Don't blink now

As soon as one drives out of a dazzling commercial complex towards a plush home in a gated community, all contours change. The skyline plunges as the shock absorbers and the suspension of the luxury sedan experience their toughest road challenge yet. The scenario is the result of our typical private-versus-public infrastructure contrast. Public infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the needs of the growth in the economy and the result has been the liberalisation of town planning acts and the emergence of the SEZ act, etc. Through this liberalisation, the government has managed not to carry the guilt of throttling the information technology sector as it let this sector grow unhindered. The sector built fancy buildings for offices and residential complexes to attract talent from overseas too. As the social infrastructure began to rise alongside to match the aspirations of the talent deployed, the stark contrast on display created an eyesore; the natural next step was building of townships, where both private and public infrastructure came under one command and planning. Lavasa, a hill station promoted by HCC (see picture on the cover of CW), went a few steps further. Under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning (MRTP) Act 40 (1), (B), Lavasa Corporation got the status of Special Planning Authority (SPA) in 2008. This legal provision gave it special permission to itself decide and approve what work it could do. Our cover story delves deep into the planning of townships. Resource planning is becoming a difficult challenge with uncertainties in commodity prices. The bigger diversified groups have therefore chosen to stay in control of these resources. The $30 billion Aditya Birla Group, which draws 80 per cent of its revenues from commodities, has decided to stay the course in its revenue mix even though its growth maybe inorganic in areas from cement and fibres to aluminium and chemicals. Reliance Industries, on the other hand, controls the cost at which power or fertilisers could be produced in the country. The recent decision to prioritise gas for power subsidised cooking gas, city gas networks and fertilisers at the regulated price of $4.2 per unit over steel has already put the legal eagles on alert as they pore over contracts that define obligations of gas supply. The steel industry is likely to be hurt if gas prices move north. Not only has the drop in the D6 KG wells output proven to be a great setback for the stock price of Reliance as is reflected by the drop in its consequent revenues but it also does not augur well for the growth targets set by the Planning Commission. Lack of resources can severely retard our projected growth. A power industry representative at our recent 3rd IndiaRail Conference, held in Delhi (organised by ASAPP Conferences, a division of ASAPP Media, publishers of this magazine) shocked the delegates by stating that the shortage of wagons in the railways was causing a shortage in supply of coal resulting in a shortage in the production of power! The good news is that elections in the five states are over and work is beginning to resume. West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are likely to see a strong surge in project orders as Didi and Amma have a lot of catching up to do for their states. Keep your eyes peeled now as there is no time to blink.