Article: Fixing India’s city systems

[Vijay Patil]

Fixing India’s city systems Great cities successfully balance multiple demands by ensuring that their core city systems are robust

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy

Fixing India’s city systems Great cities successfully balance multiple demands by ensuring that their core city systems are robust

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy

Fixing India’s city systems
Great cities successfully balance multiple demands by ensuring that their core city systems are robust

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html

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So what will it take to make Indian cities livable, inclusive and vibrant? That our cities need fixing is visible. Citizens struggle with safety, commute and clean air. Migrants desperately seek affordable shelter and belonging. And investors rue falling productivity. The urgency to do this is also increasing. Politically, 380 million voters are demanding better quality of life even as India has to create space for the next 220 million urbanites who will be added by 2030. Economically, well-run Indian cities need to help states attract talent and investment. This implies that while a few new cities will be built (both specialist cities along the new industrial corridors and satellite towns around existing big cities), a renewal of the large 468 cities (with population over 100,000) and eventually of all the 7,932 census cities is a must. This renewal is a big effort. Where do we start? In reality, cities are complex systems. Good cities balance managing long-term strategic design choices with daily service delivery, smart prioritization of efforts with equitable focus on all citizens; and standardization of processes with localization of culture and character. Great cities do this by ensuring that their core city-systems are robust. The first four city systems that matter are governance, urban planning, resourcing, and accountability and participation. So how do our city systems rate today? The good news is that we now have a useful baseline. The 2nd Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS), conducted by Janaagraha across 21 cities reveals a stark picture with our cities scoring between 2.5 to 4.0 (compared with some global benchmarks of 10). But the survey also shows there are several quick fixes if we have strong political leadership. • Governance system: Cities are built by owners with clear political mandate. Yet India remains one of the few nations whose cities are not run by political leaders. The survey rewards Kolkata for its mayor-commissioner system but most big municipalities are still run by officers, usually with limited powers and short tenures. Even in smaller cities such as Bhopal, Dehradun, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Raipur and Ranchi, which have directly elected mayors with five-year terms, no mayor has created an integrated long-term spatial or economic plan for the city, a vision to create jobs, the service level they will offer their citizens, the infrastructure they will build for investors or a systematic budgeting process to prioritize capital allocation. • Planning and design system: The survey reveals that not one of the 21 cities has implemented its spatial development (master) plan. Plans, where done, miss basic concepts such as planned zoning, tailored norms for floor-space index or incentives for block-by-block redevelopment (as against individual plot improvement). The first sign of political will to fix our cities would be to see some of our larger cities smartly design, publicly share and then notify exciting master plans that picture what the city could look like in 10-20 years. • Resourcing system: Indian cities need to systematically invest an estimated $300 per citizen per year for the next 20 years. But our cities are cash-starved. The issue is not their balance sheet: each city can easily raise funds using traditional levers: smart land monetization, long-term debt, collected taxes and central grants. However, most don’t have land records, balance sheets or financial skills. As a result, per-capita capital expenditure is often insignificant. The survey shows that Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi spend as little as Rs.166, Rs.332 and Rs.509, respectively, per citizen every year. Our cities also lack talent and human resource. Running our cities could create millions of valuable jobs across different skill levels. For example, Bangalore and New York city halls have similar populations to serve, but employ 10,000 staff versus 400,000 employees. Moreover, their teeth-to-tail ratio is very different. Specialist skills are missing in Bangalore. • Accountability and participation system: Our citizens have no voice and don’t get to know how their cities run. Sixteen of the 21 cities surveyed have passed the community participation law, but only Hyderabad has constituted area sabhas (councils). Cities also disclose very little about their performance. Pune runs an annual participatory budgeting process, and Surat publishes its weekly expenditure details on its website. These are the only instances to celebrate. Most cities do not even have audited annual financial statements, even when the public disclosure law demands they share this. In fact, accounts are rarely closed in time. But where can citizens go to complain? Only Thiruvananthapuram has a local bodies ombudsman. No wonder citizens have little hope from their city administration. Indian cities will create jobs and drive economic growth only if they attract talent and capital. As we renew our existing cities and design new cities, we need to fix the invisible city systems. ASICS 2014 is a useful diagnostic tool for a city to identify where to start and get working examples from across cities in India. Now for some city owners to pick up the challenge. Ireena Vittal is a former partner at McKinsey & Co. Comments are welcome at thei...@livemint.com

