Infrastructure vs Infrastructure III

My previous post on infrastructure is getting quite a few responses--mostly in my personal email--but also in the comments section.  I want to draw your attention to one particular comment from Mr Pramod Ahuja of Princeton, NJ:

"Keep in mind the scale of the problem and the time it needs--the process starts with each one of us--not others or the government--if we keep our house clean and then expand the circle--starting perhaps with a foot or two each month around our building--and if every private building did that, millions of sq ft would get improved each year.

"Private citizens need to take the lead here--govt will follow--not the other way around--same goes for every field -educational Institutions, village uplifts, hygiene and sanitation--you name it. What did you do today to help or did you just ask your servant to sweep it for the dirt to return tomorrow? Why not cement it or start building more permanent good quality finished surfaces for waking if not for cycling?"

Interesting thought.  Mr Ahuja asks why we do not better maintain what we already have and then essentially agrees that we should improve the quality of our construction. 

The fact that we are talking about a solution is good--great, in fact.  I, for one, am sick of reading about yet another dump in Gurgaon or yet another traffic snafu in Bangalore.  Bring on some suggested solutions, for a change!

Will keeping the neighborhood clean help, however, when the construction itself is poor?  It seems to be that ultimately,  Mr Ahuja and i are in agreement that it is the construction--and, presumably, other infrastructure--that should be improved.  Where we disagree is that i do not believe that merely keeping what we have in good order will organically improve our infrastructure.  Fact:  Indian roads are woefully inadequate for the task of supporting an economy growing at 9%.  Fact:  Indian buildings are woefully lacking in some of the basic sealant technology that would otherwise obviate the need to clean and mop homes five times a day.  Fact:  such poor road or building construction is only possible because of the pervasive corruption.  In the US and other countries, neither the roads nor the buildings would obtain a basic Certificate of Occupation.

I am not sure what the best solution or solutions are here but here goes:

1.    With roads, drive less and plan your driving to minimize it as much as possible.  Gurgaon-based Alchemist Technologies provides safe roads in remote border areas but are apparently not good enough (or are they too good?) to get a contract to fix the local roads.

2.    VOTE VOTE VOTE--your vote counts, not just in the state elections but also the local elections.  We need to change our mindset, in fact, and recognize that local elections are, in fact, more important than state or national elections.  Not only that, our vote actually means more because fewer people turn up at the polls.

3.     Do as much of our construction as possible.  This seems to be easier said than done, however.  In the US, we have light construction material readily available from national chains like Lowe's and Home Depot.  In India, i cannot even drive a nail into the wall because of the heavy cement.  Is there a better way?  Any more people want to shed light into how we can be self-sufficient in construction?