GREEN CITIES : ‘India should not imitate the West’ !

Integrating ponds and lakes, concrete roads connecting villages, broad roads connecting towns and cities ,strengthening agricultural research, direct central spending on agriculture in states are required for stopping large influx of villagers to cities and bringing down the carbon foot print.

Infrastructure like roads, water, electricity must be given first priority. Health care and education should accorded equal priority to attract reverse flow from congested and over crowded cities. Decentralisation of powers, single window clearance, RTI and transparency should be the mantra. Incentives for green buildings at fast pace will help address the issue of satellite cities.  

almost all have supported the idea of nto imitating.... and thats true as well..

GREEN Cities or for that matter any concept needs to be ADAPTED to one's specific needs/ requirements rather than ADOPTING / IMITATING other's ideas. We need to understand and assimilate the relevant components that can add value to us and develop Sustainable communities, that are Economically Viable, Socially acceptable and Eco friendly - else the system collapses. Many a times the Green Cities concepts mooted end up as Gated Communities that are EXCLUSIVE rather than absorbing the elemental Sustainability Concepts into them due to lack of understanding or other considerations.

Many of the new township developments claims to be incorporating Sustainability Concepts. However, how it gets implemented in letter and spirit makes the differrence. 

As Makarand said, we do not really need to IMITATE as we really have a very very strong and concrete builders community in addition to the Bilders Association of India. Yes one hurdle can be the government and/or the politicians who would first think what they will gain or loose. Our builders are well aware as to what would it take to reach there and what would go into it but a little more support and cooperation from our leaders would really be great. Even if we succeed in involving common man by giving some kind of responsibility he/she will respond positively and make efforts to build such a society. Educating more and more people would also help a great deal as once the feelings and desires of people are directed towards bringing about a change the thinking and approach of people changes positively. We need to take a different but a positive approach and take extra precautions not to make the mistakes. We are in a good position to start now as we can learn from the mistakes of others and other countries and do not repeat them. We do not need to imitate the west but can certainly take a learning from them and do a better job than them.

I strongly nelieve that we really do not need to IMITATE!! We have a strong, progresive builders community and we also have a very strong Association called the BUILDERS ASSOCIATION of INDIA!! All that needs to be done is to think hard and implement a few things and have them passed as NORMS while builfing new structures!! The builders have a very strong lpbby in the government as they have the MONEY power to get things done. Its not really difficult, it needs a focussed mind and thats it!!
Thanks for the referral roop, brilliant topic as usual!! :)

Few months back I read an article that the migration rate from rural India to urban India is increasing very fast and in order to cater this demand India need 20 new cities of size as big as Delhi. I think Indian politician/govt. should think about eco-friendly environment before passing or approving development of new cities. It's very easy to implement new concept from the beginning rather than from the middle.  

GREEN CITIES: India has long way to go in this area. We are not talking so much in this area as much required due to vast and variety of nature. Our people, leaders and policies needs to be educated and updated so that we can be far better prepared than others. We don't have to imitate others, we can show case others to imitate us by doing things more innovative in Green fields.

A well intentioned observation. But it is a pity that Indian leaders have no time to talk to common man; and even if they get some time, they use it only to broaden their vote-bank; and not to lead them sensibly in the matters like life-style.