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy

http://janaagraha.org/asics/report/Pune-Card.pdf

So what will it take to make Indian cities livable, inclusive and vibrant? That our cities need fixing is visible. Citizens struggle with safety, commute and clean air. Migrants desperately seek affordable shelter and belonging. And investors rue falling productivity. The urgency to do this is also increasing. Politically, 380 million voters are demanding better quality of life even as India has to create space for the next 220 million urbanites who will be added by 2030. Economically, well-run Indian cities need to help states attract talent and investment. This implies that while a few new cities will be built (both specialist cities along the new industrial corridors and satellite towns around existing big cities), a renewal of the large 468 cities (with population over 100,000) and eventually of all the 7,932 census cities is a must. This renewal is a big effort. Where do we start? In reality, cities are complex systems. Good cities balance managing long-term strategic design choices with daily service delivery, smart prioritization of efforts with equitable focus on all citizens; and standardization of processes with localization of culture and character. Great cities do this by ensuring that their core city-systems are robust. The first four city systems that matter are governance, urban planning, resourcing, and accountability and participation. So how do our city systems rate today? The good news is that we now have a useful baseline. The 2nd Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS), conducted by Janaagraha across 21 cities reveals a stark picture with our cities scoring between 2.5 to 4.0 (compared with some global benchmarks of 10). But the survey also shows there are several quick fixes if we have strong political leadership. • Governance system: Cities are built by owners with clear political mandate. Yet India remains one of the few nations whose cities are not run by political leaders. The survey rewards Kolkata for its mayor-commissioner system but most big municipalities are still run by officers, usually with limited powers and short tenures. Even in smaller cities such as Bhopal, Dehradun, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Raipur and Ranchi, which have directly elected mayors with five-year terms, no mayor has created an integrated long-term spatial or economic plan for the city, a vision to create jobs, the service level they will offer their citizens, the infrastructure they will build for investors or a systematic budgeting process to prioritize capital allocation. • Planning and design system: The survey reveals that not one of the 21 cities has implemented its spatial development (master) plan. Plans, where done, miss basic concepts such as planned zoning, tailored norms for floor-space index or incentives for block-by-block redevelopment (as against individual plot improvement). The first sign of political will to fix our cities would be to see some of our larger cities smartly design, publicly share and then notify exciting master plans that picture what the city could look like in 10-20 years. • Resourcing system: Indian cities need to systematically invest an estimated $300 per citizen per year for the next 20 years. But our cities are cash-starved. The issue is not their balance sheet: each city can easily raise funds using traditional levers: smart land monetization, long-term debt, collected taxes and central grants. However, most don’t have land records, balance sheets or financial skills. As a result, per-capita capital expenditure is often insignificant. The survey shows that Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi spend as little as Rs.166, Rs.332 and Rs.509, respectively, per citizen every year. Our cities also lack talent and human resource. Running our cities could create millions of valuable jobs across different skill levels. For example, Bangalore and New York city halls have similar populations to serve, but employ 10,000 staff versus 400,000 employees. Moreover, their teeth-to-tail ratio is very different. Specialist skills are missing in Bangalore. • Accountability and participation system: Our citizens have no voice and don’t get to know how their cities run. Sixteen of the 21 cities surveyed have passed the community participation law, but only Hyderabad has constituted area sabhas (councils). Cities also disclose very little about their performance. Pune runs an annual participatory budgeting process, and Surat publishes its weekly expenditure details on its website. These are the only instances to celebrate. Most cities do not even have audited annual financial statements, even when the public disclosure law demands they share this. In fact, accounts are rarely closed in time. But where can citizens go to complain? Only Thiruvananthapuram has a local bodies ombudsman. No wonder citizens have little hope from their city administration. Indian cities will create jobs and drive economic growth only if they attract talent and capital. As we renew our existing cities and design new cities, we need to fix the invisible city systems. ASICS 2014 is a useful diagnostic tool for a city to identify where to start and get working examples from across cities in India. Now for some city owners to pick up the challenge. Ireena Vittal is a former partner at McKinsey & Co. Comments are welcome at thei...@livemint.com

