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ChandigarhChandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the north, the west and the south, and to the state of Haryana to the east. It is considered to be a part of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which includes Chandigarh, and the city of Panchkula (in Haryana) and cities of Kharar, Kurali, Mohali, Zirakpur (in Punjab). It is located 260 km (162 miles) north of New Delhi.It was one of the early planned cities in post-independent India and is internationally known for its architecture and urban design. In 2015, an article published by BBC named Chandigarh as one of the perfect cities of the world in terms of architecture, cultural growth and modernisation.Fig. (1) Chandigarh Well planned City with Sectors and Right angled Road crossings.Official emblem of Chandigarh. It stands as the image of openness of thoughts, peace and solidarity, whereupon the city was constructed.Sukhna Lake: It is a 3 km artificial rain-fed lake in Sector 1.Rock Garden: The Rockgarden located near the Sukhna lake is spread over 40acres of land. The garden is visited by 5000 visitors daily. It consists of the various scriptures made from the industrial and home waste material thrown away. The garden also has lakes and the beautiful waterfalls. The open area of the garden has swings which also add to its beauty.Japanese Garden: The Japanese garden is located in sector 31of the city beautiful (Chandigarh).The garden has a lot of water bodies, pagoda towers, beautiful waterfalls, meditation center, a Buddha idol and golden bamboos.Semiconductor FAB LAB of ISRO:The Semi-Conductor Laboratory, Mohali is a research institute of the Department of Space, Government of India. Its aims include research and development in the field of semiconductor technology.The city has one of the highest per capita income in the country. The city was reported to be one of the cleanest in India based on a national government study.In 2015, a survey by LG Electronics, ranked it as the happiest city in India over the happiness index.—————————————————————————————————2. Nashik:Nashik is a very beautiful city located in northwest region of Maharashtra. It is situated at the foothills of the western ghats mountains and on the banks of the river Godavari. Its elevation is highest among the major cities of Maharashtra (700 m above the sea level.)Nashik is an ancient holy city in Maharashtra, a state in western India. It’s known for its links to the “Ramayana” epic poem.It has had its moment of pride when it was declared the sixteenth fastest growing city in the world by a report of the City Mayors Foundation.It is one of the four places of Kumbhmela. It is also known as ‘Dakshin Kashi’. It is near to many religious places like Trimbakeshwar, Shirdi, Shani Shingnapur, Saptashrungi (Vani), Anjaneri, Mungi Tungi,etcNashik is also known as Wine Capital of India. Napa Valley of India.It is located at approx 200 kms from Pune and 180 Kms from Mumbai which makes it part of Golden Triangle.Golden Triangle: Mumbai-Pune- NashikClimate of Nashik is Very Suitable for Living a healthy life. The city's tropical location and high altitude combine to give it a relatively mild version of a tropical wet and dry climate. Temperatures rise slightly in October, but this is followed by the cool season from November to February. The cool season sees warm temperatures of around 28 °C during the day, but cool nights, with lows averaging 10 °C, and extremely dry air.On an average Temperature of City remains between 20 to 34 degree celsius.Budapest,Hungary is Twin/Sister City of Nashik.Education in Nashik:With many educational institutions, Nashik is the HQ of Two Universities which are YCMOU(Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University), MUHS(Maharashtra University of Health Sciences).Combat Army Aviation Training School (CATS) :Training is imparted to all candidates at the Combat Army Aviation Training School (CATS) at Nashik. The Army Aviation training was previously conducted in School of Artillery, Deolali. But now it is carried out in an independent Combat Air Training School also at Deolali.The Cheetah helicopter simulator has been set up at Combat Army Aviation Training School (CATS). It is expected to reduce substantial cost in training and also to reduce pilot risk during training. The simulator is designed to expose the trainee to different weather conditions like snow, rain, storm and different terrains in addition to night flying training in handling emergencies, tactical handling of the flying machine, its different maneuvers and more. The project to install a simulator was proposed in December 2000 and approved in April 2002, with CATS Nashik chosen as the centre for installation.Indian Railway Institute Of Electrical Engineering Nashik:The Indian Railways have set up this Institute at Nasik Road for imparting training to Probationers of Indian Railway Service of Electrical Engineers (IRSEE) , recruited through Indian Engineering Services Examination conducted by UPSC, New Delhi. In addition, IRIEEN also conducts training courses for serving Electrical Engineers of Indian Railways.Dhamma Giri Vipassana International Academy:hamma Giri is situated in the town of Igatpuri which is 45 km away from Nashik. It is co-located with the Vipassana Research Institute at Igatpuri .The center offered its first course in 1976. Today tens of thousands of students study here every year. The centre's pagoda has over 400 cells for individual meditation.Industries in Nashik:Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (spmcil) :The India Security Press is a government press is a subsidiary of the Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), a public undertaking of the Indian government. The company is charged with the task of printing passports, visas, postage stamps, post cards, inland letters, envelopes, non-postal adhesives, court fees, fiscal, and Hundi stamps in the countryHAL, Nashik:ESDS Datacenter:Apart from this there are many industries in MIDC area like Mahindra, Crompton Greaves, GSK, Siemens, BOSCH,etc.———————————————————————————————————3. Port Blair:It is the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India situated in the Bay of Bengal. It is also the local administrative sub-division (tehsil) of the islands, the headquarters for the district of South Anadman, and is the territory's only notified town. It houses the headquarters of the A&N Police , A&N Command, the first integrated tri-command of the armed forces of India and Indian Cost Guard.The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are attaining increased strategic significance.India has drawn up an ambitious, Rs 10,000 crore plan to transform the Andaman and Nicobar Islands into the country’s first maritime hub, taking advantage of its strategic location and making it the base for infrastructure that will include an expanded dry dock and ship repair industry in the capital Port Blair.It also serves as the entry point for visiting the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Port Blair is connected with mainland India by both air and sea. It is a 2-hour flight from mainland India to Port Blair, but it takes 3–4 days by sea to reach Chennai, Kolkata or Vishakhapattanam. Air connectivity to Port Blair is available from Chennai, Kolkata,New Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bhubaneshwar