financing its projects through its own money?  Perhaps not.

Even though India is amongst the world’s top emerging economies, over 40% of its population is still below the poverty line, far exceeding the number of poor in the entire sub-Saharan Africa region. In its 12th five year plan covering the period 2012 to 2017, the Planning Commission of India has outlined an investment need of $1 trillion in infrastructure. Undoubtedly, the government will face a tough challenge marshalling the resources to fund India’s development – social and economic – and will need to tap suitable external sources.

So the question boils down to this: What is the most efficient way for India to access global finance to fund its developmental needs? Against the popular perception, India receives very few grants or “free money”. Most of the development assistance channeled to India is in the form of long-term low interest loans.

It is true that unlike some countries, India has the option of raising funds directly from the capital markets by issuing sovereign bonds. However, India’s bonds do not receive the highest rating, and hence must pay a larger interest rate than bonds issued by the World Bank or ADB to raise funds that are eventually loaned out to borrowing countries. Simply put, it is cheaper for India to borrow from bilateral and multilateral donors than to raise funds directly. The difference in interest rates might not seem much, but adds up to significant amounts when the money being loaned runs into the tens of billions.

But what explains the fact that institutions like World Bank have steadily increased their loans to India, at the expense of funding other poor and more deprived nations?

The reality is that in today’s increasingly multi-polar world, countries tend to secure their interests through a complex web of bilateral relations and regional affiliations. Most multilateral institutions are battling to stay relevant, and see good reason in aligning themselves with countries like India that are fighting extreme poverty, yet have a significant say in shaping the future global economic order. Besides, with political turmoil in Africa and a deepening global economic crisis, India – with its excellent track record of debt repayment – is a more reliable borrower than other countries.

This leaves us with one final, and seemingly the most contradictory of India’s foreign aid policy decisions. If India is really serious about its development, shouldn’t it stop giving out vast amounts of aid to other countries, and use its scarce resources to fund its own road construction and anti-poverty programs?

India’s response here is better understood from the viewpoint of its national interest than a normative view of the country’s responsibility towards its citizens. Unlike the past, “bilateral aid” today is largely a political and diplomatic tool to advance the foreign policy interests of both aid-giving and aid-receiving nation. As India joins the league of the world’s top economies, it is eager to assert its dominance in the region and in the world. The world too sees a good trade partner in India, and is keen to have a counter-balance to the growing dominance of China. Hence it plays in.

Further, most critics who argue that India should spend all its money on internal development projects fail to acknowledge the biggest challenge that India faces – the sheer lack of capacity to implement large scale development projects. Earlier this year, in March 2011, India’s auditor general released an incriminating report which revealed that India is sitting on $2 billion worth of unused foreign aid for water supply and sanitation projects. In fact, during the period 2009-10, India ended up paying $16 million in fines to the World Bank and ADB for delay in utilisation of approved assistance.

“With such high foreign reserves and an open access to capital markets, surely India doesn’t need this money,” says Dr Arvind Panagariya, an economist and a professor at SIPA who teaches a course on Indian economy. Dr Panagariya is right. India doesn’t need this money, but it surely wants it. And the world has its own reasons to give it to India.

Hyderabad, an Emerging Model for India's Cities

(Cross posted from the article I wrote for SIPA's student blog themorningsidepost.com)

On Wednesday, 14^th September 2011, when Dr. Sameer Sharma, the Municipal Commissioner of the city of Hyderabad in India, walked up to deliver his speech at SIPA’s Global Mayors Forum, few from the audience had heard or known of Hyderabad as a model for India’s urban development. Yet, fifty minutes later, few were left with doubt.

Global Mayors Forum is an exciting series featuring leaders of the world’s most dynamic cities, and is sponsored by the Urban and Social Policy concentration at SIPA. Prior participants at the Forum have included Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City, Mayor Boris Johnson of London and Mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal of Karachi. Introducing Dr. Sharma at the 2011 Global Mayors Forum, Prof. Ester Fuchs, Director of Urban and Social Policy concentration said “Cities are the world’s most important laboratories for innovative policy making. This forum examines both challenges confronting global cities and also showcases visionary and creative leaders of these cities and the kind of policies that they pursue.”

Dr. Sharma, who belongs to the elite Indian Administrative Services (IAS) cadre of civil servants in India, spoke candidly about his experiences as a city manager, and the challenges he faced in making Hyderabad India’s best governed city. In just under two years, Dr. Sharma brought about sweeping changes in Hyderabad’s community participation structures, used technology to increase accountability of government officials, and harnessed the forces of globalization to propel Hyderabad’s long term economic growth.

Hyderabad, India’s sixth largest city with a population of 6 million, is the capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Over the past two decades, the city has earned reputation as a global IT destination and the nickname ‘Cyberabad’ after successfully attracting firms such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. However, the urban governance systems in Hyderabad exhibited similar shortcomings as all major Indian cities – poor service delivery and a highly centralized system of governance.

In 2009, soon after he returned from US with a Ph.D. in Urban Development at the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Sharma took over the office of the Municipal Commissioner of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. Under India’s urban governance structure, the Commissioner holds executive authority over a city and has powers far exceeding that of the Mayor. Dr Sharma used this opportunity to blend his prior experiences as a Municipal Commissioner (for the cities of Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam) in Andhra Pradesh with the theories he came across in his doctoral program, to initiate a variety of unique and innovative programs in Hyderabad.

