Delhi NCR made my immigrant uncle, extended family and my own father a $ multi-millionaires, often from humble origins. The latest version of this ongoing narrative is $ Billionaire Shekhar Sharms of paytm.
I noticed Delhi NCR is among the world's large if not largest in passenger vehicles, farm tractors and 2 wheelers;
Global IT, Telecom and Consulting hub; pharmaceutical and healthcare powerhouse along with biggest manufacturer of USB's, memory chips, school storage disks and allied e-hardware and a newly minted media, news and publishing eco-system.
The above are all new age industries for India and India changes the rules of the game Globally. Road, Construction and Housing-&-Real-Estate, logistics including trucking and aviation; farming and stuff like medical transcription, education-&-training and call center jobs Mecca.
What is fascinating is that Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Banglore and Surat minus Kanpur, Colonial cities all come with centuries long histories of Globalization and Commonwealth trade, commerce and manufacturing Vs. brash, almost brand new New Delhi with no such background .... has come such a long way in it's brief history of less then 100 yrs.
No such megacity exists. Perhaps in the history of the world. Can anyone think of any city like New Delhi and how it's gone from less then Lahore (the center of the North, along with Lucknow), given it's problems, that has gone the trajectory of New Delhi NCR (latest avatar) maybe only New York even if it was founded much earlier then New Delhi.
Word is Lahore was bigger, diverse and richer then Delhi at the time of partition. Then a lot of the middle class Lahore types moved to Delhi while the Delhi who's who moved to Karachi, which was also bigger then Delhi back then. Bombay, Calcutta, Madras were definitely bigger then Delhi.
The future is bright for New Delhi NCR as per plans, they really plan to invest in High Speed Rail and Freight Corridors, who knows maybe even a water corridor by reviving the Yamuna. All other NCR issues like pollution, water shortages, electricity and infra. shortages are being taken care of more and more.
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