and Vishakhapatnam.It has potential to become Future Singapore like city or maybe Just Great Tourist Destination like Maldives or Bali, if proper development is done there.The airport at Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar's capital, has been named Veer Savarkar International Airport. During World War II, Port Blair served as the headquarters of the Azad Hind government under Subhas Chandra Bose.Bengali is the most spoken language of the city, followed by Hindi,Telugu and Tamil.A visit to the Cellular Jail, notorious as “Kala Pani”, in Port Blair will take you through the times of pre Independence era and the struggle for freedom. Make sure you do not miss the sound and light show during the evenings at this national memorial.Apart from these there are many natural wonders near Port Blair like Coral islands, Mud Volcano. Many Islands are nearby including Baratang Island,Chidiya Tapu, Havelock Island,Rose Island and much more.Andaman and Nicobar Islands have India’s best nesting beaches for three species of marine turtles – Hawksbill, Green turtle and world’s largest sea turtle, the Leatherback (Dermocheleys Coriacea). The nesting population of Leatherback turtles in Nicobar is one of the few colonies that exceeds 1,000 individuals in the Indo-Pacific, and is hence of global importance.Barren Island is the only active volcano not just in India but the whole of South Asia. Located approximately 135 km north east of Port Blair.Ever noticed the scenery on a 20 Rupee note? The image of a picturesque bay lined with lush greenery captured on the red-coloured note is the North Bay Island and the same view can be see on the way to Mount Harriet.Samudrika Marine Museum: A dip into the archaeology and marine life,The museum is run by the Indian Navy and houses a variety of fish, crabs, corals and sculptures.Anthropological Museum: A walk through the world the native tribesFisheries Museum: A showcase of endemic marine lifeRajiv Gandhi Water Sports Complex:It is a must visit attraction in Andaman. Located in the center of Port Blair, this complex is easily accessible and everyone would be eager to visit the large space dedicated to water sports and activities. The historically significant complex stands as a memorial for the Battle of Aberdeen, which was fought between the aborigines of Andaman and the British in 1859. The activity list includes parasailing, paddle boats, banana boats, row boats and much more.Port Blair has a tropical monsoon climate, with little variation in average temperature and large amounts of precipitation throughout the year. All months except January, February and March receive substantial rainfall.And, of course it is famous for Beaches. It has many beaches including Aamkunj Beach,Butler Bay Beach, Lamiya Bay Beach,Karmatang Beach,etc.Other than these tourist spots,Sri Vetrimalai Murugan Temple at Port Blair:Though there are other temples in the region, this big temple dedicated to Lord Murugan has more devotees and there are main festivals celebrated at the temple like Kanda Shashti and Panguni Uthram. This temple is an evidence that Andaman is not just about beaches and islands but it distributes fun and satisfaction for versatile groups of visitors.The temple was built in the year of 1926 by the British in order to have the Tamil people on the side and loyal to the British. Firstly the temple came into the establishment at Ross Island and then it was shifted to Port Blair after India got independence from the British rule.Chatham Saw Mill:The largest wood processors in Andaman is the Chatham Saw Mill in Port Blair. It was established by the British in 1883 and it can be reached by a wooden bridge as it is located on Chatham Island. The saw mill is still working and it has an important role in the betterment of the economy and development.As of 2017, Port Blair had a population around 1.5 Lac. The town survived the Indian Ocean Earthquake completely such that it went about as a base for the rescue. It is intentionally placed to reach every one of the regions that were decimated by the Tsunami. Port Blair has an average literacy rate of 89.76%.———————————————————————————————————4. Bhubaneswar:It is an ancient city in India’s eastern state of Odisha, formerly Orissa. Along with Jamshedpur and Chandigarh, it was one of modern India's first planned cities. Although the modern city of Bhubaneswar was formally established only in 1948, the history of the areas in and around the present-day city can be traced to 3rd century BCE and earlier. It is a confluence of Hindu, Buddhist and Jain heritage boasting of some of the finest Kalingan temples.Bhubaneswar is categorised as a Tier-2 city. An emerging information technology (IT) and education hub, Bhubaneswar is one of the country's fastest-developing cities.Temple Town: Many temples built from sandstone are dotted around Bindu Sagar Lake in the old city, including the 11th-century Hindu Lingaraja Temple. Outside Rajarani Temple are sculpted figures of the guardians of the 8 cardinal and ordinal directions. Jain antiques, weaponry and indigenous pattachitra paintings fill the Odisha State Museum.Dhauli Giri: Dhauli Road(8 Kms from City) Looking down on the plains that bore witness to the gruesome war waged on Kalinga by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka, stand the rock edicts of Dhauli. It was here that King Ashoka, full of remorse after the Kalinga War in 261 BC, renounced his blood-thirsty campaign and turned to Buddhism.The Shanti Stupa or the peace pagoda, built through the Indo-Japanese collaboration, is on the opposite hill.Khandagiri and Udayagiri:These twin hills served as the site of an ancient Jain monastery which was carved into cave like chambers in the face of the hill. Dating back to the 2nd century BC, some of the caves have beautiful carvings.Together with Konark and Puri , it forms the Swarna Tribhuja or Golden Triangle of Odisha tourism. Apart from these there are many places like Nandankanan Zoo,Museum of Tribal Art & Artefacts.Bhubaneswar has developed as an information technology hub. Mindtree,Infosys, Satyam, TCS, IBM, Wipro, Mindtree Solutions, Discoverture Solutions and others have their offices here.It is also growing into an education hub. There are many engineering colleges and some good Business schools. XIM and KSOM are two prominent B-schools in Bhubaneswar.Kalinga Stadium:It is a multi-purpose stadium, foundation stone laid by Biju Patnaik in 1978. It is situated in the heart of Bhubneshwar near Nayapalli area. It has facilities for athletics, soccer, field hockey, basketball, tennis, table tennis basketball, volleyball, Wall climbing and swimming. It hosted matches of Asian Athletics Championships, Hockey World Cup, FIH Hockey World League,. It will host Asia Rugby Women’s Championship 2018.