What we have to learn from Singapore...

This piece of analysis was written after a visit to Singapore during my IAS Professional Training Phase-II. Views are my personal.

The Foreign Study Tour to Singapore, for me, was a week into an imaginative world, which stretches one’s imagination for a perfect city beyond the limits of imagination itself. It was a feeling of coming-to-life of the all features of a popular computer game that simulates cities, with man-made-wonders and excellence in almost every dimension of public utility services. It can not be said that this is an expected reaction from anyone who travels from a third world country like India to a developed city-state as Singapore, as I have seen much of Europe and its urban areas where one sees what one expects out of a developed state with a long history of gradual economic development boosted by its plenty resources and developed civic intellect over generations. But Singapore surpasses even the best of European cities, especially if one accounts for the fact that it got independence from colonial powers as late as 1965 and it rose from an economic status not very different to ours.

It is very hard to think of many interventions that can be made in India based on the Singaporean model of development for the basic reason that the political systems of the two countries are poles apart. While India has a multiparty democratic setup where almost every interest group matters, be it caste based, religion based, language based, or economic-interests based; Singapore on the other hand is a Single Party Parliamentary Republic tending towards autocracy. What they could think, plan and execute in 50 years may take at least another 50 years in India to come to a political consensus that it is what we desire in India, and that too is unlikely. But I will not put up a pessimist face, because the learnings from Singapore were innumerous, at least in terms of their systems, which can be replicated here in pieces if not in entirety. I will be trying to pen down those observations and learnings and will try to ponder upon how can they be reproduced in India.

1. Road and Public Transport

As soon as one plunges out of the Changi Airport, which is not as impressive as our Indira Gandhi International Airport (that reassures us with the idea that even ‘We can do it’), one thing that immediately gets noticed is their transport system. It is both a common observation as well as empirically proven fact that the biggest issue that is marring our cities today is poor public transport. Singapore is a small city with huge population, of both natives and immigrants, and a population density of around 8000 per square km, which is more than most Indian cities. Yet travelling in Singapore is a pleasant experience owing to a number of strict but effective government policies. Owing a private car in Singapore costs as much as 20 times of what it costs in India. Singapore government has strongly regulated the sale of vehicles by increased duties and very high costs of Certificate of Entitlement (COE). Getting a COE in Singapore costs as much a Porsche in India. This has translated to only 1 car per 3 families in Singapore, which means one almost never sees traffic in Singapore. We cannot have such strict policies in India. But what is important to note is the supporting infrastructure that has ensured that people in Singapore use public transport to its maximum capacity. Singapore has a network of Integrated Multimodal Public Transport System. They have metros, monorails and buses that provide high quality services and last-mile connectivity to almost every corner of the city. All these are integrated with a common MRT (Mass-Rapid-Card) card and are seamlessly run by two private operators. The focus is on user experience that ensures that every journey is comfortable and hence acceptable to all classes of people. The whole system is self-sustaining because of scientific pricing. I can proudly say that our Delhi Metro is as good if not better than their metro system and metro is now coming up in so many cities like Bangalore, Jaipur, Indore and Lucknow etc. on similar lines. But what really makes the difference is their last-mile connectivity through high-quality bus transit facility, which is run on very professional lines. Obviously from our Delhi experience we know that bus transit fails because of heavy congestion on our roads, and it is very difficult politically to make stricter policies to reduce vehicular congestion, but no pains, no gains! Singapore has also worked a lot, in a planned fashion, to lay a large network of wide and parallel roads. The roads are laid out in a scientific fashion with proper traffic lighting, road-signage, junction improvements and well-laid lanes and pedestrian walkways. The roads are also maintained regularly so that travelling by roads is a butter-smooth experience. Singapore has implemented a very innovative method of checking congestions on roads with its electronic road pricing or ERP. ERP basically means that vehicles pay for the use of the road according to the congestion they cause. This is implemented through an automatic electronic system compulsorily fitted in all vehicles that deducts the tax from user’s account every time a vehicle passes through that road. The traffic updates are posted on electronic displays put up at various locations across the city so that people can plan their route accordingly. There is also a large fleet of taxis plying for users who may want to take a car, which are highly regulated in terms of their pricing and passenger safety. These changes are not difficult to bring about in India, if there is sufficient will.

