Anagha Speaks

For days leading up to the Pune Bus Day, proposed on 1 November 2012 and even a few days after, I was grappling with the whole question of "what's really the purpose and what is its effectiveness?" I heard many arguments, almost all of them, against the concept of a Bus Day in Pune. Most argued that it was more about advertisement by Sakal Times. Most also spoke about 'what will be achieved in a day?'. Some even when to the extreme of suggesting that it is a way to fool us common citizens into believing that Puneites can suddenly shift to using Public Transport, thereby clearing up roads for others. From my own perspective, initially I was non committal. It looked and seemed like a good initiative, full of enthusiasm and 'feel good' factor. Citizens across Pune poured in wishes and money for the cause and thereby gave a general feeling of 'oneness' amongst Pune citizenry and a collective voice that seemed to suggest that Pune really needs...

  On September 27, 2012, Times of India carried a feature titled 'The Age of Urbanization' by Amitabh Kant, the MD and CEO of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation, and I am once again tempted to rake up the issue of compact, dense cities versus sprawling cities. To read the feature http://m.timesofindia.com/home/opinion/edit-page/India-must-modernise-its-cities-or-see-them-implode-due-to-rising-population-pressure/articleshow/16559510.cms The author in this TOI feature argues that Indian cities need to grow vertically to be able to sustain its natural resources and ensure greater efficiency in economic exchanges. All over the world, 75% of global economic production takes place in cities. Cities that occupy 3% of the land space and house 50% of the global population, also consume 75% of the available natural resources and produce and use 2/3rd of all greenhousegas (GHGs) emissions and energy. Actually, its quite exciting to read these statistics,...