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Journalism of Courage
The Tatas are again blazing a trail that others would be wise to follow and policy-makers should take note of. Their group company,the Tata Housing Development Company,intends to start selling application forms for over a thousand houses Shubh Griha,theyll call them costing between four and seven lakh rupees. These are in the Mumbai suburb of Bhoisar. For which the first Google search result is a plaintive question: Where is Bhoisar? Is it in Mumbai? How do I reach Bhoisar station from Vikhroli? The form price: Rs 200. The first payment: Rs 10,000. THDC has big plans: it intends 4000 more such houses nationwide in four years.
Ambitious though that might sound,these are a drop,a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the demand that exists for quality low-cost housing in areas which are reasonably connected to workplaces. Clever policy in times of a recession should look at pent-up demand and ask: how can I convert that into trucks on the road? The answer here is clear: fix land-use conditions. In particular,reports that several companies plans for Special Economic Zones have been put on hold because of the worldwide slowdown give policy a window: let the land-use criteria for those zones be altered such that low-cost housing can be built on them.