3. Cleanliness and Waste Management

The next major challenge that our Municipal Corporations face is Solid Waste Management. Singapore has an amazing model that one can try to emulate. While we often talk about solid waste management in India, the fact is that we have failed utterly in this aspect. The best that our municipal bodies do is to transport the garbage from the city and dump it in city outskirts where it rots and seeps into our water aquifers. Even this role is not played efficiently and garbage dumps and littered waste is a common sight in our cities. We often cover-up by saying that what can government do till people don’t learn. We definitely need some lessons from Singapore in this regard. As they say, Singapore is not the most clean city, but it is the most cleaned city. There is a huge team of highly trained and well-equipped cleaners that are employed by the government to make sure that there is no garbage anywhere in the city. There is a door to door collection system in place by which household garbage is collected and sorted right at its generation point, not by the people, but by the government. Hence around 60 % of the waste is sent for recycling right away. The recycling industry is charged for the garbage. The remaining garbage is then incinerated in a scientific manner to produce least pollution. Apart from the power generated from the incineration, the ash produced is also used at a landfill site to create another island amidst the sea, getting ready for use by this country limited by its small land resource. What a marvel! A perfect symphony of the three magic words: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse.

Now we complain of civic sense of Indians. I wonder how the same Indians learn all the sense when they travel abroad. If we have systems in place in our cities, I am sure it won’t be hard to regulate people. But it is unfortunate that we have not put up a serious thought in this segment yet. The costs of such humongous system can definitely be an impediment. But if we look at the returns, both tangible such as electricity produced, and intangible such as improvement in public health, I think this system is worth a try. We can also experiment with innovative economic principles such as PPP and user-charges to fill the financial gaps. It is reassuring that Government has now started the Swachh Bharat Mission with similar objectives, but outcomes are yet to be seen.

3. Tourism Industry

On the fourth day of our visit, we chanced to have lunch with Deputy High Commissioner of Singapore, who was a fine lady and had been in Singapore for around two years. By then, we as a group had already covered most of the tourist attractions of Singapore and had also discussed them with each other. While till now all of us were in awe of this man-made wonder that Singapore was, the following comments of Deputy High Commissioner came to me as a hard fact. She said, ‘What is there in Singapore? The only place worth spending time and money on is the Sentosa Island, which has some good rides and the Universal Studios, which is a different experience altogether. Apart from that there are just high-rise fancy buildings and malls. There is no culture of Singapore and no tradition to cherish. Just that Singaporeans have very smartly packaged themselves and are selling to the world.’ This may appear to be a piece of cynicism at first, but is also mostly truth. Singapore truly is an amazing country with huge and flourishing economy. Its land constraint forces it to build very high buildings. Its strategic location makes it a trading hub and hence gives it a multinational character. But there is nothing which is so unique in Singapore, that one should come all the way across seas to see, except that they have packaged it all together. It’s only them who have advertised themselves so well that people even get ready to pay SGD 30 to just climb up a 56 floor building or to sit on a Ferris wheel. Look at India; we have way more ancient and mystic heritage and culture, beautiful monuments of artistic value, abundant natural scenic beauty of beaches, mountains, valleys, rivers, deserts and lakes. It would take me a book to write all the natural and man-made wonders that we have in India, but we have failed to preserve them and then showcase them to the world. We need to learn that art from Singapore. To a lay-man, before he seriously thinks of visiting Singapore, the country is all about a half-lion half mermaid statue gushing out water from its mouth. Singapore has made this mediocre structure as its national tourism icon, which alone is sufficient to fetch tourism. We on the other had have Sarnath lion capital, which not only has artistic value but also a great history associated it with. Yet so many people who visit Varanasi do not even go to have a look at this timeless monument. Of course we have lacked somewhere in capitalizing on our tourism potential in India and we must learn this art from Singapore.

4. Public Housing

This is another area where Singapore has done remarkably well. Housing is a concern for every family. It is ironical that despite of such large tracts of land available to India as compared to Singapore, we have more than 50% of our urban population who doesn’t own a house. On the other hand, almost 90% of Singapore’s population owns a house with almost 80% having benefitted from Public Housing. Singapore also faced challenges of affordable housing at time of its independence. But under the leadership of Lim Kim San, the first head of Housing Development Board of Singapore, the face of public housing changed. It was a planned strategy by which government decided to build low-cost housing units and shift squatter settlers to these houses. It built large number of such houses in high-rise buildings and convinced people to shift to these houses. It also shifted its policy from renting out to selling out. The success owed to keys such as large amount of government funds in building the houses, lease system for the lifetime of dwellers, pragmatic approach in housing design ensuring low maintenance over aesthetics and revolution in construction technology. Slowly government also started making high-end flats with all community facilities and focus on green development that made the above project attractive for upper class families also.

