Transforming Urban India One Ward at a Time

Comments: Please email sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com Background My brother visiting from USA asked me Why do Indian cities look like they have been bombed by Pakistan. Do we want our cities to decay more and more or do we want to turn Dr. Manmohan Singhs faux pas We will make Mumbai like Shanghai a reality? Public Affairs Centre, Janaagraha in Bangalore and others have been trying for long to improve urban India with some success but at a pace which is slower than the slow boat to China. The approach in this paper is different in three major areas 1. It focuses in transforming in the first phase one or two wards (approx 8 sq.km), using these as a lab and then replicating. 2. Community involvement is a key attribute of the solution and the wards selected will be those where the community understands that their ward gains a lot by being the chosen one and they are eager to participate 3. Silicon Valley startup methods will be used where there is a strong bias for action, a focus on building critical mass. Many not for profits at the ward level (WNP) interacting with a for profit nerve centre, Innovative Solutions Centre (ISC ) ISC and WNP will be based in Delhi initially. The final vision could be Pan India or Global Model Ward Architechture This architechture has evolved from work done in Delhi in ward #103 of Punjabi Bagh. The key to the architechture is the councillor or shadow councillor ( in case councillor is not supportive) who view themselves as the PM of the ward and along with his cabinet of voluntary advisors, monitors and youth works on 3-5 Measurable time bound real outcomes and improves the ward score. The goals that could be achieved by acting as an enabling leader are things like y y y y y y World Class Sanitation Zero Malnutrition Zero Open Defecation 100% financial inclusion 100% literacy Zero leakage in govt schemes

A visual representation is given below

Model Ward Architecture

Political/Shadow leader Right mindset Outcome driven Skill & bandwidth need augmentation Ward Score Self reporting Reporting elements Blocks Weights

Community Involvement Resident Advisors Resident Monitors Youth Recognition (certificates & roll of honour)

Annual Plan MeTRO (Measurable time bound real outcomes) Monthly progress reports

Performance Related Incentives For all public servants including political leader

Community Fund Another central concept is the creation of a community fund managed by the ward cabinet. The fund will only be used to give performance incentives to good public servants and to put community equity into community projects. Poor people could contribute Rs 10 a month. Middle class could contribute Rs 100 or Rs 500 per month and the rich could make large donations based on which they will get naming rights. Innovative Solution Centre (ISC) This is a for profit start up where the founders will put in atleast one crore of capital for 70% of the company. Seed investors will put in 30% of the company. ISC will provide a platform for WNP to be able to get all the tools (technology + knowledge) that they need to transform the ward. ISC will have minimum two crores of bootstrap capital to get going. Once the seed funders are identified a competition will be held to shortlist three founding teams who will iterate with the seed investors till one team is selected and funded.

Next Steps 1. Put seed investors together March 31 2. IIC, IHC validation April 15 3. Choose Two wards April 15 4. Announce competition for founding teams April 15 5. Entries close May 15 6. Ward to reach 1000 or more pledged members June 15 7. Shortlist ready - June 15 8. WNP launched July 15 9. Winner announced July 15 10. ISC launched August 15