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy

So what will it take to make Indian cities livable, inclusive and vibrant? That our cities need fixing is visible. Citizens struggle with safety, commute and clean air. Migrants desperately seek affordable shelter and belonging. And investors rue falling productivity. The urgency to do this is also increasing. Politically, 380 million voters are demanding better quality of life even as India has to create space for the next 220 million urbanites who will be added by 2030. Economically, well-run Indian cities need to help states attract talent and investment. This implies that while a few new cities will be built (both specialist cities along the new industrial corridors and satellite towns around existing big cities), a renewal of the large 468 cities (with population over 100,000) and eventually of all the 7,932 census cities is a must. This renewal is a big effort. Where do we start? In reality, cities are complex systems. Good cities balance managing long-term strategic design choices with daily service delivery, smart prioritization of efforts with equitable focus on all citizens; and standardization of processes with localization of culture and character. Great cities do this by ensuring that their core city-systems are robust. The first four city systems that matter are governance, urban planning, resourcing, and accountability and participation. So how do our city systems rate today? The good news is that we now have a useful baseline. The 2nd Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS), conducted by Janaagraha across 21 cities reveals a stark picture with our cities scoring between 2.5 to 4.0 (compared with some global benchmarks of 10). But the survey also shows there are several quick fixes if we have strong political leadership. • Governance system: Cities are built by owners with clear political mandate. Yet India remains one of the few nations whose cities are not run by political leaders. The survey rewards Kolkata for its mayor-commissioner system but most big municipalities are still run by officers, usually with limited powers and short tenures. Even in smaller cities such as Bhopal, Dehradun, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Raipur and Ranchi, which have directly elected mayors with five-year terms, no mayor has created an integrated long-term spatial or economic plan for the city, a vision to create jobs, the service level they will offer their citizens, the infrastructure they will build for investors or a systematic budgeting process to prioritize capital allocation. • Planning and design system: The survey reveals that not one of the 21 cities has implemented its spatial development (master) plan. Plans, where done, miss basic concepts such as planned zoning, tailored norms for floor-space index or incentives for block-by-block redevelopment (as against individual plot improvement). The first sign of political will to fix our cities would be to see some of our larger cities smartly design, publicly share and then notify exciting master plans that picture what the city could look like in 10-20 years. • Resourcing system: Indian cities need to systematically invest an estimated $300 per citizen per year for the next 20 years. But our cities are cash-starved. The issue is not their balance sheet: each city can easily raise funds using traditional levers: smart land monetization, long-term debt, collected taxes and central grants. However, most don’t have land records, balance sheets or financial skills. As a result, per-capita capital expenditure is often insignificant. The survey shows that Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi spend as little as Rs.166, Rs.332 and Rs.509, respectively, per citizen every year. Our cities also lack talent and human resource. Running our cities could create millions of valuable jobs across different skill levels. For example, Bangalore and New York city halls have similar populations to serve, but employ 10,000 staff versus 400,000 employees. Moreover, their teeth-to-tail ratio is very different. Specialist skills are missing in Bangalore. • Accountability and participation system: Our citizens have no voice and don’t get to know how their cities run. Sixteen of the 21 cities surveyed have passed the community participation law, but only Hyderabad has constituted area sabhas (councils). Cities also disclose very little about their performance. Pune runs an annual participatory budgeting process, and Surat publishes its weekly expenditure details on its website. These are the only instances to celebrate. Most cities do not even have audited annual financial statements, even when the public disclosure law demands they share this. In fact, accounts are rarely closed in time. But where can citizens go to complain? Only Thiruvananthapuram has a local bodies ombudsman. No wonder citizens have little hope from their city administration. Indian cities will create jobs and drive economic growth only if they attract talent and capital. As we renew our existing cities and design new cities, we need to fix the invisible city systems. ASICS 2014 is a useful diagnostic tool for a city to identify where to start and get working examples from across cities in India. Now for some city owners to pick up the challenge. Ireena Vittal is a former partner at McKinsey & Co. Comments are welcome at thei...@livemint.com