Housing and Transport hold a sizeable share in the expenditure basket of a family in urban areas of India. Providing affordable housing in clean societies not only ensures that people live with dignity in healthy environment, but it also helps the government to reach the people with its services such as health, education, electricity, etc. Singapore’s policy of ensuring a racial mix in every society through its allotment process also is a very innovative method to ensure communal harmony and is relevant in Indian society. While we have so many government schemes such as Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana Rural and Urban, we have not been able to develop a good economical model to make them successful. A detailed study of Singaporean approach is pertinent. Also we need to pour in more funds in this sector and ensure that corruption doesn’t eat away the fruits of Public Housing.

5. Singapore's approach to governance

Last but not the least, the best learning from Singapore was its approach to governance. The best part is its focus for development. We were told that Singapore does everything for a purpose. They think of a target, they plan for it, prepare for it, chart out a policy, and implement it. They make sure that the policy succeeds, and if they see that the policy has failed, they do not shirk away from abandoning it and starting afresh. They respond to the feedback and change themselves accordingly. As Lee Kuan Yew once said, that he does not theorize, he instead finds the best approach that can work, and then lets others to derive theories from that approach. This can be applied in India both at Government level as well as governance level. We find it very hard to give up our schemes and tend to stick to our policies, making incremental changes that not only makes our government a cobweb of inefficiencies, but also leaves a lot of loopholes for exploitation by few smart people. It was delighting to know how if Singapore wants to make, say, a water treatment plant, they would make a team, send that team to various places to learn the best practices. The same team would then choose what is best for Singapore, chart out a work plan and execute it. We on the other hand keep on wandering aimlessly. Out trainings are too generic without specific goals. Our experiences and learnings often get lost in interdepartmental reports and literature.

Singapore has promoted multiculturalism and meritocracy. Four of the 16 Cabinet ministers of Singapore are Indians who are holding four most important ministries, despite Indians being only 8% of their population. Can we expect something similar in India? If we can’t let the best lead us, we cannot rise up to be the best. Singapore also follows a zero-tolerance for corruption and is one of the least corrupt countries of the world. This has become possible due to the reduced human interface in various public services, reduced discretion, independent anti-graft agencies and sufficient remunerations to government servants.

However, the masterstroke of Singapore I believe has been its Trampoline approach, as termed by its Indian Deputy PM Tharman Shanmugratnam. Singaporean government believes that there is no replacement for individual responsibility of citizens; hence they must adhere to discipline in their lives. It does not believe in the safety net, or in giving out doles to the people. It just makes sure that they have the capability to rise up, and hence acts as a trampoline for those who fall down, enabling them to bounce up again. This is in contrast to our social welfare policies where we are unable to change the dependence attitude of people.

While it is easy to copy projects, it is not easy to copy philosophies and hence shape the attitudes so easily. But who says that success comes easily. While it is obviously impossible to replicate the Singaporean way in the socio-political environment of India, we can nevertheless expand our horizons and look for ways to reach the similar outcomes. Many of above interventions and policies can also be brought in the daily life approach by administrators in their offices, sub-divisions, cities and districts in piecemeal manner and the results shall definitely be quotable.

Singapore: From Medha's Diary..

This article was written by Medha Roopam after a visit to Singapore during our IAS Professional Training Phase-II. Views are her personal.

Introduction

Singapore is a nation worth visiting once in a lifetime. To know they were at the same development phase as India when they got independence, and how they sprinted to reach where they are today only in a matter of five decades is inspiring and almost feverishly romantic. Visiting the country made me believe in the power of dreams and that a lot is possible and even sky is not the limit.

