Friday, February 10, 2006

Jamshedpur... need for Revival

Most of us Jamshedpurian’s are aware and feel proud that Jamshedpur has been selected as the pilot city for Global Compact City program. There is no doubt that Jamshedpur is one among some of the very few cities in India where the living standard, the social culture, the environment is not good but “Best”. I myself have grown up and spent 18 years of my life there, till I was forced to move out of such beautiful city in seek for better higher education and then for better Job.

And the same very fate was met by my batchmates/friends who in need for a good higher education and good job ahead had to sacrifice the pleasure of living in Jamshedpur. And it continues year after year with hundreds of young talent crowd moving out and settling in different cities. Reasons? There are certain things that this city lacks and in which it is not in pace with time. Things, the need of which, other cities like Pune, Noida, Bangalore and Hyderabad have realized and acquired.

Higher Education
It is not that the education in Jamshedpur is not good, it is ‘Best’. But that is only upto +2 level. Beyond that if one looks for a good reputed college where one can pursue Economics/Arts/Literature, he can find none in the city and so the only option they are left with is to move to Delhi/Pune/Mumbai.

Yes we do have an Engineering college (RIT) and a Medical College (MGM) in the city, but again when you compare the standards/facilities provided in these colleges as compared to the one you get in similar regional engineering colleges (or medical colleges) in other cities, the city stands far too behind.
One may argue here is that Jamshedpur has got XLRI, one of the best MBA colleges in India. Yes true, but what I am asking for is a good college to go after +2. Do we have good colleges providing courses which are talk-of-the-time nowadays like Mass-Comm, Interior Designing and Fashion Designing etc?

The city education establishment has a hole, a gap between under-graduation and post-graduation. Some good graduation Colleges for different subjects are the need of the day.
Establishment of such good colleges for higher education would prevent Brain Drain from the city and would also lure more corporate companies, other than those Core Industrial Units (which the City boasts of), to open up offices and establishments in the city.

Job Variety
The city lacks in job variety for the residents. It is full of core-manufacturing units but Industries other than that like Telecom, Financial Consultancy firms, IT, Journalism, Entertainment etc, you would find none.

Why can’t we transform Jamshedpur into a IT-Hub like Pune/Noida/Bangalore? How and in what way do we lack in what those cities can provide and Jamshedpur cannot?
All we need is enough supply of electricity, good road conditions and cheap lands to lure the IT Companies. And I am sure Jamshedpur lacks in none of these requirements.

Jamshedpur has got a good strategic location, similar to that of Pune, both being near to metro city, cheap land, cheap labor etc. Infact Jamshedpur enjoys the privilege of having large resource of minerals and ore mines in the adjoining areas and thus a larger scope of Job for educated and un-educated.

I could go on and on listing several such things that the city should have had by now ranging from Traffic Signals to Movie Halls to Multiplexes to Malls.....
It is time that the authorities governing the city should act now or else it would no longer remain a city that could provide a standard living life-style to its residents. And it would be just another city like Lucknow/Kanpur, which were once the most economically powered cities in India.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written Umesh!
But the basic question still lies is that who is going to give the city back what it has given to us. We all do our +2 and leave the place in the search of better education and job. But how many of us come back to this city?? And even if we do, how many of us think of contributing something for the city??
Its true that the "Authorities" would make the changes. But it is we - the Educated Youngsters who need to take the initiative!

Anonymous said...

Well written Umesh!
But the basic question still lies is that who is going to give the city back what it has given to us. We all do our +2 and leave the place in the search of better education and job. But how many of us come back to this city?? And even if we do, how many of us think of contributing something for the city??
Its true that the "Authorities" would make the changes. But it is we - the Educated Youngsters who need to take the initiative!

Anonymous said...

Hi all...at the very outset i would apologise for having difference of opinion with all of you above....think again...we are talking of "TRANSFORMING JAMSHEDPUR"...think again...remember the childhood days that you all have spent there...don't you want to go back to jamshedpur and find it looking same as u had left it....or do you want to go back and feel like you have come to a new place altogether.
If jamshedpur was to become like all other places why would we remember jamshedpur at all !!!!

I can write long on this...but in summary all i want to convey is:

"Transformation will make jamshedpur a stranger to all of us."