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18 Jun

Curitiba – small playground equipment Manufacturer – outdoors play equipment

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by Daniel Andre

Curitiba – small playground equipment Manufacturer – outdoors play equipment

Name

Telephone booth.

One theory about the name “Curitiba” comes from the Tupi words kur tyba, “many pine seeds” due to the large number of seeds of Paran pines in the region prior to its foundation. The other version, also from the Tupi language, comes from the combination of kurit (pine tree) and yba (large amount).

The Portuguese who founded a village in 1693 gave it the name of “Vila da Nossa Senhora da Luz dos Pinhais” (Village of “Our Lady of the Light” of the Pines). The name was changed to “Curitiba” in 1721. Curitiba officially became a town in 1812, spelling its name as Curityba. An alternative spelling also came up: Coritiba. This spelling looked to become dominant for it was used in press and state documents, but a state decree in 1919 settled the dispute by spelling the city name Curitiba.

Geography

Climate

Main article: Climate of Brazil

Winter skyline in Curitiba.

Curitiba has a Maritime Temperate climate or Subtropical highland climate (Cfb), according to the Kppen classification. Located in Southern Brazil, the humid city lies in a temperate zone. It is located in a plateau and the flat terrain with flooded areas contribute to its mild and damp winter, with average temperature of 13 C (55 F) in the coldest month, sometimes falling below 0 C (32 F) on the coldest days. During summertime, the average temperature is around 21 C (70 F), but it can get above 32 C (90 F) on hot days. Snowfall was experienced in 1928,1942, 1955, 1962 and 1975. Among Brazil’s twenty-six state capitals, Curitiba is the coldest due its altitude, despite being 600 kilometres (370 mi) north of Porto Alegre, which is the southernmost state capital in Brazil, but located at sea level. Heat waves during winter and cold waves during summer are not uncommon, and even within a single day there can be great variation, a typical feature of subtropical climates. Several factors contribute to the climate’s variable nature: The flat terrain surrounded by mountains in a rough circle with radius 40 kilometres (25 mi) helps block the winds, allowing the morning mist to cover the city on cold mornings.

The flatness of the terrain hinders quick water drainage after rain, therefore providing a good source of water vapor for the atmosphere. Cold fronts come often from Antarctica and Argentina all year round, bringing tropical storms in summer and cold winds in winter. They can move very quickly, with no more than one day between the start of the southern winds and the start of rain. Curitiba’s weather is also influenced by the dry air masses that dominate Brazil’s midwest most of the year, bringing cold and dry weather, sometimes even in winter.

Climate data for Curitiba

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Year

Record high C (F)

(93)

(90)

(88)

(86)

(90)

(88)

(90)

(91)

(93)

(95)

Average high C (F)

(79)

(77)

(72)

(68)

(64)

(68)

(72)

(73)

(77)

(72)

Daily mean C (F)

(70)

(72)

(70)

(64)

(59)

(55)

(59)

(63)

(66)

(68)

(63)

Average low C (F)

(63)

(61)

(57)

(52)

(46)

(48)

(50)

(54)

(57)

(61)

(55)

Record low C (F)

(41)

(45)

(41)

(34)

-2

(28)

-3

(27)

-5

(23)

-2

(28)

-1

(30)

(37)

(43)

(46)

-5

(23)

Precipitation cm (inches)

(5.9)

(4.7)

(5.1)

(4.3)

(3.9)

(3.1)

(3.5)

(4.7)

(5.5)

137

(53.9)

Source: Weatherbase

Vegetation

Frost in the city.

Curitiba is located in the area of the Ombrophilous Mixed Forest (also known as Araucaria moist forests), a sub-type of the Atlantic Forest. In Curitiba it is possible to find steppes, Araucaria forest and other formations. In the local vegetation still appear remnants of the Parana (or Brazilian) pine (Araucaria angustifolia), which resisted the effects of modern civilization. The Parana pines are in private and public areas, now protected by environmental legislation which prevents them from being logged. The Municipal Secretariat of the Environment maintains a botanical garden and three green houses for the annual production of 150,000 seedlings of native and exotic tree species, 16,000 seedlings of fruit trees, 260,000 seedlings of flowers, foliage and underbrush, as well as the maintenance of 350,000 seedlings.

The total green area of Curitiba is one of the largest in cities in Brazil. The vegetation of Curitiba is also characterized by the existence of a large quantity of purple and yellow ips (tabebuias), making a beautiful sight during the flowering at the end of winter. Currently, the yellow ip is the most common tree in the city.

Hydrography and Pluviometry

Iguau River, running by the south region of the city.