To further elaborate, I’m heavily inspired by Singapore, but not impressed by Singapore. Though this statement may sound contradictory, it’s not. I will in my essay talk about it along with five best practices I would try to implement in my country. To put things more in perspective, I am from Uttar Pradesh cadre and hence I would probably work in various cities of Uttar Pradesh and may be serve the central government while on central deputation. This will also affect my perspective, my learning and prospective implementation.

1. Carefully Planned Economic Policies (MACRO LEVEL)

In 1950’s about 70-80% of Singapore’s population consisted of squatters or slum dwellers. Absentee landlords controlled much productive land, and the country had negative savings rate along with heavy unemployment. This is a common statistic of many districts of India, especially in Uttar Pradesh. Then how did this country achieve a rapid growth in GDP per capita? What did they do, to become one of the fastest growing tiger economies of Asia? They did this through carefully planned economic policies of the government. They very categorically used free markets where it supported their economic growth and consciously distorted markets by incentivizing or dis-incentivizing wherever required to fuel development.

In India we find that economic developments are slow, we fail to capitalize markets when we can, and the past decade has proved that we have been stingy in pushing bold economic reforms which could put our country at a more holistic development path. Some points which Singapore used to launch itself –

1)   Strong External Trade Orientation

2)   Diversification of trading network

3)   Services given greater prominence

4)   Skilling Workforce heavily

5)   Business and work friendly tax system

External trade was given boost in Singapore by giving support to strong, rules based multilateral trading system which got its total trade to 300% of Singapore’s GDP. We in India took so much time to get rid of the license raj, and we still lag behind in pushing reforms like GST and multibrand retail along with riders which favour our rural economy. What stops us from making multibrand retail a reality along with strong rural favouring riders like compulsory procurement of raw materials from the rural areas, compulsory employment for Indian youth and compulsory training and skilling in CSR?

Even though a very small country, Singapore has 20 regional and bilateral FTAs with 31 trading partners. They also have 41 Investment guarantee agreements to improve investor confidence. Though these numbers don’t matter, but overall the entire atmosphere is very enabling, corruption free and efficient. They have halved their corporate and personal income tax rates in the past 20 years to encourage investment and growth. Even then they don’t have fiscal deficit and have been in surplus from past five years.

Fast economic policy development is something I want to be able to implement in my country. I may not be able to do it now when I’m at the field, but I want to be able to do something about this when in central government at high posts. The strength which comes from economics even enabled Singapore to have a say in the arctic circle group! We in India need to strengthen our economic institutions and channelize with planning our economic policy. A nation like ours which has a huge population, a huge market and an approaching demographic dividends can perform miracles and wonders with its growth story if planned. I hope India can take this chance that economics is offering us.

2. Artificial Tourism (MICRO & MACRO level)

Its amazing to think that Singapore has become a top destination for Indian tourists to visit even though everything is man-made! They don’t have historical monuments like us, they don’t have a country specific historical culture spanning million of years like us, they don’t have diversity of dance forms and festivals like India and they don’t have environmental diversity like us. Then how did they manage to do this? This is why I said Singapore is inspiring. The perfectionist nature of Singapore, the way they built one concrete jungle after another, beautifying their spaces, foresting with manmade gardens.

Though inspiring, it is not impressive like I mentioned at the beginning of my article. Slowly and heavily it hits the tourist how unnatural and artificial is the world created by Singaporeans. Indian tourist may keep Singapore in the must visit category, but the global tourist may easily decide to give it a skip. Manmade sparsed gardens, manmade orchid greenhouses, manmade waterfall in gardens by the bay, manmade habitat made for animals in zoo or the Jurong bird park, artificially controlled water reservoir, artificial beech at beachfront, man made park of universal studio, artificial aquariums, artificial skypark that’s all the country has.

It cannot match the natural endowment of a country like India ever, but again, this quality of creating something out of nothing by the Singaporeans is something to learn from. Imagine if we are able to invest well in tourism, imagine the returns it will give, higher than probably any country of the world! English speaking is common in India, multiple historical destination exist, cultural destinations are plenty, environmental destinations are numerous and a few manmade also destinations exist. But still we lose 2.4 trillion ie 6.4% worth of  our GDP – a very high percentage of potential tourist only due to low sanitation in the country.

