Had a conversation at the chaiwalla with Shetty, and gang. Thought it was important to document it just to keep a stock of important discussions that occur from time to time.
talking about the discussion very quickly;
It began with a discussion on yesterdays article in HT (Hindustan times) on Mukesh'sgrand development plan for Dharavi. Shetty was talking about resurrecting the State machinery as the only way of solving the current crisis facing the city.
I countered wether not the current market condition had not made the state more efficient as a body.
Efficiency he said today means getting things when you demand them. It is like this that the market has made us believe that these are things that are required for our survival and without that it is impossible to live. Like you cannot live without a cellphone.
If this becomes the criteria then the primary role of the state of forming an equittable base gets subordinated by demands of efficiency and list of imagined priority deliverables. He argued that even if it was a lumbering slow giant, it still manages to do it as it is regulated by the "masses". Eg of the RTI (Right To Informtion), ULCA (Urban land Ceiling Act), rent control etc.
But today when we are getting pushed in directions by such large forces, is it even possible to consider such a state ??
How do we provide resistances or new ideas for it take growth??
TU is probably the first step towards it, lets see.