The catchment area of Curitiba consists of several rivers and streams that cross the city in different directions, grouped in six river basins. The main rivers that form the watershed of the city are: Atuba River, Belm River, Barigi River, Passana River, Ribeiro dos Padilhas and the Iguau River, all with characteristics of dendritic drainage. Since the 1970s, Curitiba has been working on alternatives to minimize the negative impacts of urbanization on rivers. An example of this was the construction of parks along the rivers with artificial lakes, which retain the water for longer periods of time, minimizing floods.

Currently, after many studies of the local water flows, almost all the rivers are subject to a canalization process. Other alternatives developed to minimize the effects of urbanization are the implementation of the programs for environmental education, inspection and monitoring, elaboration and application of legislation and infrastructure works. The index reaches 1,500 millimetres (59 in) rainfall on average per year, because the rains are constant in the climate of the city. This happens, among other reasons, because of the deforestation of the Mountain Range of the Sea (Serra do Mar), a natural barrier to moisture.

Relief

The Mountain Range of the Sea, “Serra do Mar.”

The city has surface of 432.17 km in the First Plateau of Paran. Curitiba has a topography of smooth rounded hills, giving a relatively regular shape. The municipality of Curitiba has an average altitude of 934.6 metres (3,066 ft) above sea level, where the highest point is to the north 1,021 metres (3,350 ft), and with lower altitude 864 metres (2,830 ft) to the south.

There are mountain ranges and sets of rocky hills practically all around the city, the most remarkable and impressive being the Serra do Mar (Portuguese for “Mountain Range of the Sea”), located in the east that separates the plateau from the coast of Paran.

History

Old mansion in Batel neighbourhood.

The first ten years of the 16th century marked the beginning of a war of conquest of Europeans (Portuguese colonists) against the indigenous peoples who inhabited the area of the city. Waves of European immigrants started arriving after 1850, mainly Germans, Italians, Poles and Ukrainians. In 1853, the south and southwest of the province of So Paulo were separated, forming the new province of Paran, and Curitiba became its capital.

During the 20th century, especially after 1950, the city rapidly increased in population and consolidated its position as regional hub for trade and services, becoming one of the richest cities in Brazil and a pioneer in urban solutions. In the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Agache, co-founder of the French Society for Urban Studies, was hired to produce the first city plan.

It emphasised a “star” of boulevards, with public amenities downtown, an industrial district and sanitation. It was followed when possible, but was too expensive to complete.

Government

The Curitiba City Hall.

The executive is currently exercised by the mayor Beto Richa (elected in 2004 with a mandate until 2008, and reelected in 2009 to period 2009/2012), by the deputy mayor (vice mayor) Luciano Ducci and the municipal secretaries appointed by the mayor. The City Council of Curitiba was created in 1693, and has a total of 38 councillors elected since 2004.

Curitiba is divided into nine regional governments (equivalent to subprefecture), who manage the 75 districts of the municipality. The Rua da Cidadania (“Street of Citizenship”) is the symbol of administrative decentralization; it is a reference point and meeting place for the user of municipal utilities, in a regional context, taking into account the needs and rights of the citizen in trade, leisure and services, facilitating the access of the population for different services in the areas of health, justice, policing, education, sport, house, environment, urban planning, social service and supply, etc. Several units work annexed to the terminals of public transport in Curitiba. Their nuclei offer services in the local, state and federal areas.

Demographics

Old Polish house, in a park in Curitiba.

Brazilians of Ukrainian descent celebrating Easter in Curitiba.

Arabian Memorial.

According to the IBGE of 2008, there were 3,225,000 people residing in the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba. The population density was 4,159.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,773 /sq mi) (in the urban area). The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following percentage: 2,459,000 White people (76.27%), 640,000 Brown (Multiracial) people (19.84%), 92,000 Black people (2.86%), 26,000 Asian people (0.80%), 6,000 Amerindian people (0.18%).

As most of Southern Brazil’s population, Curitiba is mostly inhabited by Brazilians of European descent. The first Europeans to arrive in the region were of Portuguese origin, during the 17th century. They intermarried with the native people and with the African slaves.

In the 19th century, the influx of immigrants from Europe increased. In 1828, the first German immigrants settled in Paran. However, large numbers of immigrants from Germany only arrived in Curitiba during the 1870s, most of them coming from Santa Catarina or Volga Germans from Russia.

Immigrants from Poland first arrived in 1871, settling in rural areas close to Curitiba. They largely influenced the agriculture of the region. Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world, second only to Chicago. The Memorial of Polish Immigration was inaugurated on December 13, 1980, after the visit of the Pope John Paul II to the city of Curitiba, in June, in the same year. Its area is 46 thousand square meters and was part of the former Candles plant. The seven wooden log houses are parts of this memorial area, as a souvenir of the Polish immigrants, and their struggles and faith. Objects like the old wagon, the pipe of cabbage and the print of the black virgin of Czestochowa, who is the patron saint of Polish people, form parts of the memorial.