———————————————————————————————————5. Thrissur:It is known as the cultural capital of Kerala, and the land of Poorams. Thrissur is a revenue district of Kerala situated in the central part of that state. The Arabian Sea lies to the west and Western Ghats stretches towards the eastThe Vadakkunnathan temple, believed to have been founded by the legendary saint Parasurama, is a classic example of the Kerala style of architecture and houses several sacred shrines and with beautiful murals delineating graphically, various episodes from the Mahabharata. Thiruvambadi Sri Krishna Temple, one of the largest Sree Krishna temples in Kerala and Paramekkavu Bagavathi Temple which is one of the largest Bagavathi temples in Kerala is also situated in the cityThrissur district is home to over 10% of Kerala’s population. Thrissur district is bordered by the districts of Palakkad and Malappuram to the north, and the districts of Ernakulam and Idukki to the south.Thrissur has a Gender ratio of 1109 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 95.32%.Asia's tallest church, the Our Lady of Dolours Syro-Malabar Catholic Basilica (Puthan Pally), Our Lady of Lourdes Syro-Malabar Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral which has an underground shrine, is a masterpiece of architecture. Mart Mariam Cathedral, the oldest church in the city, which belongs to the Assyrian Church of the East also known as Chaldean Syrian Church of the East, is situated in Thrissur. The St. Anthony's Syro-Malabar Catholic Forane Church, also known as Chinna Roma (Small Rome) are also in Thrissur.On an average, there are 124 rainy days in a year. The maximum average temperature of the City in the summer season is 36-degree Celsius while the minimum temperature recorded is 27 degrees Celsius. The winter season records a maximum average of 31-degree Celsius and a minimum average of 20-degree Celsius.Guruvayur temple: Just 29 km away from Thrissur.Guruvayur, aptly called the Dwarka of the South, is one of the most significant pilgrimage centers in India. The idol of the famous Sri Krishna Temple here is said to have been worshipped by Lord Brahma himself. The Guruvayur Temple is unique, as it is not built in the typical South Indian style of temple architecture. For example, its architecture is not massive or grand but simple in keeping with the style of Kerala houses. Its four gateways lead to the main gopuram (where the idol is installed), protected by a slopping terracotta roof made of Mangalore tiles. Again, in true Kerala style, the temple owns 36 mighty elephants that live at Punnathur Fort, 4 km north of the temple.Banking Town of South India:Thrissur is home to many leading Malayali entrepreneurs, and is a major financial and commercial hub of Kerala.According to Reserve Bank of India, the city in the 1930s boasted of head offices of 58 banks and was recognised by RBI as 'Banking Town'.Even now also it's the headquarters of major banks like South Indian Bank, Catholic Syrian Bank, Dhanalakshmi Bank, Lord Krishna Bank and non-banking institutions like Manappuram General Finance and Leasing Ltd, Kerala State Financial Enterprise and ESAF Microfinance and InvestmentsAyurvedic Hub:The city is also emerging as the largest hub for Ayurvedic drug manufacturing industry in India.Out of the 850 ayurvedic drug-manufacturing units in Kerala, about 150 units, including some of the major ayurvedic drug manufacturers in the Kerala state are located in and around the city. Of these, some of the companies like the Oushadhi, Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala, KP Namboodiris, Sitaram Ayurvedic Pharmacy Ltd, Kandamkulathy Vaidyasala, SNA Oushadhasala etc. are among the leading ayurvedic drug manufacturers in the state.Thrissur Ayurveda Cluster, anonther initiative by a group of Ayurvedic manufacturers of Thrissur, has developed a cluster in KINFRA Park in Koratty in Thrissur District.Jewellery and textile Center:Modern retailing is a big business and revenue earner for the city. Jewellery and textile retailing occupies a major part of the retailing business in Thrissur. The city is considered as hub of jewellery and textile business in Kerala.Most of the jewellery groups have outlets in Thrissur and provide jobs to thousands of people. Kalyan Group, Jos Alukka & Sons, Joyalukkas and Josco Group have their bases in city.InfoPark Thrissur: The fourth technology park in Kerala after Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi and Kozhikode is situated in Thrissur District.Education in Thrissur:With universities like Kerala Kalamandalam, Kerala Police Academy, Kerala Agricultural University, Kerala University of Medical and Allied Sciences, National Research Institute for Panchakarma, Cheruthuruthy and Kerala Institute of Local Administration, the City would add another feather in its crown by having 'World Class University' and a 'Science City'. The Raj Kovu institute of Agriculture was made in 2012 to teach farmers about modern techniques of agriculture and better farming practices.With the three medical colleges, Government Medical College, Thrissur, Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences and a medical university Kerala University of Medical and Allied Sciences, the city has become synonymous with medical education in Kerala there are has 2 kendriya vidyalayas.Healthcare:The city has an ancient tradition of Ayurvedic treatment. From the Ashtavaidya tradition, Oushadhi, Vaidyaratnam Oushadhasala, Sitaram Ayurvedic Pharmacy Ltd and SNA Oushadhasala is located in city of Thrissur,All these firms have been instrumental in spreading the fame of Kerala Ayurvedic treatment, as thousands of overseas patients visit the Ayurvedic treatment facilities in and around Thrissur, every year. Vaidyaratnam runs a medical college and Chikitsalayam, with global standards. Sitaram have a 100 bedded eight storied super speciality hospital in the city of Thrissur, envisaged as the first of its kind Ayurveda super speciality hospital in the country.There are three medical colleges, Government Medical College, Thrissur, Amala Institute of Medical Sciences and Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute, and few other hi-tech hospitals.Museums and Other Tourist Spots:

The correct obvious answer is to simple start repairing the existing infrastructure in the USA that has collapsed or is on the verge of failing. $275B for 5 years is only a partial down payment when $1.9T is needed for infrastructure repair over the next 10 years.We should focus on simultaneously fixing all the infrastructure allocating a bit more initial funding to those areas in need of most repair. Fortunately all the analysis of the existing infrastructure state has been complete for years. The real problem is the GOP congress that ignores their responsibility to keep the national economy in good working order.As usual the GOP views infrastructure spending as a cost which is moronic because infrastructure capital investment is a savings allowing for substantially greater more productive economic activity in the USA. I find it typically pointless to discuss capital investments with most Republicans as national infrastructure investment is a requirement for a globally competitive national economy.Below is a list of the existing infrastructure state as well as an excellent analysis from the Financial Times, US Political, Financial & Business News my source for objective impartial information.Thanks GOP! America's Decaying Infrastructure Kills At Least 1 Person In Ohio (VIDEO)Infrastructure, Dammit!As a nation, ours scored a D+ on the latest report card. Blocked by Republican intransigence, we’ve been spectacularly “penny wise and pound foolish.”