Freeing our City Roads from water Logging

Have you ever wondered why our city roads get filled with water the moment it rains for however short duration it may be?
And why the roads in our villages are never filled with water?
The answer is simple.
In the villages flow of water is not restricted. Rainwater just drains out to the sides.
Moreover, water from surrounding houses or buildings does not flow on to the roads unlike in cities.

If you ask an experienced city planner why roads flood in the cities, he or she will say that each city should have a storm drainage system.
Sure, that is one of the solutions. But this is again an idea that originated from London and some European cities in 17th - 18th century.
They felt this need when they already had existing cities.
But for new cities, we need not go for this solution.
If you analyze each of our cities is growing at 10-15% a year. We can plan better for new areas that are coming up.
But in Hyderabad, where I reside, it is not happening.

I would like to propose a very simple solution which does not require any storm drainage planning.
Plan wide roads and leave enough space on either side of the road. This is quite feasible for all the new areas that are coming up in spite of the huge real estate cost that is associated. Have a trench dug at 20 metres on each side of the road along the length of the road. This trench can be deep enough to accommodate one day's rain water.
Have drain points all along the side of the road and lay a pipe from there to these trenches.
All the water that gets collected on the road will run through these pipes into the trenches. Trenches can be much better looking than the one shown. You can have trees planted in these trenches. The water that is collected in these trenches will be absorbed by the soil very quickly and will not lead to any stagnation of water.

Advantages of no water logging on roads are many:
1) Roads will look clean.
2) Roads will last longer. Water is the main reason why our roads get damaged so quickly.
3) No traffic jams when it rains.
4) No siltage or sand accumulating on roads.
5) No overflowing of drains.
6) No missing man-holes.
7) No embarassement before foreigners as to why we can't get such simple things right.
You may ask what about the water that is collected in the buildings. Every building should compulsorily have water harvesting pits and sumps. This water can be used for watering the plants etc

Standardizing School Curriculum and Delivery

The greatest challenge that India faces is lack of quality teachers .
To aggravate the problem, each State pursues its own curriculum for the students. Even Central Government of India has ICSE and CBSE.
Does this mean that students in AP are different from those of Punjab?
Or is it just that we would like to have more diversity than we already have.

I think standardizing education and its delivery can be thought of in the following ways.
1. Having same curriculum throughout India except for vernacular languages.
2. To pool the best brains in India to devise this curriculum.
3. To make the curriculum interesting to students.
4. To utilize the TV, Internet and CDs to deliver the education. TV is far more effective than any other delivery. It engages the kids the most.

5. Identifying the best teachers in India, pooling them and letting them research on each topic and come up with the best way to explain it. Did you ever wonder why students get a few concepts right and fail to get the others?This is because they were taught those few concepts in a way they could understand easily. Good teachers know this trick. But all students don't get good teachers. Even in the best of schools, all teachers are not good.
6. Recording the delivery of this best method on a Video by the best teachers. Using as many examples and illustrations as possible.I always felt the UGC programmes that I used to watch on TV when I was a student are the right way to teach.
8. Delivering these programs through TV, Internet and Pre-recorded DVDs/CDS
9. The teachers in the schools will just facilitate the process of learning at the time of delivery.
10. Even the tests can be standardized. They can be delivered through emails on the test day to schools.
Imagine the immense advantages that this will bring for a country like India.
1. Lack of quality teachers is no longer a problem.
2. All students get exposed to the same quality education. Be it a rich kid or a poor kid.
3. Students will get their concepts right.
4. India will get a great advantage in the world with their students getting their concepts right.
5. Countless teachers, educators et al are saved from devising separate curriculums and delivery.
6. Standardizing education saves a lot of time.
7. Saved time can be put to a better use to increase productivity and thereby GDP.
8. What more, We can have a standard method of training teachers too on facilitating the students on getting the concepts right.
9. Even if students miss a few classes they can always catch up from DVDs / CDs.
10. Students and parents are freed from the big dilemma they face when they have to change from a school with one curriculum to a different school with a different curriculum.

It is unfortunate that mass education is the only area which did not take advantage of the new technologies that came in the last 80 years. It is high time we use these for everybody's good.