Singapore has reached perfection in this sphere. They even keep plastic bags outside every building for tourists to cover wet umbrellas! If we look at the state of Uttar Pradesh, there is not much national tourism except religious tourism. But during our Uttar Pradesh darshan I realized there are so many beautiful areas which we can turn into good tourist destinations like Sarnath, Ayodhya, Allahabad, Mirzapur, and Mathura. We on the other hand unable to exploit tourism potential in Agra district itself which holds a wonder of the world. Agra is visited during the day and international tourisms prefer to drive back to Delhi. The Yamuna expressway has only added to this peril. So much can be done in the district to make the tourist stay over the weekend. That will generate revenue and reputation for the city.

A lot has been done in Sarnath too, conservation at its best. But looking at Singapore I realize that is not enough. We need to think of the tourism as a service which should give the tourist all possible information along with facilities and ease. Everywhere in Singapore they distributed self explanatory maps and to-do lists. Imagine if we are actually able to maintain well and showcase all the beautiful monuments of Agra to the tourists – Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri, It-mud-daulah, Sikandra, Red fort, Mehtab Bagh, Guru ka Tal, Jama Mosque, Chini ka Rauza, Tomb of Mariam-uz-Zamani, Moti Tomb, Ram Bagh and Musamman Burj. Can anyone stop the city from becoming world’s most preferred travel destination? We have heritage, but first we need to learn to take care of it and then we need to showcase it to create an upward economic spiral for the city and country to grow better. Nothing is stopping us, we have all the right ingredients, we just need to begin consciously implementing tourism policies with highest priority.

3. Integrated Public transport (MICRO level)

The transport strategy of Singapore is amazing. They are successfully able to discourage private transportation and encourage public transportation to the highest level its possible. And as I have used their public transportation system for seven days I can confidently say that they have a world class transportation system. Even if we don’t go into the nitty gritties of their policy, even to a common man or tourist it’s evident how simplified their system is. The same metro card is used in metro and bus system. Every bus stop has full detail of which buses pass from there. Taxi system is very organized. Any taxi which sees you, has to stop for you and cannot say no to you regardless of the destination you want to go to. There are zebra crossings where cars mandatorily stop to let pedestrian to cross. Its hassle free, its continuous and worth emulating in India.

The success of their policy is visible from the following statistic : Even though Singapore per capita income is high, there is 1 car for every 9 people in the country. That means 1 car for every 3 families. Daily number of trips via their bus system is 3.89 million per day which is the highest in a mode of transport in Singapore. Using government investment and PPP at many places they built the entire system – including shelters, stations, stands, lanes etc. Their fares are regulated by a watchful public transport council, their bus lanes are used only by buses which helps keep up the speed of this mode of transportation, they encourage cycling to complete last mile journey by having a lot of cycles and cycle parking stations.

Even the traffic congestion is controlled by ‘congestion pricing’ where the vehicles have to pay according to the congestion they are causing. This is a brilliant example of using markets to manage a system well. On the other hand deliberate distortion in the cars market has made owning a car extremely expensive, discouraging private travel, again using interference in market well.

We can implement all this in the exact similar manner in Delhi and Lucknow. Delhi has gotten closer by the coming up of OLA cabs and other private players, Lucknow can totally be made a passenger friendly zone, if these points are strongly focused upon and implemented. Dedicated cycle tracks have been made in Lucknow, but again the policy is incomplete, complete planning along with solving of practical problems is imperative if we want to have an excellent public transportation. Even and odd policy will also stand the test of time only if the public transportation is made efficient and user friendly along with cost effectiveness.

4. State managing of multiculturalism

It may be true that the culture and history of Singapore promotes multiculturalism on its own. But it has been able to sustain that and take it forward only due to state interference. This point really is relevant for India, especially for my state of Uttar Pradesh which sees a lot of riots and communalism. Initially when I heard their policy I was taken aback by the discrimination they do, but I realized what they did was positive discrimination, which has helped their cause. I’m not fully convinced whether the methods they followed should be taken up exactly in its raw form in India.

Before elaborating further on their policy, let me first give the figures of their ethnic variety – 74.1% Chinese, 13.4 % Malay, 9.2% Indians and 3.3 % others. Now the state instead of taking the approach that all are the same for us, they follow a discriminatory policy. The various ethnic groups are highly aware of their identities. But the state intervenes to ensure positive discrimination. For example, no school will have only Malay students or Chinese students, the admissions are regulated by the same quota as the percentages of their population in the country. Means every school will have roughly around 74.1 % Chinese, 13.4% Malay and 9.2% Indians. This is true even for housing. No housing colony will have only Indians or Malay, every housing colony will have a healthy mix of all the ethnic groups, this is ensured by the state. Even the selling of a flat from an Indian can only be done to another Indian to ensure maintenance of the ratio.

