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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  ‘I would do more of what City Connect does, and in a grander way’
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‘I would do more of what City Connect does, and in a grander way’

Chennai City Connect director Raj Cherubal on what he would do with a billion dollars

Photo: AFPPremium
Photo: AFP

Each week, we ask people working in the field of public policy what they would do if they were given a billion dollars to spend on projects. What policy initiatives would they fund, and how would they spend this money?

This week, we spoke to Raj Cherubal, director of Chennai City Connect, a platform for industry associations and civic organisations.

If you have your own billion-dollar plan, send it to mintonsunday@livemint.com. Selected entries will be published online.

Here. Take a billion dollars. So, is that enough money to do anything substantial in public policy in India? Why or why not?

Public policy covers everything under the sun. I am interested in urban issues and that itself is a huge area. A billion dollars is a good start, but India requires billions more to implement serious reforms across the country.

Let me explain. Indian cities can be terrific places—in terms of culture, history, art, entertainment, etc. Fascinating, vibrant. But they can also be miserable places in terms of infrastructure, services, quality of public life, the state of housing and livelihood for the poor, congestion and pollution in all forms.

I don’t mean to be technocratic and brick-and-mortar oriented. Public participation and local democracy in teeming cities, more than anything, need systemic capabilities and infrastructure to be meaningful and inclusive.

Travel abroad, even to the so-called developing cities, not to mentioned advanced cities, and come back to our cities and you will be forgiven if you feel overwhelmed and depressed about the conditions in Indian cities.

Why are they in such a state? The glib, superficial answer is corruption, lack of culture among our citizens, and a general apathy among officials and the public. To me, however, all these are minor by-products of the real issue.

All the good cities I have been to have the capacity to deal with their issues. Capacity they built painfully, through trial and error (a lot of error), over decades, if not centuries.

India, since its formation as a modern republic and even before, has been a highly centralized system. Queen Victoria would send orders to the viceroy in New Delhi, who, in turn, sent orders to collectors in districts. Very little has changed in this model. An exaggeration, perhaps, but only by a bit.

After Independence, we were paranoid, with some justification, that power to states and cities would mean the break-up of India. But that thinking and centralized structure ossified and became part of our governing philosophy and outlook. It is only in the last 20 years, after liberalization and the era of coalition governments, that our states have real power.

But for decades now, our cities have been treated like little children, spoon-fed and never allowed to walk or run and learn. And we are paying a price for that.

In the meantime, pieces of rocks became Hong Kong. Land derogatorily called a “coolie colony" became Singapore. Cities ravaged by the terror of wars and violent ideologies became vibrant Budapest, Prague, Berlin and Munich, not to mention Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Cities in supposedly communist and centralized countries like China became world-class. Cities in democracies that went through their ups and downs, like London, New York, Paris, Chicago and San Francisco, have learned to become vibrant. Some very densely populated, some not.

And by the way, most of them had one or more giant river of sewage, but now, those are all clean, filled with fish and life. So, democracy, dictatorship, population, culture and all the other usual excuses we come up with for the current state of affairs fall flat.

It comes down to power and accountability at the city government level, which translates into capacity, over years and decades. Local governments have no choice but to deliver results and they are able to because they have the power to innovate, raise funds and respond to public concerns and desires. It is not magic from above, it is a painful process, one that takes years. And there is no substitute for it.

Urban public policy, to me, falls into two categories.

One, the ideas and policy frameworks that require a lot of thinking, debate, adopting, copying, adapting, inventing, and so on—but stuff on paper. Very important.

Two, brick-and-mortar pilots, equally important, but maybe more expensive. Given that we have hundreds of cities and towns, and that each of these cities are starting from very low capacity, $1 billion is a good start, but you have to use it to leverage for more.

What are some areas of public policy that you really care about? Feel free to go as micro as you want.

The micro-est I could go is urban quality of life for all—rich and poor alike. Imagine you are walking down a busy street in a city. What an ordinary citizen or visitor experiences in the best, most sought-after cities is the quality of life. They have their share of issues and headaches, but they pale in comparison to ours.

This quality of life is the result of detailed policymaking over the years, and complex interconnected systems of infrastructure and services in place behind the scenes.

