Today's discussion on how do we define infrastructure and infrastructure projects and the 6 parameters we look for (Public use, Economic development, capital assets, Network/System, Lifestyle optimization, Service) in infrastructure made me want to dig a bit deeper into what this meant in real life- what array of projects did it actually encompass.
For an Indian perspective, it is easy for us to come up with examples such as a well connected metro system, an intelligent transportation system, drinking water in pipelines and several others discussed in class.
But this, to me, sounded like a rudimentary understanding highly biased to the Indian context and developing nations in general.
I started looking for examples from places quite different from the Indian sub-continent and came up with two such examples, one from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and the other from Pennsylvania, USA.
Here they are in a bit more detail-
1. Kibera is a slum in Nairobi with over 200,000 (estimates have also placed it at close to 500,000) inhabitants spanning 13 villages and 2.5 square kilometers. The attached video shows how Open Street Maps, a Volunteered Geographic Information platform helped in defining the area of Kibera and hence forcing the government to recognize this informal settlement (watch before proceeding).
On watching this video, two things immediately stood out for me-
- Though the people were as backward as they get and skeptical in the beginning, once they realized that the mapping exercise was only directed only towards their welfare, public participation was effectively mobilized.
- Technology was able to map the area with quite a level of detail at a high rate (3 weeks sounds impressive). It provided the people the ability to navigate, a fundamental and very important aspect of infrastructure, one which most of us take for granted today.
Once the area was mapped out, the facets of an infrastructure project were easily visible- public use, safety, economic development, lifestyle optimization and more. So simple navigation and mapping should also comprise an infrastructure project(?)
2. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, USA-
Here is an example from a region with an advanced network of roads, water and sanitation, medical care, social infrastructure etc. A completely different definition of an infrastructure project is shown by this example.
Sustainability is one of the chief concerns of today's development. UPS Drivers is a company that hires 60000 drivers. If technology helps them save 1 mile per driver per day, they end up saving 20 million miles a year, 2 million gallons of fuel, 20,000 metric tonnes of carbon into the air and a lot of worn-out tires.
Here is a video in this context-
After watching these examples(and others), there are a few possible conclusions that I have drawn-
- Infrastructure planning in the future is going to be a much more involved process with a lot of public participation. With growing social media such as Flickr and FourSquare, it has become possible to get answers to questions such as 'Which is the most happening place in the city on a Saturday night?' or 'How do tourists explore a city and how is it different from local people on a vacation? How can we improve their experience based on how the city talks back to us?'
- Technology is going to be a big driving force in the development of infrastructure
- Infrastructure is going to develop a 'soft' component (will social media platforms also form a part of infrastructure?). In addition to being 'soft', it is also likely to be interactive with technologies such as Google glass.
- The 'hard' component of infrastructure will undoubtedly continue but will be more efficient based on the feedback from the 'soft' component.
- If introduced appropriately to the under-developed areas, technology will lead to a growth rate which will be higher than ever before.
For me, exploring several example of infrastructure drove home to point of infrastructure being a service rather than a physical entity. Will love to hear a lot more views on this!
8 comments:
As far as the case of Kibera is concerned, no real physical asset has been created. It was just that an NGO like organization worked for the welfare and the betterment of the community. There may or may not have been any involvement from the Government side. The organization worked with the people of the community which ultimately aimed at the enhancement of their livelihood. Yes, indeed they have taken the step of soft interventions by mapping out the area which can pave way for further developments in the locality which that include basic amenities like water supply, sanitation, power, etc. This would result in economic development and poverty reduction. Hence, in my opinion, if at all this is to be considered as an infrastructure, it would come under the category of social infrastructure because for measurable changes (in terms of increased employment opportunities, average income, etc.) to be achieved, physical assets necessarily need to be set up.