One of these initiatives was the use mobile phones to increase government accountability. In a first-of-its-kind deployment anywhere across the world, the city of Hyderabad has built a web based Off Site Real Time (OSRT) monitoring system which relies on the inbuilt camera of a mobile phone and GPRS technology to match pictures of field level staff and their street locations with preset data, and register attendance. An anywhere, anytime accountability mechanism, the OSRT provides real-time information in solid waste management, urban planning, public works and street lighting to municipal managers and the citizens.

Another key initiative was the decentralization of local governance in Hyderabad to Ward Committees (similar to Community Boards in New York City) and Area Sabhas, or neighborhood associations. In determining which functions would be devolved, Dr. Sharma referred to the “Principal of Subsidiarity” – a commonly used concept in the theory of local governance. Given that participatory democracy is a new concept to India’s urban citizens, Dr. Sharma relied on 2009 Noble laureate Elinor Ostrom’s theory of “Rules in Use” when formulating the procedures through which these local participatory structures would function. The result has been a significant shift to bottom up decision making where public interest is constructed through local discourse. About 20% of the city’s annual budget is now decided through these new bodies.

While the community level decentralization project has been welcomed by citizens and NGOs, Dr. Sharma cautioned that the initiative is facing resistance from the city councilors, who are averse to sharing power and having citizens ask them questions about their work. The true test of Dr. Sharma’s initiatives will lie in the duration that they survive without being diluted or subverted by elected representatives, and whether if Hyderabad’s model inspires other cities across India to adopt similar programs. Nevertheless, this interaction with Dr. Sharma showed SIPA students how individual leaders with creative ideas can influence far reaching policies.

One down, Three more to go

“OH NO, one-fourth of our honeymoon is over!” exclaimed a friend as we walked out of a crowded Altschul Auditorium after finishing the much dreaded econ (read: Economics for International and Public Affairs) finals paper. While the joy and relief of having survived the toll of the finals was evident on most faces, it was accompanied by a queer feeling of disbelief how quickly our first semester at SIPA got over. Evidently most of us, and that certainly includes me, had fallen in love with life at SIPA!

It’s hard to imagine the insanity of the last four months at SIPA and New York City. Right from the time I left India in early August, I was consumed by this feeling of having to make the most out of my stay in US. After six years of (almost) non-stop work, two years of graduate study seemed like a nice long holiday and at the same time a unique opportunity to study and experience things that I had ever been wanting to! And so, as soon as I landed in NYC, I was up and about the business.

In the last four months, this was the story of my life in brief – lost a brand new smart phone in Central Park in Week One (Adversity builds Character, I am told), discovered the wonders of living at a place like International House, connected to old IIT friends in US and made some awesome new friends at SIPA from India, France, Brazil, Spain, US, NYC and California (friends from last two places insist that they be included in a list of sovereign states), credited 4 and audited 3 courses at Columbia (I did it coz I had to!), trained hard and ran the NYC marathon in 4 hrs (in the process, fell in love with Central Park – a runner’s paradise), got to learn about a fabulous non-profit called Union Settlement Association in East Harlem and raised $2000 for them through my marathon run, had a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas day experience (thanks to my host families), and finally, enjoyed my first sledding experience in the post-blizzard snow of NYC yesterday.

This is where I live - International House (Special gift if you can spot me)

Ran the NYC marathon 2010

Thanksgiving day meal with Coleman family, Connecticut

Christmas day celebration with Joyce family, New Jersey

Fun in post-blizzard snow in New York

(Picture Credit: Chitrangada Choudhary's Stellar Moments Inc.)

One of the interesting things I attempted in this period was trying to unravel the intricacies of US politics. Armed with a paper subscription to New York Times (surprisingly, that’s very old-school in US), I was determined to understand the seemingly complex interest-group ridden world of US politics. Like many in my generation all over the world, I found President Obama’s rise to power immensely inspirational. At the same time, I was keen to see how exactly he would set about fulfilling his lofty campaign promises and how American citizens would react to the same. A mix of factors – reading some brilliant thought-provoking reporting in NYT, midterm elections to the US Congress, a large focus on US policy in many of SIPA courses – have ensured that what started out as deep curiosity developed into a strong (maybe permanent) interest in following US politics. This also means, that I haven’t spent as much time as I would have liked to in keeping track (major controversies aside) of Indian politics. I need to work on that.

On the academic front, it has been a satisfying experience so far. I haven’t learned as much about policy issues all over the world (India excluded) in my entire life as I did in these last four months at Columbia. I think that was partly due to my deep interest in public issues in India and partly due to the inadequate reporting of international issues in Indian media. One of the wonders of US universities is that they are often (especially an ivy league like Columbia) the foci of world’s knowledge and attention – both explicit (library collections) and tacit (world leaders, faculty, guest speakers and students). When researching and writing a paper on failure of urban decentralization in India for one of my courses, I was amazed how the vast resources at Columbia made it much easier for me to research on an Indian public policy issue from here rather than from India. Every single journal article that I wanted to refer to was accessible online within 2 minutes and every single book within 2 days! As I settle down to a steady rhythm beginning next semester, I hope to make the fullest of the vast resources Columbia has to offer – wide range of course offerings, library, faculty, fellow students and innumerable talks held every single day.

A discerning eye would have noted a glaring exclusion from the what-I-did-last-summer list. Yes, I am referring to (truly) experiencing the myriad wonders of NYC – food, music, theater etc. Well, this is what I have dedicated my winter break to. J