(It costs a lot more to replace a bridge after it collapses than to maintain it so it doesn’tcollapse — 10 times more so when you account for all the detours and traffic jams for the months required to rebuild.)2013 Report Card for America's InfrastructureESTIMATED INVESTMENT NEEDED BY 2020: $3.6TRILLIONINFRASTRUCTURE GRADES FOR 2013WATER & ENVIRONMENTDams DDrinking Water DHazardous Waste DLevees D-Solid Waste B-Wastewater DTRANSPORTATIONAviation DBridges C+Inland Waterways D-Ports CRail C+Roads DTransit DPUBLIC FACILITIESPublic Parks & Recreation C-Schools DENERGYEnergy D+U.S. Infrastructure Has Been Neglected for DecadesThe United States has underinvested for years, and should spend at least an additional $150 billion a year on infrastructure through 2020 to meet its needs, according to estimates.US: Neglected nation - FT.comFrom decaying bridges to poisoned water, fixing America’s infrastructure could cost trillionsA collapsed bridge near Mount Vernon in Washington stateDrew Galloway picks his way through the bowels of New York’s dingy and chaotic Penn Station, shouting above the din of passing inter-city and commuter trains. The legacy of flood damage to the pair of railway tunnels that connect Manhattan with New Jersey, coupled with record passenger demand, is imposing a mounting strain on America’s busiest railway terminus.Eventually, says Mr Galloway, chief planner for Amtrak’s north-east corridor, the tunnels will have to be closed and refurbished because of corrosion, potentially casting the economically critical artery into crisis.“We are in a race to get new tunnels in place and complete them before we see some very significant disruptions taking place here,” Mr Galloway says, surveying the subterranean spider’s web of railway lines running underneath the station, which serves 600,000 passengers a day, according to Amtrak.Delayed by political dogfights and still beset by funding doubts, the project to shore up services into Manhattan by boring two new railway tunnels under the Hudson River took a step forward at the end of last year, as state and federal leaders backed a new plan.There is, however, a very long climb ahead for what is arguably the most economically sensitive US transport project — a plan costing upwards of $7.5bn that is crucial both to New York commuters and to rail services across the north-east of the country.It comes amid rising public discontent over the deteriorating state of large tracts of US infrastructure, and anger from both sides of the political divide on thepresidential campaign trail. Bridge collapses, train derailments, fires and shutdowns on the Washington DC metro, drought in the west and an appalling lead contamination scandal in Michigan have highlighted the legacy of decades of underfunding, mismanagement and neglect.The American Society of Civil Engineers yesterday projected a $1.44tn investment funding gap between 2016 and 2025, warning of a mounting drag on business activity, exports and incomes.Politicians are demanding action. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has called for a $275bn spending blitz, including the creation of an infrastructure bank, recalling past glories such as the interstate highway system and Hoover Dam. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is bucking anti-spending dogma within the party by promising major programmes to renew infrastructure and create jobs — albeit without putting forward any detail on how to pay for them.Report finds under-investment will lead to lost business sales, rising costs and dented incomesWithout radical surgery, the decay in tunnels, railways and waterways will cost the US economy nearly $4tn in lost gross domestic product by 2025 as costs rise and productivity is impeded, according toestimates from the ASCE, dragging on a recovery in output that is the shallowest since the end of the second world war.Faced with crimped public resources, President Barack Obama’s administration and some states have tried to fill infrastructure gaps by luring in private investment, including from public-private partnerships or P3s.A number of states and municipalities have lifted petrol taxes to pay for roads and bridges, even as the federal petrol tax that serves as the backbone of transport spending nationwide has remained frozen since 1993. Many argue that the recent fall in oil prices presented the perfect moment to raise petrol taxes.Without breakthroughs in a divided Washington, experts fear worsening decay. “A lot is riding on the election,” says Rosabeth Kanter, an academic at Harvard Business School and author of Move, a book on America’s infrastructure shortfalls. “We need political will.”Squandered opportunityInadequate infrastructure is far from unique to the US. Public investment has been trending lower as a share of GDP in economies including Japan, Germany and France in recent decades. The International Monetary Fund has implored governments with fiscal wiggle room to loosen constraints on investment to combat moribund growth.Anxiety about the topic in the US has become politically explosive. Economists such as Lawrence Summers, former Treasury secretary and Financial Times columnist, argue that increased public investment on infrastructure would essentially pay for itself via improved growth. That is strongly contested by Republicans who want to cut the role of the state as they sabre-rattle over public waste and a national debt of $19tn.The debate is being inflamed by a number of scandals involving decaying infrastructure, at a time when mounting demands are being placed on it by a population set to grow by 60m over the next 25 years. These include the contamination of drinking water with lead in Flint, Michigan, which has been repeatedly cited by Mrs Clinton on the campaign trail as she and other Democrats accuse the Republican governor of the state of neglecting vulnerable citizens.Even in the heart of Washington, Memorial Bridge, a symbolic link between the north and the south of the US, might have to be closed to traffic early in the next decade if major repairs are not carried out. Around the country more than 61,000 bridges were deemed structurally deficient in 2014.Last year US public capital investment, which includes infrastructure, was just 3.4 per cent of GDP, or $611bn, according to the president’s Council of Economic Advisers — the lowest in more than 60 years.In the White House, the inability to do more to improve roads, bridges and other infrastructure is seen as one of the major policy failures since the crisis. Mr Obama last month bemoaned the absence of a major infrastructure programme from 2012 to 2014, when borrowing costs were low and the construction industry was short of jobs.The administration included so-called shovel-ready infrastructure projects in its $800bn stimulus bill after Mr Obama took office, but the spending fell short of what was needed for repairs and to galvanise the economy.Critics see it as a squandered opportunity. However, Jason Furman, chairman of the council, says Mr Obama made repeated attempts to get more money into infrastructure and was rebuffed. “Congress has been unwilling to substantially expand infrastructure investment — it is as simple as that,” he says.Ideological fightThere has been some progress. Last year Congress passed the first federal law in 10 years providing long-term funding for roads and other surface transportation. Yet the five-year, $305bn programme involved fiscal gimmicks, including an extraordinary raid on the Federal Reserve’s capital funds.Given the ideological divisions over public spending, however, some experts are gloomy about significant progress after the