This helps in acceptability and high tolerance of all ethnic groups towards each other. They learn to stay mixed and respect each other. Even the minorities don’t feel insecure as their quotas are secure. We as Indian tourists saw the warmth given by the Chinese and Malay people, indicating live and let live policy. This is reflected even in their ministers council which has 3 Indians in top posts and even 2 Muslims in the council. Little India, Arab Street, China town showcase their culture and all ethnicities enjoy all these areas!

Can this be followed in totality in India? Or does this quota system create a ethnic self awareness more than what’s required? Singaporeans are heavily aware of their ethnicity, which I found very evident even in 5 minute conversations with them. Isin’t that a bad thing? Kerala has roughly 33% each of Hindu, Muslim and Christian and maintains a better harmony than rest of the country. The state there does not do positive discrimination. Infact there is a common Kerala culture running through all the different religious communities. Is that better? I feel that in housing even if we don’t have a written policy on positive discrimination, we in the field should try to discourage the system of separate residential area for separate religions. That is very healthy and breeds communalism. Instead we should promote intermixing of all communities. Hence even if we don’t probably follow Singapore in letter but we should in spirit.

5. Public Housing

More than 80% of Singaporeans live in Public Housing. This number is incredible. Their housing development board was inaugurated in 1960 with the mission of  ‘Every family owns a home’. They acquired farming lands, leveled the hills and filled low lands. The government played the big brother in this dimension and micro controlled everything to build beautiful residential areas with the just right pockets of greeneries, grocery stores, supermarket spaces, sports areas, children’s areas, library, police stations, community clubs, religious centres, commercial clusters, light industry nearby to source woman labour and planned to keep polluting industries at the fringe areas of the town.

They kept public transportation also intersparsed like the MRT, Bus stands, LRT and educational institutions in close vicinity to every residential area. They shifted to prefabricated concept in construction methods in the 1980s. This increased their speed and reduced the cost. They kept upgrading and rejuvenating their old towns simultaneously. They consciously moved the slum population – the 90% of population which used to stay in 10% of land in 1950s, providing alternate housing to them for resettlement.

This extreme planning was added to by other important factors like financing avenues for citizens from the Central Provident Fund, utmost transparency in allotment of the houses with priorities laid out clearly, subsidies for the low income families, ensuring quality of construction and good public amenities along with ethnic diversity. Every house was even designed to include a safe shelter in case of bombing. That amount of effort has gone into their planning and has been beautifully replicated throughout the country.

Can India do the same? Yes, with various policies like Prime ministers rural awaas yojana functioning and many housing projects being taken up here and there in pockets of the country, there is a promise held by the nation. If one looks at the well built housing projects of Tamil Nadu the results are self explanatory. Its true government can face a crunch of availability of government land, but that doesn’t stop the municipalities and government from ensuring that any private township comes up in a holistically planned manner with conditions prefixed by government. These conditions could include enough area set aside for green spaces, public transportation avenues construction along with other infrastructural developments. In fringe areas of Lucknow and even in Ghaziabad, so many residential colonies are coming up, we can regulate and convert those into beautiful spaces for our citizens. Rajiv Awas Yojana, now known as PM Urban Awas yojana holds a promise for resettlement of slum people into livable and vibrant homes at a huge scale in the entire country. These projects should be taken up in priority and decent good quality homes should be built by the government initiative with a lot of focus. We can implement a lot if not all out of the Singapore public housing sphere.

Conclusion

These five dimensions are not the only ones I would want to implement in India. I would also want to implement the perfectionism and the finishing touch the administrators of Singapore put, in every task and policy they take up. That is the reason that their results show. Policies were good no doubt, but their implementation was flawless. Many of our Indian policies are the best in theory, very well written, but we fail in their implementation. That is something we need to change. This Singaporean perfect implementation along with a finishing touch will be my final learning cutting across all other learnings. I know now that the horizon we see from India isn’t enough, there is bigger horizon we need to conquer and hopefully we will.

Thankyou