4 ms·

Neither am I, so take with two grains, but from an outside westerner's perspective, it seems the government is quite impotent. I was surprised to find how smal

Neither am I, so take with two grains, but from an outside westerner's perspective, it seems the government is quite impotent. I was surprised to find how small the roads are for New Delhi's size. If they can't raise better roads with their clear time saving advantages, perhaps millions of hours per day, it's hard to imagine how they can do much. In this case, the health of the entire population is at risk and the governments apathy rings through it all. If I had to guess, the cause could be due to how much focus is spent on non-secular issues. There is little time left for issues like better air, water, roads, etc... If this hurdle is cleared, you then have to get past the selfishness and corruption built into the system. Set your gods, ideology and your selfishness aside for half a minute so you can at least breath a little easier. It's going to take some work and sacrifice, but in reality it's not that bad.

Thriptic 8y ago
To be fair, many US cities also have severe transportation infrastructure problems which governments at many levels are too weak to address
- cobbzilla 8y ago
  Experience a traffic jam in Delhi first-hand and your analogy to US cities might acquire some nuance. It's really not even close.
- wil421 8y ago
  There’s a difference between government being too weak to address and the voters not wanting something. It comes up a couple times a decade in Atlanta and the suburbs vote against public train expansion. I see parallels with the housing issues in SF and California. How does a local government do something if their constituents flat out refuse it?
deepGem 8y ago
I am an Indian and I echo your sentiments. Federalism, which was supposed to work really well, is failing at all levels in our country. A single vision to move forward does not germinate and even if it does in one person's mind, it is impossible for that vision to see light of the day. Even a flagship project like the bullet train is unable to take off because of corruption at the grass root level (panchayaths and the like). In India, a vast majority of the population doesn't realize the growth by letting others grow concept. The predominant sentiment is to grow at someone else's expense, meaning I have to grow and others shouldn't or even if they did they have to grow less than me. This manifests in every step and walk of life. This leads to all sorts of corruption. Some guy who owns a key piece of land won't sell that land for a public project, just because a politician who doesn't want that project to succeed will back him up and prevent him from selling. This happened in Bangalore when a key arterial road was being developed. As soon as word got out, some local politician flooded a key government land with slum dwellers and overnight they occupied that land and prevented the road construction. Stories like this are the norm in any land acquisition. Of course there are exceptions, and that's how this country is seeing modest growths of 6-8%. I say modest because, our baseline is fairly low, as compared to other economies. I feel so bad, we have the highest inhabitable land mass of any country, some of the most fertile regions, no adverse weather in most parts, bio-diversity to die for. It's like someone handed this climate on a platter, yet we don't realize that. We are just destroying this paradise day by day.

Thriptic 8y ago

To be fair, many US cities also have severe transportation infrastructure problems which governments at many levels are too weak to address

cobbzilla 8y ago
Experience a traffic jam in Delhi first-hand and your analogy to US cities might acquire some nuance. It's really not even close.
wil421 8y ago
There’s a difference between government being too weak to address and the voters not wanting something. It comes up a couple times a decade in Atlanta and the suburbs vote against public train expansion. I see parallels with the housing issues in SF and California. How does a local government do something if their constituents flat out refuse it?

deepGem 8y ago

I am an Indian and I echo your sentiments. Federalism, which was supposed to work really well, is failing at all levels in our country. A single vision to move forward does not germinate and even if it does in one person's mind, it is impossible for that vision to see light of the day. Even a flagship project like the bullet train is unable to take off because of corruption at the grass root level (panchayaths and the like). In India, a vast majority of the population doesn't realize the growth by letting others grow concept. The predominant sentiment is to grow at someone else's expense, meaning I have to grow and others shouldn't or even if they did they have to grow less than me. This manifests in every step and walk of life. This leads to all sorts of corruption. Some guy who owns a key piece of land won't sell that land for a public project, just because a politician who doesn't want that project to succeed will back him up and prevent him from selling. This happened in Bangalore when a key arterial road was being developed. As soon as word got out, some local politician flooded a key government land with slum dwellers and overnight they occupied that land and prevented the road construction. Stories like this are the norm in any land acquisition. Of course there are exceptions, and that's how this country is seeing modest growths of 6-8%. I say modest because, our baseline is fairly low, as compared to other economies. I feel so bad, we have the highest inhabitable land mass of any country, some of the most fertile regions, no adverse weather in most parts, bio-diversity to die for. It's like someone handed this climate on a platter, yet we don't realize that. We are just destroying this paradise day by day.