election. “There has been systemic under-investment at a state and federal level for over three decades and I see no immediate prospect of that being reversed,” says Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution think-tank. He argues that a “mobilisation of private sector capital” is the most viable answer in an era of budgetary austerity.The administration agrees: “We see a lot of potential with large sums of private capital on the sidelines looking for productive places to invest on one hand, and a significant US infrastructure deficit on the other,” says Anthony Foxx, transportation secretary.One answer is P3 deals, where the private sector provides funding for construction and maintenance in return for a stream of revenue, in theory bringing in better cost and project management than under traditional public sector contracts.The government last year created a one-stop shop for sponsors and funders to smooth the way for more complex deals. A tax change was signed into law to open the door to greater investment by foreign funds.Moody’s, the credit rating agency, predicts that the US could become one of the biggest P3 markets. Major projects such as the overhaul of New York’s LaGuardia Airport are in the pipeline. For the time being, however, P3s remain a small slice of the infrastructure pie, featuring in just 60 projects around the country as of 2015.The US market has lagged behind Canada and some European countries in part because local governments have long been able to raise money cheaply via tax-free bonds — although that market is only slowly reviving after the recession that ended in 2009. A third of US states do not have laws that would allow P3s to be used, and sceptics fear they can be a costly way of delivering public services if poorly structured.“The P3 market is a way to tackle some of those large and complex projects, and we will see more of these,” says Jane Garvey of Meridiam, an investor involved in the Port of Miami Tunnel and other projects.However, she says: “It is a misunderstanding to think that the private sector can solve it on its own. You have to have a revenue stream to pay it back. A strong federal programme is important.”Greg Stanton, the mayor of Phoenix, Arizona, says many local leaders are tired of waiting for a breakthrough in Washington and are instead forging ahead on their own. He says he was accused of being mad when he ran for re-election last year on a platform that included higher taxes to pay for a municipal transport overhaul.Yet a majority of the city’s population voted in favour of the consumption tax increase to fund a 35-year, $32bn plan that includes a tripling in the size of the city’s light rail system. While there is some federal participation, it is smaller than in previous projects.“The relationship between cities and Washington is fairly broken and it is never going back to what it was in the past,” says Mr Stanton. “If we are going to advance as a city we need investment, and that will have to come much more from ourselves than directly from the federal government.”Taxing timesSome 18 states have pushed through increases or reforms to their petrol taxes to pay for infrastructure since 2013, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says. “We are seeing many more states taking the initiative, and finding and identifying revenue streams they can use for infrastructure; that is a big step forward,” says Ms Garvey.Sitting in the depths of Penn Station, Mr Galloway of Amtrak says the plan to build new Hudson River tunnels and refurbish the existing ones — central to a broader regional transport overhaul called Gateway — will probably have to involve the private sector alongside state and federal backers. “When we look at federal funding sources it is very clear that all of them are heavily competed for by other projects,” he says.An earlier version of the Hudson River railway tunnel was scuppered by New Jersey governor Chris Christie in 2010 — a controversial move that many saw as political. The new project’s advocates say it would be calamitous if this plan were to fail as well.For the passengers whose trains rattle through this vital route into America’s biggest city, a huge amount is at stake. “We have to figure out a way to make this happen,” says Mr Galloway.Political roadblock: Projects held up by Congressional battlesBarack Obama used Washington’s crisis-stricken metro system as a weapon to beat Republican opponents last week, as the president accused those in Congress of having an “ideology that says government spending is necessarily bad”.The transit system’s vast problems are not simply a question of insufficient federal funding. It faces rolling closures for long overdue repairs after being rocked by a series of track fires, including a fatal incident last year. On Saturday the Federal Transit Administration issued emergency directives threatening to shut down all or part of the system unless it took urgent action to guarantee passenger safety.The directives highlighted longstanding complaints about mismanagement and poor safety within the rail network, the nation’s second busiest. The National Transportation Safety Board criticised a “lack of a safety culture” after a fatal crash in 2009. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority did not respond to requests for comment on the weekend’s safety notice.Michael Strain of the right-of-centre American Enterprise Institute argues that the problems are not simply a reflection of funding: they also come down to public waste, inefficiency, and mismanagement.A tendency for progressive politicians to marry infrastructure spending to calls for fiscal stimulus has made it harder to get bills through Congress, he adds.An attempt by the Obama administration to strike a tax deal to fund more infrastructure via the repatriation of corporate cash held overseas has faltered. Proposals for an infrastructure bank to leverage up the funds available for new projects — something Hillary Clinton has backed — have also gone nowhere to date.Analysts say it is hard to imagine any policy progress before November’s election. “My sense is we will continue to muddle along until things start to break,” says Mr Strain.

To answer this we must compare both countries, India, and China. For this, I will begin by destroying certain arguments presented by Indian nationalists.Given we are constantly hearing again how the British impoverished India. This is not in fact true. Most certainly there were things about the Raj which we would very much prefer had not happened, most certainly there were horrors. But the idea that India was poorer when the British left than when they had arrived is simply not true. There was significant economic growth throughout the colonial period, the only problem being that it was Malthusian growth, economic growth that leads to an increase in population, not an increase in living standards.You know, exactly the same sort of growth that has happened everywhere else in the world before a place has an industrial revolution. In fact, very much the sort of growth which happened in India after independence.Sashi Tharoor is one of those, nationalists (even though he’s British) making this claim about the British impoverishing India, I quote:“The upshot of the empire, as Tharoor puts it, was that “What had once been one of the richest and most industrialised economies of the world, which