It's time to rebuild India

In his speech at the 7th CWAB'Y Awards 2012, PRATAP PADODE, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director, ASAPP Media Information Group, urges the industry to take decisive action and rebuild our cities. Excerpts... The tallest building in Mumbai in the 1970s was Usha Kiran at Carmichael Road; now, we hear about projects like World One. Things are changing. Most of you must have seen Slumdog Millionaire. Good movie, though I didn't like the association of slums with Mumbai. But it's the reality. Today, in Mumbai, 54 per cent of the population lives in slums, another 20 per cent in dilapidated tenements. On an average in India, 25 per cent live in slums. There are 468 cities with a population of over 1 lakh. We have 54 per cent more people in slums today than in 2009. What about the next 15 years? There are 53 cities with a population of over 1 million in India. This is likely to rise to 87 in the next 20 years. Nearly 70 per cent of new jobs are likely to be created in urban India. We will also have 25 crore more people moving to cities in the next 25 years. The biggest role of cities lies in their contribution to the GDP. In 1990, 46 per cent of India's GDP came from cities. In 2013, 70 per cent is expected to come from cities. We are all aware of the trillion-dollar investment the government plans to make in infrastructure in the next five years. India needs about $600 billion investment till 2025, of which water supply, sewerage and waste management constitute 18 per cent. Our population density is also amongst the highest in the world. Around 27,000 people per sq m in Mumbai, 9,300 people per sq m in Delhi and 7,600 sq m in London - yet Indian cities are amongst the few without an elected representative managing urban development. They are also grossly undersupplied - we are almost 15 per cent lower than the WHO standards for water. We get only 50-100 litres of water in India per day and only 30 per cent of our sewage gets treated. It's time to rebuild India - to not leave things to the government, but actively voice our concerns. There is also an urgent need to build cities vertically and improve mass transportation.