Do we need Census Towns to spur growth?

Today there is quite a large hue and cry about how great
Census towns are, and it’s a definite sign of growth in our economy. Most of us
do not know much about census towns.

Census towns are actually small villages that used to depend
on agriculture for survival, have now many more opportunities to make a living
due to industrial development that is taking place.  Farmers have turned away from their farms to
work at factories and earn money.

Let’s understand more about these census towns.

• -         
  Factories and large companies from the
  automobile and consumer durable industries have set up their plants in faraway villages
  for gaining the benefit of cheap land and limited but useful connectivity.
• -         
  In the recent past, these villages have not been
  able to earn a decent living through farming.  With their limited education (Class X) it’s
  difficult to make a living in an urban area where there is severe competition.
  There small time villagers have to depend on farming and small cottage
  industries for a day’s meal. Such a population/location is ideal for the
  placement of assembly units and industries.
• -         
  For such companies, they are the ideal workforce
  that can be used at the cheapest wage possible. It’s a lot more economical than
  employing a full robotic process with no other running expenditure and a full
  time working capacity.
• -         
    In cases where there is limited social
  infrastructure, big companies have the ability to create schools and educate
  mass workforce about the job they need to work on. Hence the villages are
  provided with quality education, new infrastructure and above all, value
  creating jobs.
• -         
  Instead of the workers settling in cities to
  work at large companies, these companies have come to the villager to employ
  him.

Looking at these advantages today, I would like to draw your
attention to a man named Kasturbhai Lalbhai, one of the greatest businessmen of
India. Post-independence he saw the need for a dye making industry, and founded
Atul ltd. (Atul means incomparable).  The
fact is that when Nehru was invited to inaugurate one of India’s first free
mills, he refused.
This incident is narrated in a book called “India Unbound” by
Gurcharan Das. It is said that he did this because he opposed capitalism. Atul
ltd had built a small town as well as an urban environment for the villagers
who were to be employed there. This business/economic model that would have
catapulted India into a much needed industrial revolution dominant with Indian
companies was plagued by the government’s red tape and heavy taxation policies.
The outcome of this was a largely successful urban India and a forgotten rural
India coupled with uneven distribution of income.

I strongly believe that the step taken today by the Indian government
to free FDI is a necessary measure for the moment. Yes, if Nehru’s sadistic
hunger for controlling the Indian’s and their growth would have been overrun by
the need for overall growth on the country, there would have been an industrial
revolution, and Indian companies would have accepted foreign investments on
different terms. But today the need is to grow, and foreign direct investment
shall help the rural India become more successful than the urban India.