[BolliBatlu]

Discussion here is in continuation of previous posts and hence will be focused around Karnataka.

Does India have enough environmentalists? Are they generating enough noise? I think India only has 'micro environmentalists'. These micro environmentalists focus just on micro issues.

Our environmentalists fight against copper smelting units. They are also against plastic. They don't want microplastics from tap water. They don't want people to consume microplastic particles in plastic bottles and advice to use copper vessels. They want copper vessels but not copper smelting industry. What is this? Do they want everyone to use earthernware? Can we produce enough earthernware for population of 120 crores without harming environment? The environmentalists themselves don't live without copper or plastic products and advice others. How many environmentalists use only non-motorized vehicles or public transportation? These type of environmentalists are good for hugging trees hence let us call them 'micro environmentalists'. Nonethless micro environmentalists are also important and serice to country at microlevel is also needed. The issue is micro environmentalists don't care of issues at macro level.

What are catalysts for a city's unbound industrial & population growth and hence its deterioration?

1. Being a capital city of a country or a state - Industries & people want to move to a city where all types of services are available easily including administrative ones. Gererally sound 'legal infrastructure' & other infrastructures will be developed in capital cities in a better way due to government investments.
2. Availability of 'research & training infrastructure' (or 'intellectual infrastructure') in abundance - The industries want research and training support hence prefer to move to cities where these facilities are available.
3. Easy availability of resources/ raw materials artificially - You can make resources available in selected cities of your choice economically artificially by subsidizing input goods resulting in economical & ecological losses to country.
4. Money poured on a city for building 'Economical Infrastructure' (mainly Industrial Infratructure) - If you pour money in any place of your choice in isolated infrastructure like houses or roads you may end up in ghost cities. It is important to create jobs also. (we have also problem of non-population growth inspite of industrialization which resulted demand for 'United States of South India').
5. Money poured on a city for building 'Institutional Infrastructure'
6. Money poured on a city for building 'Physical Infrastructure' (includes water, energy, housing, transportation, communication, environmental infrastructures)(resources/ raw materials listed separately in the third bullet point as it is decisive factor in discussion here)
7. Money poured on a city for building 'Social Infrastructure' (includes health, entertainment, educational infrastructures)(but 'research & training infrastructure' is listed separately in the second bullet point as it is more decisive factor or catalyst)

Last four infrastructures are listed in smart city guidelines.

Karnataka Budget 2019-20: Every move you make...

Experts and city planners have always advised that an mobility plan for Bengaluru was the need even decades ago. Anything from the Metro to a rapid bus system or footpath for pedestrians cannot be planned in isolation.

I am also expert. I am also saying anything in isolation with other regions of the state can not solve the problems of Karnataka's capital city. An integrated plan for Karnataka is needed. So for India to solve its tier-I city issues. (Only a city like Singapore can solve its problems in isolation as it is also 100% urban country. Do you want to follow Singapore Model? Then demand for independence and build peripheral fence road instead of peripheral ring road with guards on patrol.)

If you focus on isolated cities and pour money on them then more people will migrate to these cities like ants. If you don't want elephants or monkeys to enter human territories & bite on human food then you have to create food for them in forests itself. What we have created so far is vacuum in large parts of the country by pouring money on a few cities in isolation. Wherever money was/is poured people (as job generating industries also move to these cities due to availability of better facilities) from other parts have/will moved/move to that part as they are convinced that you are going to develop only those cities of the country. More money on a city means more migration to that city. Why are the government pouring money on already saturated cities and neglecting other cities?

What is happening with India is its tier I and a few more of tier-II cities are suffering from 'negative effects of economic agglomeration' where as most of other cities are suffering from 'nil economic agglomeration'. It is expected as 80% research & training institutes of central government are located in 10 mega cities of India. (Whether government is trying to create 10 Silicon Valleys in India? No. We have just generated 'Population Valleys'. And as discussed in earlier posts we don't need any Silicon Valley in India. Silicon Valleys are economically & environmentally costly solutions. We know how much should be the per capita energy consumption under Silicon City model.) All issues are due to the government funding anomalies. Good idea is to provide government sponsored 'research & training infrastructure' or 'intellectual infrastructure' in all 100 cities (and a few more) for balanced and sound development of India instead of providing these infratructure in just tier-I cities & a few selected tier-II cities. People move to places were jobs are there that is industries, industries move to places were 'research & training infrastructure' is there (economic infrastructure grows in cities were 'intellectual infrastructure' is available as they need better collaboration with each other). In this way 'research & training infrastructure' is one of main factor contributing to the growth of population focused around a few selected cities. Of course money poured on other infrastructure also play a role but not as important as 'research & training infrastructure'. In fact once you start building 'research & training infrastructure' every other kind of infrastructure will be developed by private sector except for a few non-lucrative like transportation. Wonder why private sector find it non-lucrative to develop 'research & training infrastructure' in places were 'resources/ raw materials' are available easily - the government has neutralized that advantage with freight equalization policy.

