Must watch Google Trend - India online search trend in last 4 crucial hours of demonetisation!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Interest over time ......while US election results are also awaited!!

If "Law of Physics" is working in your piece of Art or Architecture...

..then you know you are going in the right direction!

From Wonderful Classical Art to Good Design to Amazing Architecture, one thing is common that is "Law of Physics" which is and should be ever-present there to make it a success. If Gravity is acting on you, it can and should act on your Piece of Art or Architecture as well. Though Gravity is just a simple example here to explain the impact of Physics on Art or Architecture.

A page from the old Notebook

Art without true reflection of natural physical laws is like making a portrait of someone sitting in front of you and assuming that there is no force of gravity acting on your subject of art or may be your subject is floating in the air or something. Remember the good old classical art works from master artists, with beautiful bulky art subjects of individual or group portraits?

There is another way to look at it as well, that is; you can also make a successful art or architecture by beating the gravity or natural laws itself, like an architectural work having an appearance of floating in the air. No matter what, a good design revolves around the law of physics whether going with it or challenging the Natural Laws, Laws of Physics!

Next time you are bullied tell them you are on an exponential learning curve!

Is it "the right time" for education system to introspect on its evaluation and certification process?

You see, you have been bullied every now or than for apparently no good reasons especially in your early growth phase as you can recall from your childhood memories and being bullied even today while you undertake every new challenge. Take a pause and rewind, being bullied for not performing as well as the next bright child in your class or neighborhood, not been able to memories the obvious answers to the obvious questions asked in the endless class tests, being bullied for not performing financially as well compared to people with similar background in life.

Let’s see what's the DNA of this bullying business and has it any significance in the light of the fact that learning and absorption capacity of a person is mostly independent of their childhood performance due to several unknown and very unpredictable environmental influences and opportunities available in one's life as they grow compared to limited and intentionally restricted options available/ provided to them in early childhood. Has it any significance at all in today’s rapidly changing world with emerging technologies, accessible and free resources of knowledge and why this business of bullying should fade away real fast, at least why its high time for the same to happen. Let’s see why the boundaries of education system should and will disappear very soon.

If you will closely observe the peripheral resources of learning available today while tracing the chronological changes in streams of information dissemination and future possibilities of technological infusion in informal learning process which all cumulatively presenting a new and broadened learning process, this informal learning process is getting so inclusive, so fast every passing day that it will make your head spin. These informal learning tools are mostly ignored in education process at present. 

Let’s look at the parallel growth in education system, which apparently seems way behind the real life real time pace of development when it comes to learning process - internet, smart phone, social networking just couple of examples though, you know! Unfortunately none of these wonderful tools of information exchange and knowledge transfer which have become core of everyone's everyday life are in the priority list of education system at all, and neither going to be an area of interest or exploration very soon for them, rather they will make sure that this plethora of life changing tools shouldn't get into the education system in the name of discipline, in the light of childhood vulnerability! Of course you need some kind of regulatory mechanism.

If we go with the current ideology of educational evaluation system then people in their life should be arranged in the exact same order of professional success as they were arranged in their school or graduation class, as evaluated based on their marks gained, based on their knowledge of the curriculum, but take a look around and you will realize it’s not true, it can’t be and it will never be true. The current evaluation system doesn't acknowledge the real potential of individual; they just care about the part of potential confined to their established boundary of curriculum, including peripheral limited activities like cultural and sports participation, ignoring the future environmental influences especially technological ones.

Present educational evaluation system seems somewhat flawed and bit dangerous as well; this whole process of establishing and certifying who has what capacity at the very early stage of individual's growth period while the growth of a person is directly proportional to what kind of opportunities he or she received in post schooling or later part of educational or personal life. Imagine a hypothetical situation in which an institution firmly establishes this fact that some particulate child has capacity of a D+ grade performance in primary or high school level, imagine if he or she could not get through selection process of a good school at secondary or higher secondary level and hence could not further got enrolled in a good university because of that D+ grade. Now imagine, what if that same child becomes extremely knowledgeable and efficient few years down the line after completing primary or high school education possibly due to new environmental influences, due to the latest learning tools and vast knowledge resources available today, what if he or she is the first one to grasped and master the latest tools of learning and research, what if that D+ grade student is technically the soundest candidate for higher secondary or university entrance but couldn't secure admission just because some institution had long back established and authoritatively certified the poor grade of student based on some skewed benchmark. A dream might get devastated due to early certification of knowledge on a discreet fragmented evolution system often within a limited bandwidth of educational framework. Couple of questions for you to answer - Can you justify assessment establishing poor performance of a geek child in cultural and sports activities or visa-versa? Can you justify assessment based on questions asked in class tests, answers of which you can find out in less than 20 seconds in Google? Can you justify bullying of that poor student who does not know the one word answer of that textbook question, when he or she can find out a precise and elaborate answer of that question within seconds while learning much more in the process only if you could have allowed him or her to use their smart phone? What’s the validity of asking such questions today and what is the validity of educational assessment based on such questions today at all? Don’t you think it’s the right time for the education system to introspect?

