Smart official – smart solution

Here is an interesting thing one of my bureaucrat friend did recently. A smart person (as most officials seem to be) he collected the relevant data and used it smartly.

It is not unusual for public agencies to indulge in firefights. Constantly, all the time. So not surprising that nothing really gets fixed, for any great length of time.

This official asked for data (location) of complaints his agency usually receives. It turns out that repeat complains were originating from only around 400 locations in the entire city of Chennai. They decided to fix these or make plans for these and saw the number of complaints fall.

Same official did something even more interesting. His agency analyzed hospital data for dysentery. (Where were most cases of dysentery occurring in  Chennai?) They analysed the water quality along with the state of the pipes in those areas.

One main reason for dysentery is mixing of clean water with sewage when pipes break and leak. His agency fixed the leaks in these locations and there were supposedly not a single case of dysentery in Chennai during the past rainy season. If true, he and his agency should get some kind of public award and recognition.

Similarly, analysing the expenses and functioning of various pumping sites revealed very interesting insights. This can be used to further improve quality of delivery of services and also strengthen future tendering processes – thereby saving taxpayer resources and citizens’ headache.

There is another important point. Data when analyzed by experts or many people, especially when displayed in interesting visual ways, reveal a lot. Things that you missed earlier pop out since pics and maps reveal what your brain cannot conceive without. Also, there is a reason why the world is moving towards a more multi-stream/expertise/speciality model especially in prestigious universities.

It takes different outlooks and training in different subjects to solve complex problems. One man/woman or one team cannot do this. A very important reason to put all official data on public domain.

Put all bus, water, electricity, etc. data on public sites. Data how frequencies, finances, quality, breakdown …. and watch how others help you.

India vs Hong Kong – health and wealth

I stumbled upon Gapminder. I used one set of data to compare life expectancy versus Income per person (over time) for India and Hong Kong. Check it out and draw your own conclusions.

India versus Hong Kong

You can try various combination of countries and other parameters.

Fascinating Talk on Charter Cities

Romer on Charter Cities is a fascinating conversation with Paul Romer of Stanford University. You can listen to the podcast.

I was very intrigued by the note below on Jane Jacob, is her Hayekian or not. Most interesting point for me was what this would do for the poorest of poor of the world. Usually critics jump on these ideas and label them elitist – “Rich are trying to secede”.

Also check out the TED presentation. Arable land versus urban space ( Romer illustrates using light points on night map of the earth) is really cool.

Related posts:

1. Wheelchair test (3.023)
2. Not just Delhi, Madam Sheilaji! (2.957)
3. Let a hundred Hong Kong bloom (2.472)
4. Hope is the antidote to Naxalism (2.251)

Not just Delhi, Madam Sheilaji!

Good to hear a well respected CM and politician utter the words City State. Madam Sheila Dikshit thinks Delhi needs “City State” system. Why just stop with Delhi? Why not let other cities have the same status so they can govern themselves better. As I opined earlier in The coming mutinies, we will get there kicking and screaming. City states are inevitable and a must. But that change is not going to come easy.

Let a hundred Hong Kong bloom

Imagine India few years from now as a network of many Hong Kongs – big, medium
and small ones. I first heard this idea from Sauvik Chakravarti. Big
cities, if we have a decentralised way of decision making, would be
catalyst for medium and small cities sprouting around them. Each of
these cities would be connected to others with good roads, rail and
other modes of transportation.

Free trading cities, each flourishing by leveraging its comparative
advantage. These cities hopefully would not be exact replicas of the
great city, as I mentioned in my earlier post.  But Hong Kongs built
with local characteristics and culture as foundation.

How would this come about?  Why not do what Sir John Cowperthwaithe
did for Hong Kong. Government could start by showing ‘benign neglect’
instead of active obstruction.  Remove all economic laws that obstruct
people from earning a living, trade with each other and generate wealth.

Force central government and state governments to devolve most of
the power and accountability to the local level.  Implement the 73rd
and 74th amendments to the Indian constitution in letter and spirit. 
Actually put some resource and energy behind the local government and
panchayati raj concept. 

Let local institutions, both private and public flourish.  Let them
be capable of responding to the concerns and needs of the local
citizens.  Empower local authorities to serve the people who elect
them.  Empower the local citizen to punish the authorities when they
fail to deliver.

Of course there are other issues like land law reform that are
crucial for a city to bloom.  But let us start somewhere.  Let us not
allow the complexity and chaos of the present situation to paralyse us.

Think this is too far fetched?  Not really.  Every government in our
country has toyed with the idea of economic free trade zones.  The idea
is to identity a region and simplify or eliminate all or most of the
pernicious economic laws, give tax holidays to industries in that
region, and so on. 

(I would rather see the entire country enjoy such benefits rather
than politicians and bureaucrats picking winning and loosing regions. 
But a friend pointed out, why not take what you get and ask for more
later.)

If we buy into the economic free trade zone argument, why not
declare a bunch of cities as free trade zones.  Suspend all economic
laws and restrictions.  Drastically simplify taxes.  Why not try this
as an experiment in a few cities. 

I am pretty sure that this would set off the next phase of
competition among states and regions.  Liberalisation process, which
started in the early 1990s, sparked off competition among states in
attracting capital and industries.  Now let the cities compete with
each other in attracting capital, resources and most importantly,
people. 

Good cities will attract the most important of resources — people. 
Bad ones will lose people and with it the tax base, creativity and
dynamism. 

Unleash the potential of our cities.  Let a hundred Hong Kong bloom.

More on the great man Cowperthwaithe and Hong Kong

• Sir John Cowperthwaithe from Telegraph, UK
• The Hong Kong Experiment by Milton Friedman in Hoover Digest
• Sir John Cowperthwaithe by Alex Singleton, Globalisation Institute 

For a Tamil Hong Kong