Each city has an ideology, a philosophy of governance, not to mention debate on sustainability, inclusiveness, resilience and other hotly contested ideas. All this is translated into concepts, pilots and detailed project reports at a micro level, and master plans for each vertical: public participation, complaint management, water, streets, garbage, urban forests, parking, housing, zoning and more.

Each pillar and lamp post, each traffic light and junction, every drop of water and unit of electricity in a house or shop has layers of policy, monitoring, feedback and incentive mechanisms behind it. All of these are intertwined with other verticals.

To complicate matters, most modern solutions are counter-intuitive, using modern technology and principles that give feedback to citizens to nudge them towards better behaviour—in a broad sense of that word.

I am interested in all this. But obviously I am not trying to be an expert in all this. My interest is in facilitating and building capacity in other organizations so that solutions can be developed collectively. A one-man or a one-organization show won’t work.

So, what is your billion-dollar public policy idea? Why is it important?

Honestly, I would do more of what City Connect does, and in a grander way. And replicate it in other cities. Facilitate large networks of competent citizens and groups in the city who can then help build capacity to deliver the quality of life we deserve.

Some may rely on the efforts of individuals, and some the work of large national and international organizations. Some may be technical and scientific help. Some social or legal, or in the form of lobbying. Some need more money. Some need managerial and capacity building to deliver their work. $1 billion is a good start.

Urban governance means many interconnected verticals. And each one of these verticals—like streets or water—need serious scholarship and experience to be able to give sensible advice, over a long time, to local government. Both generalists and specialists are needed. And with fast-changing ideas and implementation worldwide, you need groups with serious hands-on experience to not waste city’s time.

Broadly, what can a billion dollars do for this particular area?

Broadly, there are four categories.

First, the paper stuff—policies, standards, modern rules and regulations, etc. Someone needs to be paid to write all this.

Second, large enough pilots to try and test on the ground and help scale. This, in turn, helps write or fine-tune policies and standards.

Third, communication with citizens to shape public opinion, help local governments have a two-way conversation with citizens, change behaviour, showcase sustainable, inclusive alternatives.

Fourth, public policy travel for officials and stakeholders. A well-planned study trip to another city for officials and policymakers is more effective than a million local seminars. Officials and civil society need to learn and teach others, and realize that other cities have gone through all these trials and tribulations. If they can do it, we can too.

Now, give us a sense of how you will spend this money? Be specific if possible.

Take one vertical—transportation. To a regular Indian citizen, this means congestion and pollution. If you are rich, it means getting stuck in traffic in your air-conditioned car. If you are poor, it means squeezing yourself into a third-rate bus or train.

The glib solution to this is widening roads, building flyovers or even an elevated road on top of all this mess. This will just move the mess from one junction to another, only to return to this junction after few days.

A modern city with capacity will work on carrots and sticks, implemented through layers of public policy.

Modern buses and metro rail networks, all tightly integrated. Common ticketing so you don’t look for change and stand in queues. Well-regulated and integrated para-transit. User-friendly pedestrian systems integrated with parks, pedestrianized zones, and seamlessly connected to bus stops, stations, malls, etc. All of these act as carrots, or incentives, to use public transport and pedestrian paths.

As for the sticks, essentially to disincentivize the liberal use of private transport: friendly but strict parking systems integrated with common ticketing smart cards, congestion pricing of crowded zones, and sensors and cameras to catch violators.

For all of this, we need streets that follow international standards because streets affect pedestrians and commercial establishments—including poor vendors—not to mention the links between streets and stormwater drains, electricity wires and water and sewage pipes. Public policy needs to take all this into account, and more—advertisement display, public toilets, vending zones, etc.

Apart from standards, rules and regulations for all of this, you need sophisticated terms of references and requests for proposal to get top-quality consultants and contractors. You need good PMC to monitor implementation. You need to ensure robust operations—carried out either by the government or private companies.

What about monitoring systems, and feedback to citizens and commuters? These need sophisticated systems, too. With the advent of smartphones and whatnot, city governments can send information to citizens on a real-time basis.

And there are more aspects to transport policy, such as switching to a modern, and very strict, driver training and licensing system, and implementing pollution controls and monitoring.

