Food for Thought!

Photo: India Today

Photo:rediff.com

The combined population of just 6 metros of India in 2020:

Mumbai: 260 million

Delhi: 260 million

Calcutta: 185 million

Chennai: 88 million

Hyderabad: 86 million

Bangalore: 99 million

Most of this sudden jump is due to the continuing  influx of people from rural India  into these cities. Already the traffic is  choking and the air quality is  punishing. The dwellings are seeing a vertical growth and thousands of skyscrapers are coming up.  To accommodate these millions the governments are coming out with mass transport system of varied varieties. Roads are  widened  and the local governments fetch water for these thirsty millions  from far away locations. 

Simply fire fighting is on. Every one thinks that the number of sky scrapers found in a city is an indicator of 'GROWTH'. We call it as development.  Quite often Singapore is shown here as a model state.  Singapore is a small, heavily urbanized, island with just 714.3 square kilometers, whereas India is of 3,287,590 km². The Chennai city alone is of 1189 km. 

The suggestion is to reduce the population influx into these cities. One of the  options may be encouraging entrepreneurs to allow their staff to work from their homes. According to conventional estimates at least 50%  of the work done in our software parks can be executed from their own homes. If Arizona work can be done in New Delhi, why not the same from Rohtak or Bhiwandi? In such cases the salary can be a reduced one as the employees may not be spending much for their accommodation, transport and food much as they continue to live in their regular homes. We can make our traffic free as thousands of Volvo buses need not glide blocking the entire traffic. Also  the fuel consumption would be reduced resulting in less carbon release. Many more advantages are there in allowing the newly recruited employees from their homes. The productivity would improve as they are with their parents or families.  More money can be saved. Most important benefit is they save around 4 hours a day, which they may be spending in commuting and inhaling stale air. Soon this may become a law  in India mandating companies to allot and show at least  50% of their work done off-campus.

 Ironically we call all these concreted, radiating, land intensive, Ozone depleting, energy guzzling units as 'soft ware parks'. 

Where is the park?