印度亟需反思城乡关系.docx

印度亟需反思城乡关系India’s revered independence leader Mahatma Gandhi was of the view that “authentic” India lived in her villages while its cities were bastions of corruption and foreign influence. This bias has strongly influenced decades of Indian policy, which mainly focused on improving rural conditions while largely ignoring growing cities.印度备受尊崇的独立运动领袖圣雄甘地(Mahatma Gandhi)认为,“真正的”印度存在于乡村中，城市则是腐朽堕落、外国势力汇聚的堡垒。这一偏见深刻影响了数十年来印度的政策——这一政策主要注重于改善农村地区条件，而基本忽略了不断发展的城市地区。India is urbanising rapidly as young people from the countryside flock to cities in search of jobs and economic opportunities. Some estimates suggest that 30 Indians move from a rural to an urban area every minute.印度正在迅速走向城市化，来自乡村的年轻人大量涌入城市，寻找工作以及赚钱机会。一些估算显示，平均每分钟就有30名印度人从农村迁往城市地区。Yet, after decades of neglect, Indian cities are struggling to cope. They are plagued with problems including choking air pollution, snarling traffic, and shortages of everything from water and affordable homes to schools, public transport and open spaces.但在被政府忽视了数十年之后，印度城市眼下难以招架这样的人口涌入。困扰印度城市的问题包括呛人的空气污染、喧嚣嘈杂的交通以及各种资源的短缺(从自来水、价格合理的住房到学校、公共交通以及公共空间)。Indian cities fare poorly on liveability indices. Experts on urbanisation warn that conditions are likely to deteriorate without dramatic action that changes how Indian cities are governed, including new finance arrangements for urban infrastructure.印度城市在宜居指数排行榜上名次不佳。城市化领域的专家警告称，如果不采取重大举措改变目前印度城市的管理方式——包括针对城市基础设施建设的新融资安排——城市地区的状况很可能进一步恶化。“India has been a very reluctant urbaniser,” says Amitabh Kant, head of the government’s National Institution for Transforming India. “In today’s world, it is not nations that are competing with each other. It is cities. Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi — they should have been world-class cities.” Instead, he says, they do not figure in the world’s top 100.印度政府下属的“改造印度国家研究院”(National Institution for Transforming India)负责人阿米塔布?康德(Amitabh Kant)表示：“印度对待城市化一直是不情不愿的。当今世界，互相竞争的已不是国家，而是城市。孟买(Mumbai)、金奈(Chennai)、德里(Delhi)——它们本应发展成为世界级大都市。”相反，他指出，这些城市没能跻身全球前100大城市。But India’s