I have travelled to Singapore a number of times in the past seven years, as my son is staying there since 2007. Whenever I visit the place, I have always been fascinated by the cleanliness, traffic discipline, efficient public transportation, 24/7 shopping convenience and the general orderliness of life which the authorities have been able to realize and sustain over the years. Within a period of 50 years since independence in 1965, the country has transformed a population consisting mostly of unskilled people into a resurgent society engaged in delivering services in the field of technology, finance and marketing. The polity consisting of immigrant people from China, Malaysia and India are living in perfect harmony. An island of less than 1000 sq.kms area with limited land and natural resources, the country has been able to increase the per capita income of its people manifold. They have provided affordable housing to every citizen.
Indian Bank, Singapore is one of the oldest among the foreign banks in Singapore, operating since 1941 and having its own business premises in Bharat Building in the central business district of Singapore.
Is it possible to replicate the success story of Singapore in India?
In contrast to Singapore, India is endowed with vast resources in terms of land, rivers, sea-coast, mountains, coal and minerals. India is a country of a great past with its history dating back to over 5000 years, with a great legacy of arts and literature. We have a population almost 300 times that of Singapore. Our progress since independence in 1947 is by all means notable. We have developed a vast industrial structure with a variety ranging from automobiles, chemicals and metallurgy to electrical, electronics, pharmaceuticals, bio-technology and healthcare. In the field of Information Technology services, we have become world leaders. We have developed world class educational institutions serving as sources of manpower for multinational corporations. We have made strides in atomic research and installed nuclear power stations. In space research, we have developed capability to launch space vehicles and satellites. We have successfully launched spacecrafts to the moon and the planet Mars. Under the green revolution and white revolution, we have increased our production of agricultural commodities and milk. We have put in place an efficient capital market and a banking system offering a variety of savings, investment and loan products.
Despite these notable achievements, we have not been able to eradicate poverty and still have a vast section of the population living below the poverty line. Our public hospitals present a pathetic picture and health care is becoming increasingly beyond the reach of the common man. Our Government schools have deteriorated in quality thereby resulting in poor student enrolment and flight of students to private schools. In rural areas, we have not been able to mitigate debt burden and consequent farmer suicides. Our towns and cities including state capitals present an untidy picture in terms of cleanliness and hygiene, with garbage lying scattered. Our roads are overflowing with vehicles with frequent traffic jams. We have vast population living in slums under poor sanitary conditions.
Success stories in one country cannot be replicated in another country unless the underlying conditions are identical and in this respect, India cannot be compared to Singapore. India is a sub-continent with diverse regions, cultures, languages, religions and geographical features, whereas Singapore is a tiny state, just the size of a city in India. The political structure in India is complex, with multiple parties representing divergent groups in power in various states, while Singapore has a single party in power since independence. To quote the late Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister and founder of modern Singapore, India would require 300 Lee Kuan Yews to realize similar achievement. The task calls for sustained hard work and a political will to realize the goal with zeal and determination. We require coordinated efforts by various wings of the Government in terms of policy formulation, resource mobilization and execution. Many politicians, ministers and chief ministers from several of our states have visited Singapore in the past and have come back with the resolve that they would transform their state or at least their state capital like Singapore. So far all these resolutions are yet to see the light of the day. This shows that despite their good intentions, our leaders have not been able to execute them due to various bottlenecks and obstacles in our system. It is not necessary to attempt replication of the Singapore story in all areas. There are some areas, however, where we can easily achieve improvement by emulating the example of Singapore.
1) Cleanliness and Hygiene
One such area is cleanliness, hygiene and garbage clearance. In Singapore, dustbins are installed in large numbers almost one each for every 50 feet on the streets, where the citizens deposit garbage. Garbage collection vans go round the city at midnight, collect the garbage and dump them at pits located in select city outskirts. The garbage is then segregated into renewable waste, plastic and metal. At some places, this segregation is done at source itself by providing different garbage bins for the purpose. The Government authorities conduct frequent inspections of the market places, hotels, way-side restaurants, hawkers and temples to ensure that there is no littering in public places. In India, this can be carried out by our municipal bodies and panchayats. In order to cater to the large population of our cities and towns, civic bodies need to employ more number of sanitary workers and deploy more number of garbage bins on our roads and at public places. The number of garbage collection vans should also be increased to facilitate collection at more frequent intervals during the day. An intensive awareness campaign should be carried out on a sustained basis to encourage citizens to use the garbage bins, avoid littering and spitting in public places. Imposition of minor fines would deter people from violations. Sanitary workers should be motivated by providing them good wages and their work should be well supervised. Performance based awards and incentives should be provided to sanitary workers for improving their productivity and enhancing their self esteem. As much of solid waste can be recycled into useful materials like vermi-compost, garbage collected should be scientifically processed and disposed off without harming the environment. The ‘National Cleanliness Campaign’ started by our Honorable Prime Minister should not remain a photo opportunity for our leaders to wield the broom in form of cameras. This national mission presents an opportunity for our civic bodies to make a perceptible change in our cities.
