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By:

Rajendra Pandharpure

15 April 2025 at 7:55:54 pm

Pune’s drought could dry up business

Water rationing threatens to hit the city’s wedding industry, construction sector, retail trade and livelihoods. Pune : Pune is beginning to feel the economic sting of drought. A 10 percent cut in the city’s water supply has already been implemented, and the municipal administration has indicated that the reduction could rise to 20 percent or more over the next two to three months. What appears at first to be a water-management crisis could soon become a wider economic problem, affecting...

Pune’s drought could dry up business

Water rationing threatens to hit the city’s wedding industry, construction sector, retail trade and livelihoods. Pune : Pune is beginning to feel the economic sting of drought. A 10 percent cut in the city’s water supply has already been implemented, and the municipal administration has indicated that the reduction could rise to 20 percent or more over the next two to three months. What appears at first to be a water-management crisis could soon become a wider economic problem, affecting businesses, construction activity, employment and household budgets. The Pune Municipal Corporation has begun shutting off the water supply every Thursday. Swimming pools and vehicle-washing centres have been closed, while the use of water for construction has been prohibited. The state government has directed the civic administration to ensure that the reserves in the Khadakwasla dam chain, which supplies Pune, last until August 2027. The challenge could become more acute in the months ahead. Meteorological experts have forecast a milder winter and significantly higher temperatures this year. If these predictions hold true, increased evaporation could place further pressure on the city's water reserves, potentially necessitating stricter rationing. For residents accustomed to a relatively abundant water supply, cuts of 20 percent or more would demand a substantial adjustment in daily life. Intense Pressure The economic consequences are beginning to emerge. The closure of vehicle-washing centres has deprived young people employed in low-skilled jobs of their livelihoods. Swimming-pool closures have similarly affected security guards and lifeguards. These may appear to be small, isolated losses, but they expose a larger problem: when water-intensive businesses are forced to shut down, the burden falls disproportionately on workers with few financial reserves and limited employment alternatives. The impact could spread to Pune’s lucrative wedding industry. The wedding season traditionally gathers momentum after Tulsi Vivah in the month of Kartik, generating business worth more than Rs. 200-250 crore. Pune has long attracted affluent families from outside the city who prefer its venues and facilities for wedding celebrations, partly because of its historically reliable water supply. Persistent restrictions could undermine that advantage. Wedding venues, caterers, hotels and other service providers depend on a dependable water supply to operate. If rationing becomes more severe, organisers may reconsider their choice of venue, while businesses could face higher operating costs and disruptions. An industry that generates substantial seasonal revenue also supports a network of workers and small enterprises, making the potential economic fallout wider than the immediate loss of bookings. Rural-Urban Connection Pune’s commercial fortunes are also linked to the health of the rural economy. A good agricultural harvest typically improves rural incomes, supporting spending on goods and services in urban markets. When farm earnings weaken, that spending tends to contract, affecting traders, retailers and other businesses. If rural incomes remain subdued, the city’s commercial sector could face an additional headwind at a time when water scarcity is already threatening business activity. The interaction between agricultural distress and urban water shortages could therefore deepen the economic slowdown. Construction presents another major vulnerability. Like many large cities, Pune depends heavily on real estate and infrastructure development to sustain economic activity and employment. Construction projects generate demand across a broad network of industries, from building-material suppliers and transport operators to contractors and daily-wage workers. A prolonged restriction on construction-related water use could delay projects, raise costs and disrupt work schedules. If projects stall, the effects will extend beyond developers to workers, suppliers and businesses that depend on the real estate sector. Rising Inflation For ordinary citizens, the prospect of tighter water rationing comes amid an already difficult cost-of-living situation. Food and restaurant prices have risen sharply. A cup of tea now costs more than Rs. 30, while a serving of idli-sambar can exceed Rs. 90. Even street food, traditionally an affordable option for working people, has become increasingly expensive. These prices illustrate the pressure on household budgets, particularly those of workers whose incomes have not kept pace with rising costs. If water shortages push up operating expenses for restaurants, caterers and other businesses, consumers could face further increases. The extent of any additional price rise will depend on how severe and prolonged the restrictions become. The working class is particularly exposed. Workers in vehicle-washing centres, swimming pools, construction and allied services may lose income precisely when everyday necessities are becoming more expensive. Unlike larger businesses, many such workers have little capacity to absorb a prolonged interruption in earnings. Pune’s immediate challenge is to conserve enough water to carry the city through the coming months. Yet the implications of the drought extend well beyond household taps and civic supply schedules. Trade, real estate, hospitality and seasonal businesses all depend, directly or indirectly, on the availability of water. The two sectors facing particular uncertainty are trade and real estate. The former could suffer from weaker consumer spending and disruptions to commercial activity; the latter could be affected by restrictions on construction and the risk of project delays. The consequences would be felt across employment and the wider urban economy. Pune’s residents and businesses have not had to contend with water cuts of 20 percent or more on a sustained basis. Adapting to such restrictions will be difficult, especially if temperatures rise and the drought persists.

