Bangalore is famous around the world as India’s technology capital and the birthplace of its most innovative ideas. But visitors to the city are often struck by another side of life there: the awful traffic.
The city is the sixth worst in the world for traffic jams, according to a recent survey. Another showed India’s Silicon Valley was losing 600 million working hours a year to congestion, costing it 37 billion rupees (over $500 million) each year in lost earnings.
It’s a similar story elsewhere in India’s cities, where one study suggests that almost half of all drivers spend more than 12 hours a week stuck in their car. Yet another survey found that three of the 10 worst cities for traffic conditions were in India.
Bangalore and other Indian cities stand at the intersection of a global urbanization trend – by 2050, 70% of the world will live in cities, up from only 13% in 1900. That will put a tremendous strain on infrastructure.
Breaking the gridlock won’t be easy, because even if we invest hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure, we’ll struggle to bring mass transit to everyone’s front door. In fact, according to Deloitte, India’s 100 Smart Cities mission will require an investment of over $150 billion over the next few years – a sum of money that governments alone cannot pull together, especially in emerging economies, where urbanization is at its fastest.
But could part of the solution be found in Bangalore’s very streets?
A game-changer for cities
That may sound strange, but it’s not. Ride-hailing apps make it easy for people to share their vehicles, getting more people into fewer cars. Even better: it won’t cost the government any extra money, and it can make an immediate impact.
The Prime Minister has called the Smart Cities project a people’s movement. And to make it a success we have to involve as many people as possible to collectively work on smart solutions.
Of course, carpooling is not a new idea. People in India and elsewhere have been doing it for decades. The difference now is that ridesharing apps like Uber can instantly match passengers heading in the same direction at the same time. Powered by technology, it’s a model that works and can create impact at scale.
Over time, this could become a game-changer for cities, where hundreds of thousands of people drive to work each day on their own. In Delhi, more than 70% of private cars have only one passenger. There are over 2.7 million private cars on the streets, with just 60,000 of them on mobility platforms like Uber.
Smarter cities today
Around the world, outdated rules that distinguish between professional drivers (seen as good) and private drivers (bad) are holding back carpooling. That’s even true when private drivers have been through a background check, proven they are fit to drive and have insurance. By making sharing hard, governments end up forcing citizens into individual car ownership – at huge public cost.
The good news is that there’s increasing momentum for reform, with more and more cities introducing progressive regulations. In just over three years, nearly 70 states and cities in the United States have made the leap, and several states in Mexico and Australia have followed suit.
At the heart of these new rules is the belief that one citizen should be free to give another citizen a ride across town, so long as there are regulations to ensure that important safety and consumer-protection standards are met.
We now have the technology to make our cities more livable and less congested. But reducing our dependence on cars requires a cultural shift as much as a technological one. For decades, cars have been seen as a status symbol. Now attitudes are starting to change, with many Indians rethinking car-ownership and many more simply dropping the idea of buying a second car.
As cities in India consider ways to cut congestion, they should investigate laws that would encourage ridesharing. We don’t have to wait a decade to create the cities of the future. With progressive regulations and the technology already in our pockets, we can build mobility alternatives for smart cities of today.
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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)