Step back a bit. Each stormwater drain should be connected to local ponds and wells to recharge groundwater, with mechanisms to prevent pollution. Roads can be designed to act as water channels in case of floods. Dirty city rivers could become transport corridors, and their banks become walking and cycling trails, with infrastructure in place to clean the water and provide a social and ecological space.

All this means hydrology data and analysis at both the micro and macro levels, not to mention pilots, scaling up the restoration of water bodies, and monitoring systems that include sophisticated analysis and sensors. Additionally, public and private lands need to be reclassified based on scientific research and ecological and social concerns.

All this means layers of plans, and not just a master plan. A transportation plan, a water plan, street plans, area-level plans, plans to tie all these together, and so on. For all this to be effective and sustainable, we need training programmes for the government staff and the citizens or organizations that work to implement the plans.

I have only scratched the surface of just two verticals. What about housing for the poor, garbage collection and disposal, and all the rest? Each branches off into yet more issues to tackle.

Modern cities have the capacity, build over decades, to seamlessly integrate and deliver infrastructure and services, and that is why you feel what you feel when you walk on their streets.

Local governments will need the cooperation of many local and international organizations to the city’s capacity. And these organizations need funds and support to sustain these efforts, year after year. Some will be start-ups, some established people and organizations.

Now, how do you finance all of this in sustainable manner? Do you want rely on funding from the central and state governments, as well as institutions such as the World Bank. But do you want to go begging to them for each brick and lamp post, or do you want to create win-win models of funding based on commercial development—malls and housing around transit corridors and stations, rent on which goes to the local government. Parking charges, progressive property taxes and municipal bonds can also be viable sources of income.

Also, why not market public policy like any commercial product using ads and marketing campaigns? After all, it is about changing minds and hearts. This can be expensive, but now that I have $1 billion, no problem.

What outcomes do you hope to see?

Cities that have daily, robust participation from the public, deliver a high quality of service, and improve data, plans and processes on a regular basis, but also are able to engage with outside expertise and institutions on a continuous basis so that they can keep looking out for the next big and better thing out there.

But to get there, we need policies to fall in place, pilots to become learning labs so that good solutions can be replicated across the city, and more. Visible and measurable change in the short and medium terms. Measurable leveraging of city funds to scale using this $1 billion.

What if I have you another billion? Would you keep spending it here?

Another billion means replicating the solutions to the easier issues in other cities, while taking up more challenging issues in the same city.

Housing for the poor, for instance, is probably one of the toughest public policy issues. You can imagine that piloting a solution here would be expensive. But $1 billion can buy serious experiments to see what models actually work.

In-situ construction with facilities in slums, housing vouchers, redevelopment of public buildings with dramatic changes in development control rules and building regulations?

Or can our pathetic and terribly underutilized train stations provide housing and shelter for the poor, but maintained and cross-subsidized by rent-paying offices and shops on top and around stations?

Or can we develop housing on the outskirts of the city, but with good economic and social infrastructure, not to mention cheap, high-speed transport so the poor can reach work and leisure in city without undue burden?

What actually works? Maybe all of the above or maybe some. We won’t know unless we dump slum-clearance-style models and start boldly experimenting.

The same goes for issues beaten to death with outdated policy sticks like education and health. I may also set up a global fund to offer muscular defence against human arrogance against the helpless. But that is the next $1 billion.

And finally, what if you had to just spend in on yourself? (Be decent.)

Public policy is ultimately about spreading maximum happiness to most. You can’t spread optimism and happiness if you are not genuinely optimistic and happy. And doing public policy anywhere, especially in India, can be a bit overwhelming and sometimes a downer.

So, for the sake of others, since I am a very altruistic man (just kidding), and now that I don’t have to work for money, my wife and I will backpack to exotic cities and beaches, stay in youth hostels, 10 days every three months. (She claims backpacking cannot be a full-time occupation, so I am not considering that.)

I will sample exotic beers, coffees and small portions of dishes. Every birthday, I will celebrate—wild parties with good friends in fun places.

I will satisfy a few not-so-expensive wishes my kids may have (the father may be a billionaire, but the kids need to experience the real world).

Local animal shelters will be fully funded, and the same goes for out-of-the-box social ideas from young people.

And to top it all, I will hire a personal trainer to wake me up early and put me through brutal, commando-style exercises every day.

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Published: 13 Feb 2016, 11:26 PM IST
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