SMART CITIES NEED SMART GOVERNING
Way back in the 1980s, M.J. Akbar, then founding-editor of The Telegraph, said only half in jest that Indians might soon need a visa to travel to Bombay. Akbar is now Minister of State for External Affairs and Bombay is Mumbai. But the sentiment he expressed then still holds: Mumbai contributes around 35 per cent of tax revenue to the Indian treasury but gets a fraction of it in return to develop the city’s infrastructure. The problem of course isn’t just money. It’s governance. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is...