Mutation of educationsystem due to technological infusion is an emerging area of exploration which educational strategists should focus on. Learning is a constant process, and with the exponentially growing free and accessible resources of knowledge, learning process is bound to be an exponential phenomenon. So, if you are a parent or a teacher or educationalist think twice before bullying your child or student or to those supposedly less knowledgeable than you today, because they are going to come back tomorrow loaded with knowledge and laced with such innovative tools of precise knowledge acquisition which we can’t even imagine today. Today's comparison of two kids has no realistic relation or reflection at all with the actual success in their life in future when they will be at the highly accentuated curve of learning, the only deciding factor would be who shows how much interest in the emerging technologies and sources of learning, who familiarize himself or herself how much and who absorbs how fast and all of this is totally independent from the performance and potential assessment of today.

It’s not just the fault of education system which apparently fails to timely acknowledge the impact and possibility of technological development which has and will always outpace the development of educational system. Education system has its own constraints which we should also acknowledge, which is that they need to thoroughly investigate, assess and validate everything before letting it into the curriculum of education system, they can’t really merge the trending knowledge into the mainstream education without thorough understanding of the trend and its possible impact on the students, young or mature, and by the time they understand the trend and tame it down to the extent to be eligible for the mainstream educational inclusion, that trend becomes outdated, hence this constantly lagging process of chasing new knowledge and hence this outdated dissipation of knowledge through structured education system. And since the benchmark of assessment is outdated, there is grossly wrong process of assessment of students as well. For another example, no matter what and how extensively that particular student knows about some area of his or her interest, it is not going to help him get the good grade unless that knowledge is about one of the couple of subjects specified in the curriculum. That student is supposed to stick to the curriculum diet imposed on them by the institution; apparently every other knowledge is irrelevant in the eyes of education system at least that’s what they think is important to secure a good job at the end of the day. A fundamentally wrong notion of educational performance at least a highly irrelevant model of evaluation of talent in today's world when you are not just solely dependent on schools and universities for your learning, while you are learning wherever you are, whenever you want, in that very moment, learning on your mere wish. In spite of all this free and immense knowledge the existence of educators can’t be negated, what is needed is to have a holistic approach towards talent evaluation and fast inclusion of technological shifts.

This is "Learning on the go" generation and we can’t confine it in the predefined boundary of education, we can’t impose on others what they should learn, rather they should decide what they want to learn and it’s our responsibility to provide them the customized curriculum of their individual interest, education system will increasingly have to be much more flexible, it’s inevitable and its need of the hour. What needs to be done here is that to create a macro framework for the education system, flexible, fast and inclusive enough to quickly notice, sanitize and accommodate the changes occurring in technological field and otherwise, into the mainstream education system. A framework which makes the educational system sensible and smart enough to allow unlocking the true potential of unique individuals rather than mass production.

Municipal Finance in India : Municipal Tax Revenue sources

Municipal Revenue generation through Taxation in India

“Local Self Government becomes meaningless in the absence of financial autonomy. It enjoys the power of imposition of local taxes. The municipal bodies must have a wider scope of collection of revenues”

(Source: UIDSSMT)


ULBs have invented many channels and instruments of revenue generation in course of time due to urgency of handling growth, some of the tax sources both conventional and non-conventional, are mentioned below.