The second example is one in which a company, through their research and development wing, optimizes both travel time and distance travelled, with the use of geospatial and remote sensing technology. The company has thus become more sustainable by reduction in the usage of non-renewable fuels, lesser emission of pollutants. This concept of sustainability has become increasingly important in the recent times; companies wish to be labeled ‘Green’ or ‘Eco-Friendly’ companies. They set goals which are aimed not only at profit making but also to serve the society. And this is where the idea of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) comes into the picture.
While I agree with Sidharth’s point that technology would be a major driving force in the development of infrastructure, the example above, in my opinion, should be labeled as a CSR initiative by UPS Drivers.
In this context, I would like to point out an instance of CSR by an Indian company - ITC.
“Nearly 40% of total energy consumption at ITC's hotels is from renewable energy. The company's business-linked sustainability initiatives, together with the social investment programmes, have helped the company to make an impact on rural livelihood as well. “
Source: http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-03-29/news/38125470_1_itc-ltd-renewable-energy-programme
Further reading on ITC’s CSR initiatives: http://csrworld.net/itc-limited-corporate-citizenship.asp
I agree with Hareesh that the work in Kibera should be considered as Social Infrastructure.
I would also like to add 2 more points in this context-
1. There was no government involvement as the government refused to recognize Kibera as an official settlement and hence a big objective of the project was to get an 'official settlement' status for Kibera from the government.
2. I donot agree with the point that 'for measurable changes to be achieved, physical assets necessarily need to be set up'. The mapping exercise would definitely have lead to increased safety with people being able to identify the danger zones (no physical asset) and the setup of a police post in the concerned areas (a physical asset). Also once people became aware of the existence and locations of markets, health care centers etc., the services of the existing physical assets (markets and hospitals) were utilized to a greater extent- leading to more income, employment, health index etc.
I also think that what the UPS Drivers did was futuristic, sustainable and profit oriented but surely not part of CRS.
CSR is a 'regulating mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility). There was no compulsion for UPSD to meet any standards or norms. They built and implemented technology that brought greater profits and at the same time made them more sustainable. Any company can now follow their lead and thus be part of a more efficient mobilization process, which to me would be good infrastructure.
I agree with Siddarth. This isn’t CSR at all. Almost all delivery companies optimize their driver routes to save money. It is far more focused on profits than anything else.
Back on the topic of infrastructure, isn't this just a more advanced version of a GPS system in a car (something we count as infrastructure)? I feel this would be more of a private asset to UPS, and not infrastructure because it doesn’t really cover any of the points we discussed in class(public use, quality of life, etc).
Companies like UPS are not really mandated to invest in such greener technologies. Their expenditure in the Geospatial Technology might be much more than their loss in revenues which are incurred because of running 2 million extra miles a year. But this losing out on profits is only for the short term. They infact, would have had a long term goal which emphasized on environmental issues. Hence, more than the profit motive, I believe this would be a part of their CSR activities.
Read: http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/07/ups-csr-report-2012/
The article provides an overview of the CSR activities of UPS Drivers. In the report, UPS claims to have avoided driving an additional 12.1 million miles, which translates into 1.3 million fewer gallons of fuel consumed and 13,000 less metric tons of CO2 emitted. The report clearly mentions that the company’s investment in geospatial and telematics technologies was for a sustainable future. Hence, I consider UPS to be a CSR leader in the logistics and parcel delivery services sector.
I personally feel that the Kibera mapping project is indeed a social infrastructure project.It did help people to locate facilities easily and provided security.It clearly exemplifies that application of technology can bring
overwhelming infrastructure developments. Also infrastructure project at different scales need not always be initiated by the government.
I agree with Siddharth and Varun that sustainability initiatives taken by the UPS drivers is not a CSR initiative.This initiative should be looked upon to create sustainable infrastructure facilities in future.India needs to progress substantially to implement such initiatives.
In my opinion soft infrastructure is indeed vital and helps in many ways in efficiently operating the hard(physical) infrastructure. eg. ITS application in transportation, but at the current status of India it does not form a part of the basic infrastructure which still needs to be addressed.
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