together with China accounted for almost 75% of world industrial output in 1750, had been reduced by the depredations of imperial rule to one of the poorest, most backward, illiterate and diseased societies on Earth by the time of independence in 1947.”That is to speak in relative terms. It’s entirely true to say that other countries grew faster than India did over those years. But that’s actually what happened, that other places grew faster. It is not equally true to say that India grew poorer in absolute terms over those years, centuries.To test this we need to look at two things, Angus Maddison’s work on GDP per capita over geography and time (yes, these are adjusted for both inflation over time and price differences over geogpraphy, the numbers are all directly comparable) The other thing we need is estimates of historical population for India.From Maddison’s figures we can see that the average historical experience of life has been a GDP per capitain the $600 to $800 range. There’s not been that many places much lower than that for any length of time because that’s a good definition of subsistence. Less than that $600 or so and no one has the economic surplus to be able to raise children who then have their own children. That’s what subsistence means pretty much. So, societies much poorer than this cease to exist.Some places have done rather better than this and we can actually, from those same figures, date when places had their industrial revolutions by when they started to do better. For it really is an industrial revolution which allows living standards per person to start to rise above this level.What happened before such an industrial revolution is as the Reverend Malthus pointed out. Yes, technological advance, this raises living standards for a time. But the effect of that raised living standard is that more children survive to go on to have children themselves. Thus population rises and living standards converge back upon that subsistence level again, a generation or two down the line. This is what we call “Malthusian growth,” where economic growth becomes more people, not higher standards of living. We have growth in GDP, but not growth, or not much of it, in GDP per capita. That’s really the definition of it.Deepak Lal likes to call that other type of growth, where living standards rise substantially, either Smithian or Promethian growth. The first is driven by Smith’s division and specialisation of labour and the trade that results, the second is from the harnessing of fossil fuels, replacing human and animal muscle. That too leads to a rise in GDP, but a rise in GDP per capita, and thus living standards, as well.So, from Maddison’s numbers we have an estimate (and of course, these are estimates, but they’re the best we’ve got) of $522 for 1870 for India. That’s the earliest we have in this series. Prior to that we assume that it was much as with other countries, Japan at something between $400 and $600 from 750 AD to 1700 AD, France, Switzerland and England at $600 in 1 AD, perhaps up to $750 in 1300 AD for England. These are simply what we are pretty sure are average living standards in history. Again note these are adjusted to inflation already, they are very close to that $1.90 a day we currently use as our global definition of absolute poverty, which is why the World Bank uses that very definition (and we’re using slightly different dollars in our description, a technicality which need not detain us here). At independence in India we have $618. Truly, not much of a change in living standards per person over those centuries. But that is not an increase in poverty. It is, at worst, a maintenance of the same level of poverty per person over those centuries.Which brings us to the population numbers. We think there were around 155 million people in India in 1750 AD. In 1947 we think there were around 355 million. We have more than twice the population at roughly the same level of economic output, level of living standard. The Indian economy was therefore more than twice the size when the British left as when they arrived. But that growth appeared not as higher living standards but as more people at that same living standard–Malthusian growth as we call it.Yes, I should point out that I am English, It is also true that British India could have been done much better, should have been done much better, that there were inexcusable parts of it and so on. Especially Winston Churchill being directly responsible for causing a famine to be much worse than it actually was. Much of the criticism is absolutely correct. Yet this idea that India was poorer at the end than at the beginning just isn’t true.India’s economy was more than twice the size as the British left than it had been when they arrived. Unfortunately, it was Malthusian growth, an increase in the number of people, not an increase in living standards. As with most economic growth across history, before an industrial revolution.Now, China.What sets China apart from India and is there more to it than meets the eye when it comes to China's growth figures?Some leading corporate leaders from Asia debated on this at a conference recently held at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.The emerging markets of Asia hold the promise for the world's corporation. India and China are the two key markets in Asia.But China today leads India significantly. It gets ten times as much foreign direct investment as India does and its economic growth rate is much faster than that of India.India has been showing a gross domestic product growth of an average of 5 per cent for the last five years. In contrast, China has averaged at least 9 per cent growth.With China threatening now to become a force to reckon with even in information technology services, Indian corporate leaders are examining why China ranks better than India and what are its (India's) weaknesses.In the first part of this series, we look at the ten reasons why China is ahead of India.In the second and concluding part we will look at whether there is more to China's economic growth numbers than what meets the eye.Here are ten reasons, according to the experts, why China is ahead of India.#1. An authoritarian government"Once committed to a focus on economic growth, some good policy decisions were implemented quickly and efficiently. From the time Deng (Xiaoping) set the direction 25 years ago, it has not been altered by party politics, ideology or leadership changes," says Kenneth J Dewoskin, Senior Consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (China).While India's corporate leaders agree that this could be true, they are emphatic that India's vibrant democracy is the only way for the country to ensure that growth and development reaches all."There is chaos in it and sometimes policy decisions tend to be reversed. But ultimately India's democracy is essential for the country's welfare," says Lalita Gupte, Managing Director, ICICI Bank.#2. High savings rateAccording to Dewoskin who has been involved with China for the last 40 years, China has a high savings rate, which is recycled and concentrates wages paid to workers into four large state banks.This capital is in turn directed by the leadership, which concentrates this available capital into key projects.This capital has consistently financed more than 85 per cent of China's infrastructure investment.