TAXES/FEES

CONVENTIONAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

Composite Property Tax

Water Charges

Sewerage Charges

Conservancy Charges

Building Permit Fee

Development Charges

Trade Licensing Fee

Advertisement Tax

Shop Room Rent

OTHER GENERAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

House Tax 

Show Tax  

Building Plan Fee

Tax on the consumption of Electricity    

Sale of liquor     

Cess on the transfer of immovable property   

License for Dangerous and Offensive trades

Rates are varied in respective ULBs

Rehari License Fee

Tehbazari Tax

Slaughter House Fee

Cattle Pound Fees

Birth & Death Certificate Fee

Copying Fee

Tree Cutting Fee

Library Membership

Ground Tax

Vehicle License Fee

Death & Birth Reg./ Late Fee

Forest /Garden Income

Dog License Fee 

Animal Tax (Cattle Pound)

Trade License Fee

Tax on advertisement other than advertisement published in the newspaper.

NON-CONVENTIONAL MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

Vacant Land Tax

Service Taxes

Surcharge on Land Registration Duty

Water Supply Donations

Water Supply Connection Charges

Water Benefit Tax

Water Betterment Charges

Sewerage Donations

Sewerage Connection Charges

Sewerage Benefit Tax

Sewerage Betterment Charges

Bulk Garbage Collection Charges

Betterment Charges

External Betterment Charges

Open Space Contribution

Impact fee

Transferable Development Right

Premium FSI

Sub-division charges

Planning Permission Betterment

Road Cutting Charges

Street Tax

Frontage Tax

Cess on Infrastructure

Motor Vehicle Tax/Surcharge

Tax on Petrol and Diesel

Business License Fee

Hoarding Charges,

Advertisement Placement Fees,

Cable TV Fee,

TV Advertisement Charges

Royalty on Auctions

INNOVATIVE /UNIQUE MUNICIPAL REVENUE SOURCES

General Obligation Bond/ Municipal Bond

Awarding of development rights,

Town planning schemes (TPS)

Plot/layout readjustment

Additional FSI/FAR

Goodwill auctions

Bank linkages (for Urban Poor)

Capital-based property tax system

Land banking

Transferable development rights (TDR)

Special Education tax

Pilgrim

Octroi

Special and General Sanitation

Shows

Toll on Vehicles,

Timber

Terminal

Menial Domestic Servants

Artisans

Entertainment Tax

SOME OF THE UNIQUE REVENUE STREAMS (THROUGH FEES/ CHARGES) OF MUNICIPALITIES ACROSS MAJOR STATES IN INDIA

Registration Fee

Mutation Fee

Market Fee 

Trade License Fee

Compounding Fee

Slaughter House Fee

License Fee

Betterment / Development Fee

Fire Brigade

Public Health

Swimming Bath Fee,

Stock Registration

Cattle Pound Fee

Teh Bazari Fee

Pilgrim

Scavenging

Prevention of Food Adulteration Fee

Dangerous and Offensive Trade License Fee

Animal Registration Fee

Compounding Fee

Warrant Fee

Bus Stand Fee

Copying Fee

Cart Stand Fee,

Encroachment Fee

Fees from burning ghats

Birth and Death Registration Fee

Sources:

cgg.gov.in/  (http://bit.ly/Jb35C5),

UIDSSMT / http://bit.ly/IkNKk0,

RBI / http://bit.ly/J8i70d

Deprived of design aesthetics?

Politics of Design and need of Design democracy

Apart from invention of wheel and some other similar historical or contemporary breakthroughs or design innovation which have served humanity to achieve better life and lifestyle, design has evolved in a very controlled manner at least in recent history and apparently it’s not by coincidence, it’s by choice, the choice of few able hands and minds who have manipulated the evolution of design for their personal monetary benefit. Design has lost its freedom and meaning since the commercialization of design has taken place. Contemporary design process has become less of necessity and more of luxury, apart from those which are for advancement of mankind like computers, rocket science and all.

Apparently designs are manipulated across the length and breadth of product industry to skew and control the market demand and trick the customers, whether its car or washing machine or laptop or handbag or any household product. You see, every item has a line of product to cater to every economical strata of society, that makes perfect sense – something for everyone! Story doesn't end here, it’s just the beginning, beginning of whole gimmick of manipulative product development and market control philosophy. Have you ever questioned why the product “X1” that you bought at cheaper price is average in looks, in its aesthetic appeal and in design than the similar high end product “X2” with its classy elegant look? Ever wondered why the products of same company has different aesthetic appearance across its product range, though its same materials, same product DNA, same manufacturer, same factory, almost same production time, same technology? Is it coincident that if you pay less you will get an inferior looking product no matter what is the product and higher you pay better aesthetical products you will get, no matter what is the product or is it that they have purposefully handed over average design to you and deprived you of the great design of the higher range product so that you will come back to buy the better looking product next time? We are not talking about imbedded technology, of course technology comes at a price.

