INDIAN CITIES: FLOOD OF WOES, DROUGHT OF ACTION

The monsoon has just made landfall and is creeping across the peninsula. However, flooding in urban India arrived with pre-monsoon showers this year—as a reminder of the nightmares that follow every year.

- SHANKKAR AIYAR Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India's 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India ([e-mail])

HE monsoon has just made landfall and is creeping across the peninsula. However, flooding in urban India arrived with pre-monsoon showers this year—as a reminder of the nightmares that follow every year. The spectacle is vividly visible across India's cities, from Mumbai to Guwahati and Bengaluru to Gurugram.

Urban India hosts around 150 Lok Sabha constituencies and is home to nearly 550 million citizens—one in three in a 1.4-billion population. Cities occupy 3 percent of the land area and contribute over 60 percent of the GDP. They are critical enablers of economic dynamism—be it production or consumption of goods, provision of services and a large share of employment. Urban India also contributes the bulk of taxes—be it indirect taxes in the form of GST or in income tax receipts.

Yet, urban India faces a flood of woes and a drought of action. Take Bengaluru, India's 'Silicon Valley', and destination for the bulk of venture capital. Floods brought it to a halt following 10 cm of rains. Access to IT parks and technology companies were water-logged, triggering work-from-home directives. Anger spilled over on social media, saturated by commentary and photographs of boats and dumpers deployed to rescue people and cars stranded in basements. As a result, typically, the government is banning parking in basements.