Do you know what has happened in response to my previous post on creation of business ecosystem in other cities of Karnataka? The state government is stating that by building 'Innovation Hubs' in these cities it will be done. Are they thinking people are fools to believe in it? The state government wants a Sports University. I had identified Madikeri as location of Sports University in my previous post. (Madikeri has similar kind of geography as National Sports University (NSU, a true a/c city of Karnataka as of now), Maipur and the central government did a good thing by building facilities for research on sports related technology in Manipur). First they changed it to Tumkur. Okay fine, no issue another city will be developed, no issue if they thought associated developments will spoil delicate ecology of Madikeri. But why they changed this also? Why the state government wants to open the university in its capital and create jobs there itself? Why not university go to say Gulbarga/Kalaburgi or Dharwad or Mangaluru? The government knows that a lot of Information Technology jobs can be created around sports technology area by building knowledge in this area. Hence the answer is Real Estate Mafia, which wants excess jobs to be generated in the state capital itself so that once again hot & spicy demand will be generated for its properties. That is all the reason. The government of Karnataka want to keep itself busy in an endless loop solving problems and creating problems in its capital city ignoring other parts of the state. The state government want to be in an eternal patch up loop for a single city. The central government is not different. It promised Skill University, International Air Travel, NMIZ for Gulbarga. Just promise. All money allocated in 2019 for Karnataka was only for projects in the capital city of Karnataka. Does Karnataka mean only its capital city? Isn't the mafia psychology that existed during Indira Brigade of emergency era is still continuing with support of all autocratic parties?

Do you know that if country's capital & 50% of the central government sponsored research institutes are shifted to smaller cities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar etc then Delhi's cancer will be cured & Delhi will go back to enjoy positive effects of economic agglomeration? Wonder whether doing this is costly or repairing Delhi is costly!

South India subsidises the North, where is the reward for development: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

The former Chief Minister of Karnataka could have asked the above question in many other ways

• South Karnataka subsidises North Karnataka, where is the reward for development?
• Upper class subsidises lower class, where is the reward for development?
• Upper caste subsidises lower caste, where is the reward for development?
• Majority subsidises minority, where is the reward for development?

"South Karnataka subsidises North Karnataka, where is the reward for development?" would have been a ridiculous question because the central and the state government spent huge amount of the national and the state money for building the infrastructure in Karnataka's capital city in South Karnataka and in a few satellie/shadow cities around it. One of important expenditure was on developing research & training facilities. As a result industries which needed these facilities started growing in the capital city starving the other regions. Freight equalization might have also helped the state's capital city though other regions of the state/country were rich in minerals and other raw materials. Result is raw materials transportation to the state's capital city from other parts of the state/country and then finished product back to other parts of the state/country. Wastage of transportation fuel leading to environmental degradation. Politicians just ask questions based on their vote bank requirements, for winning a local election they raise local issues targeting other regions of the country, and for winning national election national issues or issues on communal & casteist lines.

South India was blackmailing North India from the begining itself. South India became richer than North India due to blackmailing. And after becoming rich also it is continuing blackmailing. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. What is true for Karnataka's capital city is true for South India also. Unneccessary movement of raw materials and finished products across India - a contribution towards global climate change. Goes against principle of local production & consumption using local resources to achieve maximum environmental friendly living.

That is not the end of it. South India wants inter-linking of rivers. After other raw materials South India now wants water. This water has to be pumped against gravity as there are height differences. Wastage of energy to pump because industries are not located in regions where there is water & raw materials. If you look at just water movement Mumbai city gets not only raw materials but also bottled water from far off coastal Karnataka, Kerala etc. What was the need of filling this city with people in excess if the city does not have enough local resources to support its population? A waste on transportation and hence environmental degradation. What we want is a proper population distribution as posted earlier based on resources to minimize the transportation cost both moneywise and ecological cost wise.

Our environmentalists are lost in isolated issues at microlevel. What we want is a thinking based on integrated issues at macrolevel. For that we may need better & bigger data and aid from a better intelligence system may be artificial. I don't think India is planning for an integrated enterprise solution for addressing economy with environment. Our environment informatics system may not be good enough to have a full vision for planning and allocation of funds to regions and cities in such a way to optimize both economy & environment. Whatever, even these system can be manipulated by political power to suit their selfish benefits. India needs non-politicial macrolevel environmentalists acting as watchdog on these are required. Non-political because we have seen how 'India Against Corruption' agitation lead to formation of another 'Crony Corruption Party'. Every ideology has been manipulated by fascist looters. For that matter we have even organized 'charity mafia' running child trafficking, organ trade in the name of charity although the mafia as such looks non-political from outer appearance. Non-political, non-organized fight for environment may be the only solution. (Actually every unorganized ideology has tendency to become organized ideology and then to gain political powers irrespective of whether ideology is religious or non-religious). Hence, job of 'Smart Environmentalists' is to create 'Smart Voters' not 'Crony Environmentalists'.

Wonder why I had the title 'Smart India needs Smart Environmentalists' for this post & content around that title? Why I didn't choose 'Smart India needs Smart Economists' as a subject for this post? Anyone can wonder with me on many more such titles!