Is it that we have accepted this hierarchy of design aesthetics as an integral part of business and our daily life? This is true for any product; let’s take car, for example.  Is it a coincidence that the same designer or company who produces that strikingly beautiful design of highest segment car with those passionate and careful curvatures of car body also produces average looking box like cars with primitive decades old design sense in its lower price segment? Is it a natural process of design or this vast aesthetic gap between cheap and expensive product has been created purposefully so that people will appreciate and crave for higher segment product? Otherwise what is holding back companies or designers to give a wonderful design and aesthetics to each of its customer irrespective of their economic profiles, with products prices varying primarily due to its embedded technology or robustness and uniqueness of inbuilt content or additional functional features?

But after all how does it matter, since there is no sense of design ownership and appreciation left in all of us after centuries of design exploitation and manipulation, since we seem to have accepted the fact that design and aesthetes are for rich and ultra rich and average person has no right to ask for a better designed product on an affordable price. Design democracy is only possible when people will feel the need for "right of design aesthetics". It’s high time that design community and product development companies should come forward and liberalise the covert design process and shed the design monopoly, which will only help them accelerate product growth process and a common man will get a better designed product in their budget. 

By- Anoop Jha

Perception of space – a function (f) of Space

Regional and Locational shift in Perception of space

Space function and origin

Perception of space in terms of physical location of observer plays a crucial part in understanding planning of urban built form and is a vital part of Urban Planning, but the roots of such perception emerges from regional level. It is also related to conditioning, space perceived by residents of mountainous, hilly and undulating terrain are totally different from space perceived by person living in  flat terrain. Similarly space recognized by a person who spent most of his life in sprawling rural setting  can be totally different than a person living in an urban setting, It can be either” a not so pleasant shock” or “a surprise” or “an aspiration” for an individual while changing their location from hills to plain or rural to urban or vice versa. Usually what happens is that people constantly living in mountainous and hilly terrain witness only finite view due to restrained field of view by mountains,  hills and valleys, and when they occasionally come to plain and see that there is no limitation on the field of view, when they realize that they can see upto the horizon, it’s a pleasant shock to them.

Similarly when a resident of sprawling plain terrain goes for a vacation to some hill station or otherwise, they find it as a one of the finest moments of their life, primarily because of limited and ever changing field of view provided by hilly city,  they have a totally different experience of space that is finite which they have never experienced in life living in plains. Similarly a person living in a rural setting with sprawling, sparse and low-rise settlement when encounter with a city with medium to high-rise and dense built form and architecture, its not the rush of city that strikes him most, it’s the “Built Form” that strikes him dumb, he curiously looks out of the window of train and bus and cab, to see the buildings touching the sky, public spaces formed and enclosed by surrounding buildings. Suddenly he finds himself enclosed and restrained in the built form of the city which provides finite field of view with claustrophobic environment which is a paradigm shift in perception from the earlier experienced freedom of unlimited perceived space of rural setting. 

Conservation Projects: From Liability to Asset

By : Anoop Jha

Architectural conservation has traditionally been considered as public or state responsibility and very few private entities are interested in taking up such projects, though state like Orissa is having Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model for conservation projects. A country with rich history and centuries of traditions like India has also rich Architectural assets which are often neglected and difficult to conserve due to its sheer abundance, Though national and international agencies like “Archeological Survey of India (ASI), UNESCO, etc. are taking active measures to conserve the heritage of India, but it seems that it’s time that private entities and investors should come forward to conserve the architectural heritage of Nation. I think it can prove to be quite a lucrative option for private investors if government acts as a facilitator and if some relaxation is given in heritage conservation planning process along with some incentives. It would prove to be a win-win situation for both public and private entities.

This is how it will work. Architectural conservation projects have few elements in common –

●      TECHNIQUES – its technical aspects of conservations projects, there are technical guidelines, policy norms, etc. it’s simply art of engineering.

●      HERITAGE VALUE – every historic architectural asset has a heritage value attached to it, and if methodically and convincingly approached by private agencies, government or public agency will certainly come forward to facilitate the conservation project of any nature, because conserved and maintained heritage is an asset for any state, which they often fail to take care of because of other pressing welfare responsibilities and limited financial resources.