#3. Investment in models and showcasesChina's leadership has always focused on investment in models and showcases. All this has helped canalize foreign direct investment into the country and helped create local economic development.For instance, Shenzhen and Zhangjiagang were developed into fantastic models that could help sell not only the region, but also China as a whole to investors.China created awe-inspiring gateways for visiting foreign investors: the Beijing and Shanghai airports, Pudong Development Zone, and Beijing's Financial Street are just a few examples.That model has helped many companies who were tentative about China make up their minds about setting up a centre there.Ganesh Natrajan, CEO of Zensar Technologies recalls how his company was wooed to set up a centre in China.Zensar was wooed by Zhuhai, a tiny city in South China's Guangdong province. The city's mayor rolled out the red carpet for the company, laying perfect roads, building the software park and putting all the facilities in place even before company officials could visit the city for the first time.The result was that when Zensar officials made the trip to Zhuhai they were greeted with impressive facilities that convinced them immediately to set up a centre there.Now when was the last time India pursued any investment so aggressively?#4. A consistent and thoughtful marketing effortChina has sold itself on a single point: the size of its market."Every businessperson of any size anywhere in the world knows what the number 1.3 billion means: China's big market. How many know the population of India? Chinese leaders discarded their Mao suits immediately and put on coats and ties, talked the language of commerce, organised thousands of delegations, hosted endless conferences and exhibitions, and laboured to convince foreign investors that China was pro-business, stable, and committed to reform and an open-door policy," suggests Dewoskin.According to him, leaders like Zhu Rongji mounted the world stage as a leader who was all about business and nothing else.In contrast, India's corporate leaders agree that the country's politicians have never sold the country.Much of the investment flowing into the country today is on the back of India's reputation as a place for skilled people who have proven themselves in the information technology services sector.#5. Creation of zones and infrastructure for businessesChina has created many flexible investment zones, export processing zones, free trade zones, high tech zones, complete with tax incentives and good infrastructure.India has tried to replicate this with its creation of export processing zones and software technology parks.But the difference lies in some key areas like creation of infrastructure and quick approval of investment proposals.#6. The business-above-all attitude"China has had the good fortune of having Hong Kong and Taiwan outside its political control for decades or centuries but within China's ethnic and investment family," says Dewoskin."China always set aside political, social, and ideological differences in the interest of getting investment, technology, and export channels," he adds.However, in India, trade and economic growth have never been paramount.India's economic growth has always given in to the sentiments of the local industry; like in cases where foreign investments have been curbed or restricted.#7. A passionate DiasporaMuch of the 60 million Chinese who live outside the country are economic forces to reckon with. But they also give back heavily to their country in terms of remittances and investments.China has recognized the importance of its Diaspora and has worked to cultivate it. The Chinese government has a special cabinet ministry to deal with the overseas Chinese matter.Incentives are offered to Non-Resident Chinese to come to China and participate in various socio-economic activities of the Mainland. The current economic boom in southern China, for example, is largely due to the capital investments made by overseas Chinese entrepreneurs.In the case of India, there has been a lack of consistency in government policy towards Non-Resident Indians.India thus needs to harness the knowledge and capital of the Diaspora and develop plans on how NRIs can contribute to the country's economic growth.#8. A strong manufacturing baseChina has become the world's manufacturing hub.The shelves of giant store chains like Wal-Mart are testimony to the fact that msot of the low-cost products today are made in China because it offers the cheapest source of manufacturing.In electronics and hardware, China is the manufacturing hub for companies like Siemens and Hitachi Global Systems.China's success in manufacturing has attracted companies from other sectors too. Michelin, the world's biggest car tyre manufacturer, plans to make its Chinese operations its biggest global manufacturing base.The strong manufacturing base means that China is able to offer employment to a larger section of its population, compared to India which has shown growth predominantly in the services segment.#9. Ability to respond quickly"China is very fast and efficient in the redirection of resources into higher education, economics, management, computer science, electronic and biotech engineering, and law," suggests Dewoskin."It has a permissive and supportive policy to study abroad, coupled with an aggressive marketing and incentive programme to bring stronger graduates back," says Dewoskin.In contrast, India has yet to counter the problem of brain drain or promote itself as a destination for entrepreneurs who want to set up companies.#10. Putting Chinese interests above everything elseChina has had a stubborn set of investment policies that opened some doors, shut others, forced technology transfer and permitted liberal IPR (intellectual property rights) appropriation, says Dewoskin.Together, India and China present the world's largest markets. China is regarded as India's only serious competitor and has become a reference point even for India to measure its success.However, China averages close to 9 per cent GDP growth rate compared to India's 5 per cent and has become the manufacturing hub for the world.But experts believe that China's growth will plateau and India will emerge as the choice destination in Asia for investors.China's problems are being seen as related to its pursuit of a socialist market economy despite calling for private investment.Recently, China's central government reasserted control of the 200 largest enterprises with the creation of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC)."Provincial and local governments control the vast majority of capital-hungry enterprises, and that creates an unsolvable collusion between regulators and the state's ownership interests. This is arguably advantageous in the early, low-tech stages of infrastructure and commercial development, but for the future its impact is likely to be less positive," says Kenneth J DeWoskin, a senior consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (China), who has been studying China for the last 40 years.China's biggest assetChina's biggest asset has been its strong manufacturing base. While it will be very difficult for India to catch up with China in the manufacturing sector, there is a strong opportunity for India to build itself up as the back office to the world.In the last few years, a number of IT companies