Gurgaon, India has obviously greatly benefited from private companies developing the land and building and maintaining roads, sewer systems, and fire departments. By doing so, they have created a clean, developing city with a reduced crime rate as compared to the surrounding areas. Additionally, the private companies hired private security details that increased the security throughout the city, contributing to reduced crime rates. Gurgaon is currently seeing a 30% annual growth rate which can be used in the future to argue towards increased private cities similar to the current example.
Unfortunately, outside of the private city a person finds themselves stepping back into the slums and treacherous conditions that have become characteristic of India. The question is whether private cities can work for other cities, including those globally. Gurgaon boasts an enormous improvement in a relatively short period, making it an enviable system to copy. When it comes to Nashville, TN, I am sure that one could find some takeaways from Gurgaon to influence Nashville, but overall Nashville seems to be doing well on their own. Based on US News rankings, Nashville is number 22 on a list of 100 cities in the United States considered as the best places to live.
Doshi, V. (2016, July 3). Gurgaon: what life is like in the Indian city built by private companies. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jul/04/gurgaon-life-city-built-private-companies-india-intel-google
Sargent, S. (2016). US News. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://realestate.usnews.com/places/tennessee/nashville
I took interest in this video mostly because I am taking a trip to Nashville in two weeks for the first time, and the title caught my eye. Seeing that I have never been to Nashville before, I don’t know what to expect of the city, but have heard great things about it. After watching the video, I realized that the video was about the city of Gurgaon and not Nashville at all. Still, I was pleasantly surprised. Prior to this video, I am embarrassed to say that I never even hear of the city, and it is one of the leading financial cities in the world housing more than 250 of the Fortune 500 companies. Perhaps, the reason is because it is a fairly new industrial city being that it was developed only 25 years ago. Gurgaon does not have a pulic government which allowed DLF was able to buy up much of the real estate to develop commercial, residential, and industrial buildings. They quickly began to develop efficient means of transportation, clean drinking water, and sewer systems within the city.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs became available, and an annual growth rate of 30% made Gurgaon the 3rd highest per capita income in India. In Gurgaon, economic growth is often the product of a private sector improvising to overcome the inadequacies of the government (Yardley, 2011). Being such a industrial city, one would expect there to be slums, crime, pollution, vandalism, traffic, overcrowding… the list goes on. On the contrary, Gurgaon is not like this at all. The amount of safety officers keeping the peace and the crime to a minimal makes much safer than other big cities. DLF owns most of the property in Gurgaon, and developed the transportation system, sewage system, security companies minimize crime, companies that keep the city immaculately clean, as well as their own private fire department. According to Froeb, if you give people ownership to their property, they take care of it, invest in it, and keep it clean (Froeb, 2016).
Froeb also states that, governments play a critical role in the wealth creating process by enforcing property rights and contracts. By making sure that buyers and sellers can keep the gains from trade, it contributes towards and nation wealth creating ability. The absence of property rights in cities many times lead to poverty, but when property rights are secure, people have access to safe drinking water and sewage treatment as well as better quality of lives (Froeb, 2016).
Other cities want to emulate Gurgaon's growth and dynamism but avoid the dysfunction and lack of planning. The state and local governments are still struggling to keep up as Gurgaon continues to grow (Yardley, 2011).
Yardley, J. (2011). The Gurgaon Story: A Mirror to India’s Growth. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.ndtv.com/gurgaon-news/the-gurgaon-story-a-mirror-to-indias-growth-458043
Gurgaon, India has obviously greatly benefited from private companies developing the land and building and maintaining roads, sewer systems, and fire departments. By doing so, they have created a clean, developing city with a reduced crime rate as compared to the surrounding areas. Additionally, the private companies hired private security details that increased the security throughout the city, contributing to reduced crime rates. Gurgaon is currently seeing a 30% annual growth rate which can be used in the future to argue towards increased private cities similar to the current example.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, outside of the private city a person finds themselves stepping back into the slums and treacherous conditions that have become characteristic of India. The question is whether private cities can work for other cities, including those globally. Gurgaon boasts an enormous improvement in a relatively short period, making it an enviable system to copy. When it comes to Nashville, TN, I am sure that one could find some takeaways from Gurgaon to influence Nashville, but overall Nashville seems to be doing well on their own. Based on US News rankings, Nashville is number 22 on a list of 100 cities in the United States considered as the best places to live.
Doshi, V. (2016, July 3). Gurgaon: what life is like in the Indian city built by private companies. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jul/04/gurgaon-life-city-built-private-companies-india-intel-google
Sargent, S. (2016). US News. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://realestate.usnews.com/places/tennessee/nashville
I took interest in this video mostly because I am taking a trip to Nashville in two weeks for the first time, and the title caught my eye. Seeing that I have never been to Nashville before, I don’t know what to expect of the city, but have heard great things about it. After watching the video, I realized that the video was about the city of Gurgaon and not Nashville at all. Still, I was pleasantly surprised. Prior to this video, I am embarrassed to say that I never even hear of the city, and it is one of the leading financial cities in the world housing more than 250 of the Fortune 500 companies. Perhaps, the reason is because it is a fairly new industrial city being that it was developed only 25 years ago. Gurgaon does not have a pulic government which allowed DLF was able to buy up much of the real estate to develop commercial, residential, and industrial buildings. They quickly began to develop efficient means of transportation, clean drinking water, and sewer systems within the city.
ReplyDeleteHundreds of thousands of jobs became available, and an annual growth rate of 30% made Gurgaon the 3rd highest per capita income in India. In Gurgaon, economic growth is often the product of a private sector improvising to overcome the inadequacies of the government (Yardley, 2011). Being such a industrial city, one would expect there to be slums, crime, pollution, vandalism, traffic, overcrowding… the list goes on. On the contrary, Gurgaon is not like this at all. The amount of safety officers keeping the peace and the crime to a minimal makes much safer than other big cities. DLF owns most of the property in Gurgaon, and developed the transportation system, sewage system, security companies minimize crime, companies that keep the city immaculately clean, as well as their own private fire department. According to Froeb, if you give people ownership to their property, they take care of it, invest in it, and keep it clean (Froeb, 2016).
Froeb also states that, governments play a critical role in the wealth creating process by enforcing property rights and contracts. By making sure that buyers and sellers can keep the gains from trade, it contributes towards and nation wealth creating ability. The absence of property rights in cities many times lead to poverty, but when property rights are secure, people have access to safe drinking water and sewage treatment as well as better quality of lives (Froeb, 2016).
Other cities want to emulate Gurgaon's growth and dynamism but avoid the dysfunction and lack of planning. The state and local governments are still struggling to keep up as Gurgaon continues to grow (Yardley, 2011).
Froeb, L.M., McCann, B.T., Shor, M., & Ward, M.R. (2016). Managerial Economics, 4th Edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Yardley, J. (2011). The Gurgaon Story: A Mirror to India’s Growth. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.ndtv.com/gurgaon-news/the-gurgaon-story-a-mirror-to-indias-growth-458043