As on date, India has 28 states and 8 Union Territories. All states, Union Territories – Delhi, Puducherry, J&K – have assemblies. 806 districts. 7250 blocks. 260000 GPs. 35% India is urban. India, being a Union of States, as in 1950, we had: Part A states (9), Part B states (8), Part C states (10), Part D states (1). Then emerged: Telugu-speaking Andhra from Madras; Puducherry joined as UT; Dadra and Nagar Haveli joined as UT.
States Reorganization in 1956 reorganized, created linguistic states. Andhra, Hyderabad, Madras, Kerala, Mysore, Lakshadweep, Bombay, Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, and Bihar. In 1960 – Bombay became Gujarat, Maharashtra. Nagaland became a state in 1963. In 1966, Punjab, Haryana became states, Chandigarh emerged as UT. Himachal got expanded. In 1969, Madras became Tamil Nadu. In 1972, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura were carved out. In 1973, Mysore became Karnataka. In 1975, Sikkim joined India. In 1987, Arunachal, Mizoram, and Goa were carved out. Daman and Diu became a separate UT. In 2000, Chhattisgarh from MP, Uttarakhand from UP, Jharkhand from Bihar were carved out. Pondicherry became Puducherry in 2007, Orissa became Odisha in 2011. Telangana was carved out from AP in 2014. J&K state has become J&K UT and Ladakh UTs in 2019. Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu became a single UT in 2020. Soon, we foresee J&K UT becoming a state.
We are 140 Crore people. The size of states and UTs has huge variation, maybe 1:500 or more. We need to rationalize them. Some cities have more than 1 crore population. Can we reorganize India into smaller states, treat UTs with assemblies as states, city states with cities and their surrounding rural hinterland? Not bigger than 5-6 Crore population? We may be 50 states, 10 UTs? Can we be 1000 districts, 10000 blocks/mandals or more @10,000-20,000 families/block, a million GPs with not more than 1000 families/GP paving way for direct democracy at GP or ward level? Financial devolution, clear budgets-revenues at all these levels by a formula – per family amounts? Can we architecture, design, and plan in such a way that these units are self-reliant, self-sufficient, and autonomous?
N-way. Persistence paves way’ for change. Paradigm shift. With knowledge, skill, integrity, dedication, passion, and openness. Can we persist, in myriad ways, means, tools, people, and resources? As creators, designers, producers, production wage workers, production enablers, suppliers, value-adders, linkers, trainers, mentors, animators, facilitators, brokers, agents etc. Can we be the architects, architecture facilitators, hygiene augmenters, policy enablers, curriculum enablers, ecosystem enablers, and institution-organization-enterprise-team-network-platform nurturers-players-managers-leaders-servants? Super designers, architects, orchestrators, leaders, and trustees?
What do we do, in the N-way? Job, wage work, service provision, write, freelancing consulting, and raising resources in support entities; community, civil society, non-government, not-for-profit, CSR, and philanthropies; local, state, national, international; enterprises, businesses, and collectives; programs, missions; social enterprises, networks, platforms, and various hues of advocacy groups. Business, Social, and Portfolio entrepreneurs. Hybrids, portfolios. Or do we facilitate, mentor them? Investing time, energy, and resources as Angels, in ventures. Or something else. Can we plan, do and track 10 items daily? journeys, connections, conversations, actions, and supports? our peaked 100,000 hours of transition?
Yes, we can. If we coexist, keep flowing, day-in-day-out. In N? sangamadhaarayoga for 7L.
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