More Statues We Need
It is our contention that tomorrow’s statues need to transcend Ornamentation, Politics and weak Symbology. To justify their place in our Future cities, they need to become ‘Performative’.
Scenario #6 Data consumption on Mobile phones in India jumped to a whopping 2360 Petabytes, with an average data consumption of almost 11GB per user per month in December 2017. On average, an Indian subscriber consumed 7.4 GB of data per user per month on their mobile devices over mobile networks alone, placing India ahead of developed markets like the UK, South Korea and France.
How can we create faster, more responsive, community controlled sovereign data centres? Cities should handle and store their own data, offering these services to their citizens at highly subsidised costs. To efficiently run the internet, we have slowly laid over 300 data cables, covering over 550,000 miles. Undersea cables come up to shore and make their way to data centres in the city, each of these massive Data centres consuming huge amounts of energy. Cities must take control of their Data requirements to better serve their populations.
The Kasturba Gandhi Memorial City Server and Sovereign Data Centre Commissioned July 2035
Scenario #7 Indian agriculture dates back to around 9000BC, and is central to the culture and life of the country at large. As of 2011, India had a large and diverse agricultural sector accounting for about 16% of GDP and 10% of export earnings. To Future proof these valuable borrowings from the past, it is critical to preserve the diversity of seeds and seed accessions, to buffer against risks of pestilence and natural calamities.
“India is a herbal garden…. It is now getting threatened or endangered or extinct… There is a dire necessity to preserve this rich wealth of biodiversity, which exists in India to give it to the next generation. Crop seeds, developed slowly and carefully over thousands of years, are not only the source of sustenance for humankind but the best repository of genetic material scientists can use to help develop food resistant to the vagaries of climate change” W. Selvamurthy, distinguished scientist and Chief Controller (R&D), Ministry of Defence
Seed banks and sovereign seed storage facilities buffer us from future drought and potential species loss. A well designed underwater facility with overground cooling and archiving facilities could conserve this valuable resource for future generations. If kept undisturbed at the right temperature and humidity, the expected longevity of seeds of onion is about 413 years, of rice is 1100 years, of wheat is 1600 years, of barley is 2000 years and of pea is a mind-boggling 9000 years. A pea seed locked in the facility in 2018 can be taken out and successfully planted in the year 11018.
The Shaheed Bhagat Singh Sovereign Grain Silo and National Seed bank Commissioned October 2035
Scenario #8 The road space share for private vehicles in Mumbai has increased from 59% to 77% in the last 2 decades. Meanwhile, the road space for Buses has reduced to 2.2%, and Public transport overall measures a paltry 15% in 2018. With 20 Lakh two-wheelers and over 10 Lakh private cars in the city today, efficient and rapid mass transit systems are the need of the hour.
“It doesn’t require much analysis to see who is responsible for gobbling up road space in Mumbai and causing traffic congestion, especially if we consider that cars occupy much more space for parking than any other vehicle. If we want to reduce traffic congestion in the city, we need to reduce private cars by 20% and two wheelers by 15%. To do this, we need to strengthen the public transport system.” Ashok Datar, Transport expert, Associate, Mumbai Environmental Social Network.
The Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Solar Locomotive & City Tram stack + Pixel Art collaborative Artwork Commissioned November 2035
Scenario #9 Globally there are more honey bees than other types of bee and pollinating insects, so it is the world’s most important pollinator of food crops. It is estimated that one third of the food that we consume each day relies on pollination mainly by bees, but also by other insects, birds and bats.
Ominous reports of bee colonies collapsing seemingly without reason have been reported around the world at least since 2006. Reports of species extinctions have become increasingly common in the last few decades, but the case of bees has particularly alarming implications for human existence. Urbanisation, loss of green cover and the use of pesticides are ma jor causes. Urban populations primarily view bees as a menace, and the instinctive response to smoke out hives and kill vast quantities of bees in the process add to the fragility of the urban pollinators.
The MS Swaminathan Hydroponic Farm and Bee Hotel Commissioned July 2035
Scenario #10 Antibiotic Resistance, when germs (i.e., bacteria, fungi) develop the ability to defeat the drugs designed to kill them, is a top threat to the public’s health and a priority across the globe. Each year, an estimated 750,000 people die from antimicrobialresistant (AMR) infections, and the death toll will climb unless the global health community acts decisively Worldwide, antibiotic resistance threatens our progress in healthcare, food production, and ultimately life expectancy.
Left unchecked, the current trend in rising drug resistance is a crisis of Global scale. Cities must create new Resistance, and healthy recovery habitats for those afflicted by new-age superbugs. Almost 80% of the world population will live in cities of the Future, and we must create safe havens for citizens afflicted by super-bugs. It will take the best minds of the Future to look at these calamities in a calm and progressive way, without them turning into dystopic health hazards.
The MKGandhi Memorial Healing Centre and Sanatarium Commissioned February 2035
Our cities will face multifold challenges in the Future. We would do well to respond with every rupee of public money to mitigate and manage Future risks, to create more resilient cities. Statues and Monuments that enjoy political patronage must work doubly harder to justify their place on the skyline.