like Oracle, IBM, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft have set up research and development centres in India, a sign that, industry experts say, speaks of the fact that India is slowly moving up the value chain."We should not lose sight of the fact that China's exports and inbound investment still largely focus on manufacturing with cheap labour. Successful technology companies are rare, maybe non-existent, and high tech undertakings like wafer fabs (fabrication units) are at least 5 per cent more expensive in China than in Taiwan or South Korea," says DeWoskin.So how deep really are China's roots in the high technology sector?China exported services and exports worth $325 billion last year and had officially classified just over 20 per cent, or $68 billion, as 'hi-tech exports.'DeWoskin says that most of this 20 per cent were either components or low margin, commodity consumer electronic products. These include technology components, but with a value-add in China that is not really 'hi-tech.'And these exports are not very Chinese either."Eighty-five per cent of China's hi-tech exports are produced by foreign-invested enterprises. A full 61 per cent come from WOFEs (wholly foreign-owned enterprises), taking advantage of ultra efficient manufacturing, often in huge, cheap labour plants run by Flextronics and other electronic manufacturing outsource shops. Within these walls, there is little hi-tech value creation, no robust R&D investment," he explains.Chinese 'hi-tech' exportsIn real hi-tech, China is estimated to have run up a $15 billion trade deficit last year, mostly in semiconductors, which contrasts to its huge trade surplus otherwise."In the semiconductor value chain, of design, manufacture, and assemble-test, all of China's export earnings are at the last, low-value end of the chain," says Dewoskin.According to development economists, China follows the 'Flying Geese' model of development, where the path to economic maturity is divided into seven stages. The first three stages of development depend on cheap labour in factories that assemble products.However, getting past the mid-point stages is more complex."It requires robust IPR protection, a functioning commercial legal system, a sound, market-driven financial system, and the ability to create and manage brands globally. It requires disciplined, commercial R&D supplemented by objectively directed public basic R&D spending, and a relatively open, competitive, objective standards process," explains Dewoskin.According to DeWoskin, unfair regulatory practices are pandemic in China, some publicly acknowledged and others subtle and take the form of uneven application of taxes, duties, and user fees, uneven enforcement of regulation and law and politically influenced supply chain relationships."These practices certainly impact foreign investors but have a greater negative impact on China's own entrepreneurial domestic private economy," he says.Unlike India or Taiwan, R&D investment and achievements are not seen as being as rewarded by the market that is largely focused on mass production and huge factories."This makes R&D funding in China forever dependent on government industrial policy and planning, and it allows reverse-engineering to masquerade as R&D. Neither is a formula for success in today's global competition for innovation and creativity," says DeWoskin.FDI figures questionableLast year China's foreign direct investment numbers came under much scrutiny too.A study by the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank arm, questioned whether China's FDI figures were accurate.IFC suggested that the reason why China's FDI numbers are so high is because it resorts to 'round tripping', a method where funds originated from the Mainland are disguised as foreign capital and repatriated back to it via Hong Kong.IFC estimates nearly 50 per cent of total FDI flows in 1999 and 2000 to have gone through round tripping; and this would reduce net FDI inflows from about $40 billion to about $20 billion in China.India's numbers of about $3 billion a year in FDI have also come under scrutiny, but for the reason that the IFC suggests that they are too low. IFC has said India's FDI statistics do not conform to international accounting standards. India excludes reinvested earnings, subordinated debt, overseas commercial borrowings; all included in other countries' FDI statistics.A recomputation would raise India' net FDI inflows from $3 billion a year to about $8 billion, while China's inflows, net of round-tripping, are about $20 billion.On that basis, IFC had said that FDI represents 2 per cent of China's GDP and 1.7 per cent of India's GDP, which is not much of a difference.China faces long-term problemsFor a while now, experts have been saying that China will hit a brick wall in terms of growth.But DeWoskin says that such prophesies are a tad exaggerated.Undoubtedly, China is growing faster and will emerge as one of the biggest economies of the world, maybe even more than India, but in the long-term it faces some serious problems that it needs to address."I do believe that the policies and practices of the first 25 years of reform have circumvented deep structural problems that will bedevil and frustrate China's next development stages, and this leaves plenty of room for economies with other strengths, and perhaps different problems, to compete successfully in Asia and the world," he says.Professor Sen argues that it is not the nature of government that is the main factor in China’s success but its investment in health and education that provided fuel to its explosive growth. India he said has under-invested in these key areas and hence its economic growth is poorly supported by quality human capital. Professor Sen was critical of the suggestion that countries could grow economically first and then invest in education later saying that it was the reverse that is true. He supported his claim bringing historical evidence of Japan’s rapid growth since the second decade of the 20th century being driven by its investment in health and education after the Meiji restoration on the 1868. More recently, similar investment by Korea and the South East Asian countries provided impetus to economic growth in these countries.In the case of India, while efforts have been made to improve literacy, its literacy rate in 2011 is 74% well below China’s at 95% (in 2010). In fact India’s literacy level today is even less than what China’s was in 1990The case of health is no different. In the case of life expectancy, once again India’s life expectancy in 2011 is below what it was in China’s in 1990 (fig-2). Today India’s life expectancy is 11 years below that of China.These data supports Amartya Sen’s basic premise that India’s low literacy rates and poor health outcomes as compared to China’s may explain a big part of the disparity in development between the two countries.I’m conclusion, India needs to elect a government who wants to improve India, rather than blaming the British for India’s shortcomings. Then, and only then will India take its rightful place as one of the world leaders.I would also strongly suggest that India looks at the GDP fall in India, and the GDP rise in the US and draw a comparison as to rise and fall, then perhaps, the truth about what caused India’s decline will become common knowledge in India and it will rise to its rightful place.