Italian immigrants started arriving in Brazil in 1875 and in Curitiba in 1878. They came mostly from the Veneto and Trento regions, in Northern Italy and settled mostly in the Santa Felicidade neighborhood, still today the center of the large Italian community of Curitiba.

Large numbers of Ukrainian immigrants settled in Curitiba, mostly between 1895 and 1897, when some 20,000 arrived. They were peasants from Galicia, who emigrated to Brazil to become farmers. Nowadays there are around 300,000 Ukrainian-Brazilians living in Paran. The State of Paran has the largest Ukrainian community and Slavic community of the country.

Curitiba has a well established Jewish community originally established in the 1870s. Much of the early Jewish congregation has been assimilated. In 1937 with the conquest of power by the Nazis in Germany, several notable German Jewish academics were allowed into Brazil, some of them settling in Curitiba.

Physicist Csar Lattes and former mayors Jaime Lerner, and Saul Raiz were Jewish. A monument in memory of the Holocaust has been erected in the city. There is also a community center, a Habad house (Beit Chabad) in Curitiba as well as at least two synagogues and two Jewish cemeteries, one of which was defiled by antisemites in 2004.

Japanese immigrants began arriving in the region in 1915. Most Japanese settled in the State of So Paulo, but many settled in Northern Paran, cities such as Maring and Londrina. Curitiba also received significant numbers of immigrants from Japan. Nowadays, there are about 40,000 Japanese-Brazilians living in the city.

Other immigrants, such as Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, Russians and other Eastern Europeans also settled in Curitiba.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Brazil

Curitiba Trade Center, popularly called “O Prdio do Relgio” (The Clock Building).

The city of Curitiba is one of the finest examples of a bulky economic and industrial development carried out with responsibility and organisation. Since it was declared the capital of the State of Paran in 1853, the city has gone through several major urban planning projects to avoid uncontrolled growth and thus has become an international role model in dealing with such sensitive issues as transportation and the environment. The city is the second largest car manufacturer in the country, and it’s economy is based on industry, commerce and services. For that reason, Curitiba is considered by many specialists of the financial sector to be the best location for investors in Brazil. At the moment, the city receives more than two million tourists every year. Most arrive via Afonso Pena International Airport, where almost sixty thousand airplanes land annually.

According to IPEA data, the GDP in 2006 at real 32 billion, without recording activities in the agriculture and livestock farming (0.03%) sectors. Industry represented 34.13% and the commerce and service sectors 65.84%. Cidade Industrial de Curitiba, the industrial district of Curitiba, is home to many multinational industries, such as Nissan, Renault, Volkswagen, Audi, Volvo, HSBC, Siemens, ExxonMobil, Electrolux and Kraft Foods, as well as many national industries, such as Sadia, O Boticrio, Positivo Informtica. Curitiba’s infrastructure makes bus travel fast and convenient, effectively creating demand for bus use in the same way that the infrastructure of traditional cities creates demand for private motor vehicles. In July 2001, Curitiba has become the first city in the country to receive the prize “Pole of Information Technology”, granted by InfoExame magazine, because the performance of their companies of technology. According to the magazine, the number of companies of “Technology and Information Technology” based in Curitiba submitted in 2001 a turnover of US$ 1.2 billion, representing a growth of 21% over the previous year.

Estao Mall.

In the early 1970s, when Brazil was welcoming industry with open arms, Curitiba accepted only non-polluters and constructed an industrial district with so much green space that it was derided as a “golf course” until it filled up with major businesses while its counterparts in other Latin American cities flagged. The city’s 30-year economic growth rate is 7.1%, higher than the national average of 4.2%, and per capita income is 66% higher than the Brazilian average. Between 1975 and 1995, Curitiba’s domestic product grew by some 75% more than the entire State of Paran, and 48% more than Brazil as a whole. In 1994, tourism generated US$ 280 million, 4% of the city’s net income. Curitiba has municipal health, education and day care networks, neighbourhood libraries shared by schools and citizens, and Citizenship Streets, where buildings provide essential public services, sports and cultural facilities near mass transportation terminals. At the Open University, residents can take courses in subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee. Policies for job creation and income generation also became part of the city’s strategic planning in the ’90s, for the metropolitan area as well as the city.

The “Pao Municipal” built in 1916.

