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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.

Java, Saviour of Indic Indonesia

Writer: Pulind Samant
Pulind Samant
May 18
4 min read

From Majapahit to Pancasila, Java has repeatedly defended Indonesia’s plural ethos

The last article discussed the conditions, apparently threatening the survival of the Indic thread of Indonesia’s culture, responding to many triggers including a penchant for Arabization of the hitherto localized ‘Indonesian Islam’. Given the size of this wide-spread archipelago called Indonesia, along with the more or less equally well-spread Islamist outlook within the society as well as the polity, the wish for protecting Indonesia’s Indic DNA and thereby guarding its intrinsic plurality and diversity appears to have been pitted against heavy odds.


Although that may be the general situation, a major ray of hope lies indisputably in what is called ‘Javanism’ or the Javanese culture. Java counts as one of the five important islands of Indonesia, standing fifth among them in terms of land size but first in terms of population size. Most importantly, it also stands first in terms of its superior civilizational history. It has the most fertile soil, producing various crops abundantly, which explains the highest population within the archipelago. It carries the reputation of historically hosting the only Indonesian language out of its few hundreds, that produced high literature comparable with classic Sanskrit literature. It also enjoys the reputation of hosting a grand manifestation of arts and architecture of unmatched scale and quality.


Indigenous Empire

Topping it all, it has hosted the strongest ever indigenous empire, called Majapahit, for almost two centuries, that ruled over not only the entire archipelago but also today’s Singapore, parts of Peninsular Malaysia as well as Philippines, and in effect, provided a kind of balance of power in the region vis-à-vis the manoeuvres of the imperial Chinese court. It has also produced a class of aristocrats who formed the backbone of a stable bureaucracy that functioned even during the Dutch colonial rule and who took over the reins post-independence. Thus, the island of Java has indisputably been the cultural capital of the Indonesian archipelago for the last two millennia, which incidentally hosted the political capital of colonial Indonesia from 1619 to 1949, and continues to do so for free Indonesia today. All these facts should leave no doubt in the minds of the readers about the level of importance Java holds within Indonesia.


These all-round prosperous surroundings proved naturally conducive for spawning confident, strong-willed and free-spirited local population who received free exposure to multiple choices in life, who freely chose highly diverse ways of living amongst themselves, which cultural trait came to be identified eventually as ‘Javanism’ among the local populace as well as foreigners.


This Javanism is very core to the identity of being Javanese, which is valued highly by themselves. This free Javanese spirit is the gift of the long-experienced, experimented and embedded history of enmeshed Hindu-Buddhist-localist culture. Aggressive political Islam rose in Java in the mid-15th century, backed by the external power of Sultanate of Malacca, whose sole target was to anyhow pull down the once mighty Hindu-Buddhist Majapahit, which it achieved eventually. But, even after that ‘success of the power of Islam’ and the logically following destruction of the Hindu-Buddhist symbols of the bygone power, the ‘Javanism’ among the masses had managed to remain more or less intact over next few centuries. Evidence of that was found in the ways of the leader of the famous Java War of Independence fought in the 19th century, Prince Dipa-negara; although this Muslim prince with a Hindu name polarized the masses and fought the Dutch avowedly to ‘protect the glory of Islam’, his practice of cave-meditation for seeking ‘power from the heavens’ was unmistakably Hindu, which was unobjectionable then.


Free Spirit

This embedded free spirit and plurality of approach showed even in the mid-20th century when Indonesia became a free country; its leaders, who were majority Javanese, rejected the mounting pressure for declaring Indonesia as an Islamic state, and the top leader, the Javanese and charismatic President Sukarno, brought in the philosophy of ‘Pancasila’ (Sanskrit Pancha-Shila, meaning ‘five principles’) to be adopted by the newly free nation instead. This ‘Javanese intervention’ has decidedly kept Indonesia away from falling to growing Islamist and pan-Islamist ‘struggle’ so far. Even the later presidents of Indonesia post Sukarno have all been Javanese luckily, except one, B.J. Habibie, that too for a short intervening period of around one year. The difference showed – while all the Javanese presidents, all Muslim by religion, largely refused to buckle under the Islamist pressure (except the last ten years out of the total thirty-two of the second President Suharto), Habibie, the close friend and successor of Suharto, is said to have taken a few policy steps which can be viewed as critically important for the subsequent growth of Islamism in Indonesia.


This rising Islamism is hitting right at the heart of the innate pluralism of Indonesia, which is largely a Javanese gift. It has been manifesting in various ways – pressure on women for wearing ‘hijab’; relentless attacks on the state philosophy of ‘Pancasila’; reducing scope for practice of other religions, including restrictions on construction of places of worship; government-enabled migration of Muslim population in non-Muslim majority areas etc. The starkest example was noticed in 2017, when the socio-political campaign against one Basuki Purnama under the allegations of blasphemy of Islam was executed successfully, through legal and extra-legal means. It permanently ousted a popular politician and potential presidential candidate Purnama, Chinese by ethnicity and Christian by faith, thereby wiping out the possibility of non-Muslim competition for the top post for the upcoming general elections in 2029. Encouraging ‘Javanism’ to counter Islamism appears to be the only solution.


(The writer is a Ph.D. researcher in international relations. Views personal.)      


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