Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Possibly the best early example of the will and determination of one person implement-
ing change is the success of Verghese Kurien, a single-minded and stubborn metallurgist-
turned-dairy manager, who set up Operation Flood, the National Dairy Development
Board's cooperatives-based milk scheme, and ran it for 33 years from 1970, making India
self-sufficient in milk. Another possible candidate is the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor
(DMIC) project, run by Amitabh Kant, an extrovert bureaucrat with a sound administrative
track record in developing tourism. This project aims to reverse the lack of urban planning
and infrastructure by constructing nine new cities along a 1,483-km dedicated freight rail-
way track. It is at a very early stage and the strong central leadership will be inevitably dif-
fused as the action moves down to individual states, where powerful political and business
interests will wade in.
Three more examples demonstrate what can be achieved with a firm government and
leadership - the 1998-2004 BJP government's Golden Quadrilateral highway programme,
the construction of the Delhi Metro in the 2000s, and the Unique Identification Authority
of India (UIDAI) Aadhaar biometric identification scheme launched in 2010.
People with direct experience in such projects say that, without a powerful and determ-
ined politician as a sponsor or patron, it is almost impossible to break away from political
and bureaucratic blockages and then stay clear of the constant attempts to invade and sub-
orn. 'You cannot do a project of this scale and magnitude without very strong support from
the prime minister and lot of other people who matter,' says Nandan Nilekani. 8
Vajpayee's Golden Quadrilateral
In 2000, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then the prime minister, provided political backing for the
construction of the first stages of India's 5,800-km Golden Quadrilateral highway under the
direction of Major General B.C. Khanduri, a retired army-engineer-turned-politician who
was already in his early seventies. Running in an erratic square or diamond shape around
the bulk of the country, the Quadrilateral was part of a new, mostly four-lane, national high-
ways programme and it linked the capital of Delhi with three other big metros - Mumbai,
Chennai and Kolkata.
With Vajpayee's personal authority backing him - and with adequate government fund-
ing and a general acceptance of the urgent need for new roads - Khanduri became a hands-
on minister for road transport and highways. 'The message went out that I was interfering -
interfering to help the contractors, the National Highways Authority and consultants - so it
was accepted,' Khanduri told me in 2005 for a Fortune magazine article. 9 'No one thought
India had the construction industry, the funds, or the management expertise to do such a
programme.' Khanduri proved the sceptics wrong. 'We changed the mindset because I set
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