Since 1990, the Municipal Housing Fund has been providing financial support to housing for lower income populations. After national housing finance collapsed in 1985, just as people from the countryside poured into Curitiba, the city’s public housing program bought one of the few remaining large plots of land, “Novo Bairro” (New Neighborhood), as home for 50,000 families. While landowners built the houses themselves, each received a pair of trees and an hour’s consultation with an architect to help them develop their plan. COHAB also built Technology Street, an avenue of 24 homes in the centre of Novo Bairro, each built using different construction techniques.

There are also five massive shopping malls in Curitiba shopping: Mueller, Estao, Curitiba, Crystal and Park Barigi. There is also a sixth mall in Curitiba Brazil opened in 2008 called the Shopping Palladium. The Mueller is one of the best shopping malls. The Rua das Flores (Flower’s Street) is the home of the majority of stores in Curitiba, and this is so for a very good reason. The area is pedestrianized, meaning that there are no cars around the centre. An essential element of Curitiba shopping is the Feira do Largo da Ordem, or Largo da Ordem Street Fair, including Paran fashion, Curitiba gemstones, Brazil furniture Curitiba-made, Curitiba Brazil leather equipment, crafts, arts and much more.

The GDP for the city is R$ 32,153,307,000 (2006).

The per capita income for the city was R$ 17,977 (2006).

Tourism and recreation

Main article: Tourism in Brazil

Botanical Garden of Curitiba.

German church in Curitiba.

Japan Square in Curitiba.

Wire Opera House.

Portugal Park.

Tangu Park.

Botanic Gardens

Curitiba’s trademark, created to resemble French gardens, rolls out its flower carpet to the visitors right at the entrance. The greenhouse, with a metallic structure, has botanic species that are national symbols, and also a water fountain.

The native forest is filled with paths for walking. The Botanic Museum attracts researchers from all over the world. There is a space for exhibitions, library and a theatre.

German Woods

The wood has various features to celebrate and promote the German traditions. There are 38 thousand square meters of native forest, which was part of the old farm from the Schaffer family. The replica of an old wooden church, built in 1933 at the Seminrio neighbourhood, with neo-gothic decorative elements, shelters a concert hall called Bach’s Oratorium.

Other attractions are the John and Mary path, which tells the Grimm brothers tale, a children’s library, the Philosophers Tower, a wooden observatory allowing a panoramic view of the city and the Ocean Ridge, and the German Poetry Square, with a reproduction of the Casa Mila faade, a German building from the beginning of the last century, originally located in the city centre. It’s closed for remodeling at the present time.

Italian Woods

A place for the typical parties of the Italian community in the district, such as the Grape Party, the Wine Party and the 4 Giorni in Italy. It has structure for food and drinkstalls, space for shows and folkloric presentations and a polenta pot.

Japan Square

Homage to Japanese immigrants who settled there dedicating themselves to agriculture. Scattered around the square are 30 cherry trees sent from Japan and artificial lakes. In 1993 the Japanese Portal, the Culture House and the Tea House were built.

Tingi Park

Part of the biggest linear environmental park in the Country, established at the Barigi river margins, it reminds us of the Indians who used to live there, with the statue of Tindiqera Chieftain. The Ukrainian Memorial is also there, homage to the immigrants, in a replica of an orthodox church, originally built in inland Paran State, hosting a pssankas and icons exhibition.

Wire Opera House

It is one of the emblematic symbols of Curitiba, with tubular structure and transparent ceiling, of great beauty. Inaugurated in 1992, it caters for all types of shows, between lakes, typical vegetation and cascades, on a unique landscape. The Wire Opera House is part of the Pedreiras Park, together with the Paulo Leminski Cultural Space, where the Passion of Christ was enacted, and hosted many other big events since 1989, and can hold, in the open air, 10 thousand people seated or 50 thousand standing.

Tangu Park

This park was inaugurated in 1996, the Tangu Park surprises with its beauty as an example of urban space being re-utilized, on one old complex of disactivated quarries, and it is part of the Barigi river preservation project joining Tingi and Barigi parks. This park with an area of 450 thousand square meters has two quarries connected by a 45 meter tunnel that may be crossed on foot by a path over the water. It can be visited on boat or on foot (hiking). The park has a cooper and bicycle track, snack bar, belvedere and Poty Lazzaroto garden.

Portugal Wood

Homage to the Portuguese-Brazilian bonds, this space is highlighted by a track following a small brook, where one can see drawn on tiles excerpts from famous Portuguese language poets, as well as a tribute to the great Portuguese navigators and their discoveries.