●      EMOTIONAL VALUE – It has high perceived emotional value for, a Nation, a State, a certain group, or certain individuals, this high emotional value can be translated into monetary value with certain effort and proper strategy

●  UTILITARIAN VALUE – This is the most important aspect of any conservation project because this is what makes it as a commercial viable project, to make this model viable government will need to act as a facilitator and will have to draft special policy considering the special and sensitive status of such projects, policy also have to incorporate privet participation and related relaxation in terms of some norms and subsidies etc. to attract the investment from private investors.

Commercial Development Cost: PPP Projects

Cost Comparision of Commercial PPP projects 
(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

Post by: Anoop Jha

PPP based Water & Sewage Infrastructure Costing

By - Anoop Jha


Cost Comparison of Water Supply, WTP & STP PPP projects 
(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

PPP model water projects

Water related projects vary in scale as well as nature, which ranges from National level river water management to state level irrigation projects to city level flood management to neighborhood level water supply and distribution system. considering the widespread and vital nature of water system these projects demands huge capital and recurring investments in Operation and Maintenance (O&M). Governments revenue inflow might not be sufficient to take care of all demands of water related projects, so long term private participation has been encouraged in recent past in India for commercially viable and attractive projects mainly in form of public private partnership (PPP), mostly in urban infrastructure segments  like water supply and distribution as well as health and sanitation. larger project baskets like flood management, irrigation canals, dams, etc are primarily under control of state and central government.  

Cost of Parking Infrastructure

Cost Comparision of Parking, Multilevel Parking (MLP) & Automated Parking PPP projects 
(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

Multi Level Parking

Post by: Anoop Jha     

PPP based Solid Waste Management (SWM) Projects

By - Anoop Jha

By- Anoop Jha


COST COMPARISION  OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT (SWM) PPP PROJECTS IN INDIA

(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

PPP for solid waste management 

Here are some cost comparison figures of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Projects in India based on Public Private Partnership (PPP). It appears that now focus of municipal bodies has started shifting towards waste to energy generation which would prove imperative for sustainable cities. Earlier dumping the waste at disposal sites or incineration were the only few possibilities for ever-growing city waste management, but emergence of new technology like plasma gasification and vitrification (PGV) is showing way forward for waste to energy generation possibilities in environmentally sustainable ways compared to other historically prevalent waste management options.

Source: www.pppindiadatabase.com

Urban Infrastructure : Investment Vs Operations and Maintenance (O&M)

Investment Vs O&M

Urban Infrastructure Cost

Per Capita Investment Cost by Sector

(Rs at 2009-10 prices)

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Per Capita Operations and Maintenance Cost (annual) by Sector

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement (2012-31)

(Rs crore)

                            

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Operations and Maintenance Expenditure by Sector (2012-31)

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Pattern of per Capita investment in different urban infrastructure sectors and O&M cost are somewhat different from each other, while Urban Roads demands more capital investment , Water Supply, Sewage, SWM, Urban Road & Transport require more O&M investment. 

"Water utilities in India are typically able to recover only 30-35 per cent of the operations and maintenance (O&M) cost.Even with current levels of highly inadequate service, solid waste management accounts for 25-50 per cent of a ULB’s expenditure (World Bank 2006), but cities recover less than 50 per cent of the O&M cost, according to a study by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. ULBs will be required to invest 54 per cent on capital investment and close to 25 per cent on the O&M of physical assets by 2021-22. In practice, user charges cover less than 50 per cent of the O&M cost of basic infrastructure services in India, on an average"

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement in India : 2012-31

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement: 2012-31 (Rs crore).

Total Expenditure        3918670

 Urban Roads              1728941 

 Urban Transport         449426 

 Renewal and Redevelopment including Slums 408955 

 Water Supply             320908 

 Sewerage                   242688 

 Storm Water Drains   191031

 Capacity Building       101759

 Traffic Support Infrastructure    97985

 Solid Waste Management         48582

 Street Lighting            18580

 Other Sectors             309815

"Almost 44 percent of urban infrastructure investment over the 20-year period  is accounted for urban roads. The backlog for this sector is very large, ranging from 50 per cent to 80 per cent across the cities of India.  Sectors delivering urban services such as water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, and storm water drains account for  about 20 per cent"

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 2009-2010

State wise types of Special Economic Zone (SEZ)