Black Warrant: Right Answer to A Crucial Question

Writer: Shoma A. Chatterji
Shoma A. Chatterji
Jan 22, 2025
4 min read

Updated: Jan 23, 2025

Tihar Jail

Tihar Jail is a prison complex which is one of the largest complexes of prisons in India located in Tihar within Delhi. Black Warrant, helmed by the talented filmmaker Vikramaditya Motwane, takes us on a journey inside this prison to show what exactly goes on behind the walls. Black Warrant, a seven-part OTT series released on Netflix is based on Black Warrant: Confessions of a Tihar Jailer co-authored by jailer Sunil Kumar Gupta and journalist Sunetra Chowdhary.


The story unfolds from the point of view of Sunil Kumar Gupta (Zahan Kapoor) from the point he steps in for the face-to-face interview for the job of ASP in Tihar Jail. He is taunted right through the interview because he lacks the physique expected of a jailor, appears timid, diffident and nervous. He does not get selected. The other two candidates, portrayed brilliantly by Paramveer Cheema as the Sardar and Anurag Thakur as the Harianvi bring across the multiple shades in their characters extremely well. The disappointed Sunil is both surprised and happy when a tall, handsome and very charismatic man (Siddhant Gupta) helps him get reinstated. When a curious Sunil asks around who that English-speaking, suave man is, he learns it is Charles Sobhraj. The film ends when Charles Sobhraj escapes his five-star cell just after the assassination of the then PM Indira Gandhi in 1984.


The story begins with the preparations for the hanging of Billa and Ranga for the killing of Sanjay and his sister Geeta Chopra in August 1978. The flashbacks of the brutal killings and rape are cinematographed in grainy Black-and-white which gives it a texture of a past and also softens the brutality. The hanging takes place in January 1982 and the series begins a little before.


Black Warrant is a journey about the toughening up of the soft-natured, tender and shy Sunil Gupta, a staunch vegetarian who could not utter a single maa-behen gaali and is taunted by his two colleagues for this. For such a soft-natured young man, it is a big challenge to stand and watch the hanging of the two killers, never mind the brutality of their crime. But he begins to train himself to gain a strong physique, practices swear words and cuss words in secret followed by practicing it on the prisoners. By the end of the series, Sunil Kumar Gupta has grown in confidence, in stature and in strategy which pushes him to open a Legal Aid cell for prisoners who do not have the funds to appoint lawyers to fight their cases.


As the aged Saini (Rajender Gupta), the jail accountant says, “most of the prisoners are under-trials behind bars for years with their cases not having reached the courts. Many of them are suspected of being innocent but have no means to fight their cases.” Sadly, the same Saini is falsely accused of corruption in order to save the actually guilty Head Jailor Rajesh Tomar (Rahul Bhatt) and his boss (Joy Sengupta) who have cut down on the number of blankets to be given to each prisoner and pocketed the difference themselves. The jail librarian is a doctor who hired two killers to have his wife killed for a meager sum of Rs.500. The two killers are hanged but the doctor gets to meet his lover secretly in the prison every week in exchange for a handsome agreement with the jail staff and the two killers.


Tomar is corrupt, true, but he also takes care of his staff each one of who is open to violent attacks by the prisoners. He has created a small garden in the jail complex and handles it himself. He does not quite like it when Sunil begins to question him but does not make any attempt to undermine or punish him.


Each of them is quite unhappy in their personal lives. Tomar’s wife has walked out of with the growing daughter. Mukhopadhyay, the Jail Super (Tota Roychoudhury is brilliant) has a very unhappy married life. Cheema becomes an alcoholic because his brother has become a rebel back home and the happy-go-lucky Harianvi guy was having a torrid affair with Mukhopadhyay’s wife. Sunil Gupta’s girlfriend Priya leaves him in the end.


The entire series is strongly character-driven and the incidents naturally emerge out of the characters and their interactions, revealing layer by layer, the toughening up of Sunil Kumar Gupta with Zahan Kapoor bringing off the most outstanding debut-performance in recent times. The tragic struggles of the prisoners where there are already three gangs at war with each other, one involved in alchohol smuggling, one pushing drugs through the prison and a Sardar gang as well, all with the connivance of the top prison brass who take their cuts from these behind-bars dealings. Sunil, however, brings radical changes in the prison environment by the time the series ends on an open note without being judgmental about anything or anyone.


The production design is wonderful, beginning with Tomar’s well-furnished office, through Charles Sobhraj’s three-star room with posters and cut-outs of his crimes, down to the lower middle class home of Sunil and his parents and the prison cells with their dirt, the simmering anger among the prisoners and their desperation to get out.


The music and the sound design are excellent and so is the razor-sharp editing which cuts through the scenes like a sharp knife but softens in the scenes within Sunil’s middle-class home with the neighbor who begs for some “prison food”.


Why does the judge break the nib of his fountain pen after signing the death warrant of a prisoner? Black Warrant might just give you the right answer!!!


(The author is a film scholar. Views personal.)

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