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy

So what will it take to make Indian cities livable, inclusive and vibrant? That our cities need fixing is visible. Citizens struggle with safety, commute and clean air. Migrants desperately seek affordable shelter and belonging. And investors rue falling productivity. The urgency to do this is also increasing. Politically, 380 million voters are demanding better quality of life even as India has to create space for the next 220 million urbanites who will be added by 2030. Economically, well-run Indian cities need to help states attract talent and investment. This implies that while a few new cities will be built (both specialist cities along the new industrial corridors and satellite towns around existing big cities), a renewal of the large 468 cities (with population over 100,000) and eventually of all the 7,932 census cities is a must. This renewal is a big effort. Where do we start? In reality, cities are complex systems. Good cities balance managing long-term strategic design choices with daily service delivery, smart prioritization of efforts with equitable focus on all citizens; and standardization of processes with localization of culture and character. Great cities do this by ensuring that their core city-systems are robust. The first four city systems that matter are governance, urban planning, resourcing, and accountability and participation. So how do our city systems rate today? The good news is that we now have a useful baseline. The 2nd Annual Survey of India’s City Systems (ASICS), conducted by Janaagraha across 21 cities reveals a stark picture with our cities scoring between 2.5 to 4.0 (compared with some global benchmarks of 10). But the survey also shows there are several quick fixes if we have strong political leadership. • Governance system: Cities are built by owners with clear political mandate. Yet India remains one of the few nations whose cities are not run by political leaders. The survey rewards Kolkata for its mayor-commissioner system but most big municipalities are still run by officers, usually with limited powers and short tenures. Even in smaller cities such as Bhopal, Dehradun, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Raipur and Ranchi, which have directly elected mayors with five-year terms, no mayor has created an integrated long-term spatial or economic plan for the city, a vision to create jobs, the service level they will offer their citizens, the infrastructure they will build for investors or a systematic budgeting process to prioritize capital allocation. • Planning and design system: The survey reveals that not one of the 21 cities has implemented its spatial development (master) plan. Plans, where done, miss basic concepts such as planned zoning, tailored norms for floor-space index or incentives for block-by-block redevelopment (as against individual plot improvement). The first sign of political will to fix our cities would be to see some of our larger cities smartly design, publicly share and then notify exciting master plans that picture what the city could look like in 10-20 years. • Resourcing system: Indian cities need to systematically invest an estimated $300 per citizen per year for the next 20 years. But our cities are cash-starved. The issue is not their balance sheet: each city can easily raise funds using traditional levers: smart land monetization, long-term debt, collected taxes and central grants. However, most don’t have land records, balance sheets or financial skills. As a result, per-capita capital expenditure is often insignificant. The survey shows that Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi spend as little as Rs.166, Rs.332 and Rs.509, respectively, per citizen every year. Our cities also lack talent and human resource. Running our cities could create millions of valuable jobs across different skill levels. For example, Bangalore and New York city halls have similar populations to serve, but employ 10,000 staff versus 400,000 employees. Moreover, their teeth-to-tail ratio is very different. Specialist skills are missing in Bangalore. • Accountability and participation system: Our citizens have no voice and don’t get to know how their cities run. Sixteen of the 21 cities surveyed have passed the community participation law, but only Hyderabad has constituted area sabhas (councils). Cities also disclose very little about their performance. Pune runs an annual participatory budgeting process, and Surat publishes its weekly expenditure details on its website. These are the only instances to celebrate. Most cities do not even have audited annual financial statements, even when the public disclosure law demands they share this. In fact, accounts are rarely closed in time. But where can citizens go to complain? Only Thiruvananthapuram has a local bodies ombudsman. No wonder citizens have little hope from their city administration. Indian cities will create jobs and drive economic growth only if they attract talent and capital. As we renew our existing cities and design new cities, we need to fix the invisible city systems. ASICS 2014 is a useful diagnostic tool for a city to identify where to start and get working examples from across cities in India. Now for some city owners to pick up the challenge. Ireena Vittal is a former partner at McKinsey & Co. Comments are welcome at thei...@livemint.com

Read more at: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/RZTXE17aRfBx3jx5BwyoFJ/Fixing-Indias-city-systems.html?utm_source=copy