'Viewing tower and shopping emporium' right on the beach, two airports, and mega-highways: My take on how long-term, expert and independent planning, maybe in the form a policy think-tank, could help saving Goa from such monumental 'development' tragedies
Think big, act smart Constantino Xavier http://thegoan.net/story.php?id=256 (E-paper version: http://119.82.71.76/thegoan/Details.aspx?id=101&boxid=201927453) One of Goa’s greatest developmental tragedies is its compulsion to think and plan small (or not at all) and then act monumentally big. For example, instead of taking on the Indian Navy on Dabolim’s civilian status, the state is bent on constructing a mammoth second airport to host the A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft. An NHAI-commissioned highway with stretches as wide as 45-metres plans to cut the state in half, from North to South. And last month, inspired by Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong, Goa’s tourism minister announced a 35-storeyed “viewing tower with shopping emporia” right on Baga beach. Goa’s airport, highway and tower projects reflect small thinking that, in sudden spurts, gets implemented as gigantic projects that are incoherent, unsustainable, or completely divorced from the state’s long-term interests. This is no surprise: India today is in dire need to act as big and fast as possible if it wants to catch up with China and deliver on infrastructure. Planning long-term therefore means building flyovers or dams in unprecedented size and number. But in Goa, with a capital city of less than 100,000 people situated in a fragile ecological habitat, six-lane highways, a gigantic dam or two airports make little sense – in any sense. Planning does not only require expertise but, more importantly, time. To think big in a small state like Goa calls for an investment in knowledge, both local and global: for each project, one needs to identify Goa’s environmental and socio-economic conditions, develop future scenarios, and compare it to both successful and failed developmental models of similar regions worldwide (definitely not Singapore or Hong Kong!). There is no denial that with an economy that grows at 13 per cent, a population that almost tripled in fifty years, and a tourism sector that annually attracts close to three million tourists, Goa urgently needs to develop its infrastructure. But the exigencies of action should not be allowed to undermine the demands for long-term planning. At the same time, the legitimate concerns for conservation and sustainability should not lead to paralysis. And yes, there is a middle way between these two extremes of infrastructural hyperactivity and utopian stasis. This is the path of expert-informed, long-term policy planning, one that focuses on thinking big, forward and out-of-the-box in order to find ways to act smart and sustainably. One such option is for the government to commission expert reports and committees, such as the recent Goa Vision 2035 or the defunct Goa Knowledge Commission led by Peter de Souza. The problem is that their recommendations are either immediately adopted because biased towards governmental or business interests, ignored if inconveniently independent, or forgotten after a short public debate or a change in government. That is the fate of most reports and commissions worldwide: they fulfill immediate political, budgetary or regulatory requirements for “public consultation,” provide a nice extra income for the consulted experts, but are rarely read by anyone, especially in government. A better way to institutionalize Goa’s expertise and to provide the state executive, bureaucracy and civil society with informed inputs, would be to establish a think tank with the task of preparing independent studies on a variety of issue-areas, from infrastructure to tourism, economic, environmental and educational policies. Think tanks are already performing an important role at the national level, for example on the economy (ICRIER), defence (IDSA) and overall policy (CPR). A similar think tank in Goa, maybe as a jointly funded public-private partnership, could conduct non-partisan policy research and advisory, and serve as the necessary bridge between the often-divergent priorities of politics, business and society. This should not be a traditional academic institute nor a partisan organization constrained by governmental budgets or appointments, but an independent policy planning organization focused on providing analytical insights, comparative studies, and forecasts. Goa and its diaspora are fortunate to have excellent non-governmental organizations and experienced individuals that could provide such a think tank with the necessary leadership and expertise. It’s time to think big to capacitate the government to act smart, in Goa’s long-term interest. Constantino Xavier is a Ph.D. candidate at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington DC and tweets at @constantinox