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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.

Tribute to Shyam Benegal: Looking back at his Cinematic Milestones

Writer: Shoma A. Chatterji
Shoma A. Chatterji
Jan 3, 2025
3 min read

Shyam Benegal, basically a filmmaker who will be remembered as a milestone in Indian cinema, taught me through many interviews how to create in-depth articles on film personalities. He had said, “When you are writing about a filmmaker, you need to contextualize his background, the influences during his growth and then his graduation to filmmaking.” I didn't quite understand what he meant. But when I recalled the several interviews I had done with the filmmaker, I remembered that each time, he remembered how his boyhood with a camera and his close association with an uncle who was directly under the leadership of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had decided for him the course of his life.


His greatest contribution to Indian cinema is his discovery of some of the most outstanding actors of the century. Among them are – Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Rajeshwari Sachdev and brought out the latent talents of Shabana Azmi, Amrish Puri, Girish Karnad, Mohan Agashe, and many more, thus vesting them with the immortality in performance they dreamt of.


His feature film in Hindi, Ankur (The Seedling, 1973), tells the story of an arrogant urban village zamindar’s son (Anant Nag) who returns to his ancestral home in feudal Andhra Pradesh. His subsequent affair with the wife (Shabana Azmi) of one of his labourers and her final resistance against the feudal system when her deaf-mute husband is beaten black-and-blue, brought him criticism for using a purportedly "un-Indian" approach and for "victimizing" women. The film brought the problem of feudal and patriarchal structures to the fore.


Nishant (Night's End, 1975), starring Shabhana Azmi, is in some sense a continuation of Ankur. Again sexual exploitation of women is used to bring out the evils of feudal oppression. Manthan (The Churning, 1976), was financed in the most unusual manner. 500,000 members of the milk co-operatives in Gujarat each donated Rs. 2 towards the production of the film. This was a people's enterprise. Shyam Benegal introduces a westernized doctor to a village who sparks off an uprising of the local untouchables. The doctor is also attracted to a local woman, and consequently explores the nexus of sex and power. In Bhumika (The Role, 1976), he reveals the ambivalent attitudes of Indian society when a woman tries to live life on her own terms. The film is based on the autobiography of the Marathi actress Hansa Wadkar, essayed brilliantly by Smita Patil.


In Manthan, Benegal’s interest in power relations comes to the fore. The four-cornered struggle – between the untouchables, the traditional middle-class, the rising rural capitalists and the new cooperatives led by middle-class agents of change – is traced with a degree of political consciousness evident in later films like Aarohan and Mandi.


Samar is a scathing attack on filmmaking pointing how filmmaking can become a pretentious exercise even when it seemingly begins with a cause. It offers interesting insights into how the caste conflict that forms the base of the storyline, unwittingly infiltrates and influences the cast and crew of the film unit that has come to make a film on the oppression of Dalits in the village. Over time, the caste schisms have widened rather than narrowed down. Benegal shows how the film unit is as prejudiced about caste as the rural people are. We discover that we are hardly as caste-neutral as we think we are. Benegal makes a perceptive statement through a dialogue by a member of the film unit. “Nobody will see the film anyway, except for some highbrow critics. It will win a few prizes at film festivals abroad. That’s all.” And that is precisely what happened to Samar,. It won some prestigious awards but the film did not reach a mass audience.


The film that most critics consider to be Benegal’s masterpiece is Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda. Based on a novel by the Hindi littérateur Dharamvir Bharati, the complex structure which revolves around oral story-telling, it was felt, would not lend itself to the film medium. Benegal disproved this as if with a vengeance and delivered a film that still brings a lump to one’s throat. He beautifully weaves the literary qualities of a novel in print and the art of oral story-telling through word-pictures to place them aesthetically forming a cohesive and harmonized whole in another medium and another language – film. He went on picking awards left, right and centre but he took them in his stride quite naturally in his usual, grounded manner. Asked to react when he won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, he said, “"Winning an award is one aspect of film-making. But you don't make films only to win awards. Rather, you want it to be seen and enjoyed by the people. And the sense you can provide them through your films.”


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

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