2) Traffic Discipline
The traffic discipline in Singapore is simply superb. All roads have pedestrian paths where citizens can walk without fear. This path is separated from the road by a grass rim. The zebra crosses for crossing the road are provided with a signal which can be operated with a switch by the pedestrian who wants to cross, so that the traffic is suitably stopped and he can cross when green light glows. Vehicles give the first right of movement to the pedestrian and wait till he crosses the road. Taxi drivers show maximum courtesy to passengers and charge strictly according to the meter. The expressways where collection of tolls is involved, are provided with a wifi electronic system which collects the toll from the passing vehicles through a device installed in each vehicle without any waiting. This helps in smooth and speedy flow of traffic. Our cities can adopt these steps to improve the traffic flow and make the roads more pedestrian-friendly. The taxi and auto drivers should be given periodical training in traffic discipline and courteous behavior.
3) Public Transportation
Singapore has an efficient public transportation system, consisting of the metro rail system, bus transport and taxi service. The Government has ensured that any citizen can catch a train within one to two kms walk from his home. Railway stations and shopping malls are mostly located adjacent to each other and everywhere the citizens are provided with escalators for moving up and down, to enable comfortable travel. Owning a private car is a luxury in Singapore, as the owner needs to buy a certificate of entitlement in addition to the cost of the car. In fact, Singapore Government discourages private cars by making it very expensive. This has resulted in less crowding of cars on the road and easier traffic management. In India, we already experience frequent traffic jams on our narrow city roads and it is a nightmare to drive own vehicle with all sorts of vehicles, both slow-moving, manually driven vehicles and heavy trucks, plying on the roads. It is imperative that development planners ponder over the issue and take urgent steps to rationalize public transportation. In major cities, metro rail transport systems are under way. It is necessary to link these systems with other modes of transport and make urban transportation more convenient to the users.
4) Tourism
Tourism is a major money spinner for Singapore’s economy. With no significant historical monuments beyond some British colonial buildings and the botanical garden, the city state has developed hi-tech tourist attractions such as the Centosa theme park, the Jurong bird park, the zoo, the national museum and the Gardens by the Bay. The entire island has been developed as a culinary and shopping destination with innumerable restaurants and shopping malls to attract tourists from all corners of the world.
India, on the other hand, is endowed with historical monuments dating back to more than 2000 years representing its long and checkered history. The country’s rich geographical variety provides vast collection of flora and fauna, with beautiful mountain peaks, rivers and coastal beaches. We can exploit these resources effectively to augment our tourist footfalls, provided we maintain the tourist spots in a tidy manner and improve the standards of hotels and restaurants in these places.
5) Public Institutions
Singapore has exploded the myth that public institutions cannot be run efficiently. In fact, all major institutions in Singapore such as the Development Bank of Singapore, Singapore Airlines and Singtel are public institutions owned by the Singapore Government. The FairPrice supermarket chain, a cooperative venture managed by the National Trade Union Congress, is successfully functioning in the face of competition from private supermarkets. The Singapore Government has ensured that public institutions are managed on commercial lines, giving them adequate autonomy and keeping an arms- length distance from their day to day operations.
In India, many public sector companies are looked upon as inefficient and prone to recurrent losses. Only public sector banks and a few ‘Navratna’ and ‘mini-ratna’ undertakings are running well. The Government is trying to disinvest performing public sector companies for raising resources to reduce budgetary gaps. Such a policy is not useful for the nation in the long run. Instead, it is advisable to strengthen the public institutions by bringing them under professional managers and avoiding political interference in their appointments and day-to-day working. Our cooperative supermarkets and fair price shops running the public distribution system (PDS) should be given a face-lift through professional management and better ambience so that they offer better service to consumers.
6) Housing for all
A notable achievement of the Singapore Government is that they have provided affordable housing for all its citizens by constructing high rise apartments and providing long term loans up to 30 years to the occupants. Repayment of the loans has been linked to the Provident fund contribution by the occupant. Such a scheme has been made possible because almost every citizen has an assured employment. In India, housing is a distant dream for many urban dwellers, especially for workers in the unorganized sector, forcing them to live in slums under poor sanitary conditions. It is imperative that our Governments make some concrete plans to provide affordable houses to all its citizens through investments in this sector. There is no doubt that this is a challenging task. But action is required on an urgent basis.
Conclusion
The areas highlighted in this article can be easily implemented in our cities and towns with minimum effort, irrespective of the political ideology of the state governments. However, support in terms of policy and allocation of funds is required from the Governments for successful implementation.
