Administrative Reforms Commisssion
3
THIRD REPORT
SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
From Despair to Hope
From Despair to Hope
Second Administrative Reforms Commission Government of India 2nd Floor, Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi 110 011 e-mail : arcommission@nic.in website : http://arc.gov.in
SEPTEMBER 2006
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
THIRD REPORT
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE
SEPTEMBER 2006
PREFACE
The neglect of our natural assets and environment has always led to crisis. Whether it is the Mithi River of Mumbai or Tapi of Surat or the civilisational crises in the past in which the “cradle of civilisation” in the Middle East eventually became a desert, Greece and Turkey were deforested, and the destruction of the American prairie contributed to the Dust Bowl, these are eloquent testimony to such neglect. The once mighty Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia or the small tribes that lived on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean were consigned to the throes of oblivion only because they so willfully decimated their natural assets and environment. India is endowed with extraordinary natural and civilisational resources. Around the time of our Independence, the American scholar Kingsley Davis gave a glowing account of the fabulous geography of India, especially the great Indo-Gangetic plain: “India is probably the third most gifted of the world’s regions with respect to industrial capacity, and the second or third with reference to agricultural resources. But in sheer area it is big enough. The geographical traits of the subcontinent are fabulous and their description requires unblushing superlatives…” The key to the region’s peculiar geography lies more outside than inside the boundaries, although it has its main effects inside. This is the Himalayan range, the loftiest mountain barrier in the world, which shuts off the subcontinent from the rest of Asia. From 150
THIRD REPORT
SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
From Despair to Hope
From Despair to Hope
Second Administrative Reforms Commission Government of India 2nd Floor, Vigyan Bhawan Annexe, Maulana Azad Road, New Delhi 110 011 e-mail : arcommission@nic.in website : http://arc.gov.in
SEPTEMBER 2006
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
SECOND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
THIRD REPORT
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE
SEPTEMBER 2006
PREFACE
The neglect of our natural assets and environment has always led to crisis. Whether it is the Mithi River of Mumbai or Tapi of Surat or the civilisational crises in the past in which the “cradle of civilisation” in the Middle East eventually became a desert, Greece and Turkey were deforested, and the destruction of the American prairie contributed to the Dust Bowl, these are eloquent testimony to such neglect. The once mighty Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia or the small tribes that lived on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean were consigned to the throes of oblivion only because they so willfully decimated their natural assets and environment. India is endowed with extraordinary natural and civilisational resources. Around the time of our Independence, the American scholar Kingsley Davis gave a glowing account of the fabulous geography of India, especially the great Indo-Gangetic plain: “India is probably the third most gifted of the world’s regions with respect to industrial capacity, and the second or third with reference to agricultural resources. But in sheer area it is big enough. The geographical traits of the subcontinent are fabulous and their description requires unblushing superlatives…” The key to the region’s peculiar geography lies more outside than inside the boundaries, although it has its main effects inside. This is the Himalayan range, the loftiest mountain barrier in the world, which shuts off the subcontinent from the rest of Asia. From 150