Book Notes
229Environment and Urbanization ASIA, 1, 2 (2010): [227][228][229] However, most critical factors for introducing these innovations are a healthy municipal revenue base and good urban governance. In this context, this book has examined the costs of key urban services and identified governance issues. It is based on rich field data from six cities. The book has estimated marginal costs of providing urban services in India. Then, it has estimated total expenditure required for ensuring a certain level of services and compared it with present level of expenditure. Finally, it has identified financial and institutional challenges in introducing urban reforms in the country.In response to urban problems, the government launched a reform-linked urban infrastructure investment project, Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The states and urban local governments accessing the JNNURM must complete a total of 22 reforms during the 7-year mission period. The book has described various reforms under JNNURM. It has also identified innovative management practices like municipal bonds, private sector participation and community participation in financing of services. Findings of the study strongly suggest that over and above the issue of finances, institutional and functional overlap of responsibilities are also responsible for poor delivery of the urban services. The book provides very important and useful insights into costs and governance issues of urban delivery systems in urban India. It is unfortunate that it did not adequately cover the issue of urban services for the poor.
Explosive growth of cities raises a question about how the increasing concentration of population in urban areas will change the world. Based on two decades of fieldwork, the author argues that cities are the medium for change. The book is divided into three parts. These parts deal with Urban Revolution, City Adrift and Strategy for Urban Planet, respectively.In the book, Brugmann describes the urban revolution in small cities like Machala (Ecuador), Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu, India), Irwine (California) and others influencing the world. Many things were influenced by cities globally even before the Internet. Scale, density and association cluster together, bring cost efficiencies and investments, and this leads to global urban growth. Recent World Development Report 2009 also presents similar views. The Dharavi slum in Mumbai is a good example. It has very high density leading to low transport cost, high utilization of property, close linkages with suppliers and retailers, and so on. It also has close urban associations. Today, Dharavi has global business linkages.Brugmann proposes total transformation in city planning and management systems. He argues that city systems grow organically not by technical planning. In days of market-driven development, urban policy makers should create commercial opportunities so predictable that they rally a city's private interests to support necessary market disciplines and reforms and have stable alliance. Avoiding a crisis on urban system requires that we design cities as efficient productive systems that are governed by communities with strategic purposes.
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