Curitiba International Ecological Marathon

In November, happens the Maratona Ecolgica Internacional de Curitiba (“Curitiba International Ecological Marathon”). This marathon is known as the hardest in Brazil, because happens in the end of the year, when usually is warm weather in the city (because is summer in Southern Hemisphere), and the hilly course, with many of the inclines being in the last 10 km. To compensate the hard course, runners count with good structure and enthusiastic fans cheering along the course.

Tourism Line

Every year, tourism grows in Curitiba. To attend this demand, the Linha Turismo (“Tourism Line”) started in 1994. Its a special city tour that visits the principal tourist attractions in Curitiba, featuring comfortable white buses with big windows and a shape similar to that of streetcars. The vehicles are equipped with a sound system that plays recorded messages describing sites in three different languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish. It is possible to visit the parks, squares and the rest of the city’s tourist attractions. Considered one of the best in the country, the Linha Turismo is available every thirty minutes and has a two and a half-hour tour, which travels around forty-four kilometers. To go on the tour you must buy a ticket with five tickets that give you the right to get on and off bus four times. Users can therefore choose the touristic point where they want to stay longer. Then, they can embark again to complete the remaining part of the itinerary. Today the line goes to 25 key reference points in Curitiba, completing 44 km (27 mi) in 2 and hours.

Panoramic view of Curitiba.

Education

Main article: Education in Brazil

Federal University of Paran was the first university opened in Brazil.

Bus and the Federal University.

Educational institutions

Universidade Federal do Paran (UFPR) – Federal University – Paran is the biggest University in the State and the oldest University from Brazil;

Universidade Tecnolgica Federal do Paran (UTFPR) – Federal University of Technology is a major University in Paran and the first University of Technology from Brazil;

Pontifcia Universidade Catlica do Paran (PUCPR) – A major private University in Paran;

Universidade Tuiuti do Paran (UTP);

Universidade Positivo (UP);

Centro Universitrio Franciscano do Paran (UNIFAE);

Escola de Msica e Belas Artes do Paran (EMBAP);

Faculdade Dom Bosco (FDB);

Faculdade de Artes do Paran (FAP);

Faculdade de Tecnologia (FATEC);

Centro Universitrio Curitiba (UNICURITIBA);

and many others.

Educational system

In the 1990s, the city started a project called Faris de Saber (“Lighthouses of Knowledge”). These Lighthouses are free educational centers which include libraries, Internet access, and other cultural resources. This community libraries works with municipal schools, have a collection of approximately 5000 books, and be cultural reference and leisure for the community, and are designed to diversify the opportunities of access to knowledge, expanding the area of formal education. In each quarter of the city these “Lighthouses of Knowledge” have been implanted containing library and room of computer science, to public use, mainly by students; job training, social welfare and educational programs are coordinated, and often supply labor to improve the city’s amenities or services, as well as education and income. Among the Brazilian capitals, Curitiba has the lowest rate of illiteracy, and also number 1 in education between the Brazilian capitals.

Urban planning

Public Transport in Curitiba.

Bus in the city.

Largo da Ordem, Sunday Market in Curitiba.

November 15 Street, one of the major streets of Curitiba, is a pedestrian-only street since 1972.

November 15 Street.

The Curitiba Botanical Garden.

Modern Curitiba.

Curitiba has a planned transportation system, which includes lanes on major streets devoted to a bus rapid transit system. The buses are long, split into three sections (bi-articulated), and stop at designated elevated tubes, complete with disabled access. There is only one price no matter how far you travel and you pay at the bus stop.

The system, used by 85% of Curitiba’s population, is the source of inspiration for the TransMilenio in Bogot, Colombia; Metrovia in Guayaquil, Ecuador; Transmetro in Guatemala City, Guatemala; as well as the Orange Line of Los Angeles, U.S. State of California, and for a future transportation system in Panama City, Panama as well as Cebu City, Philippines.

The city has also paid careful attention to preserving and caring for its green areas, boasting 54 square metres (580 sq ft) of green space per inhabitant.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Alfred Agache, cofounder of the French Society for Urban Studies, was hired to produce the first city plan. It emphasised a star of boulevards, with public amenities downtown, an industrial district and sanitation. It was followed when possible, but was too expensive to complete.

By the 1960s, Curitiba’s population had ballooned to 430,000, and some residents feared that the growth in population threatened to drastically change the character of the city. In 1964, Mayor Ivo Arzua solicited proposals for urban design. Architect Jaime Lerner, who later became mayor, led a team from the Universidade Federal do Paran that suggested strict controls on urban sprawl, a reduction of traffic in the downtown area, preservation of Curitiba’s Historic Sector, and a convenient and affordable public transit system.

This plan, known as the Curitiba Master Plan, was adopted in 1968. Lerner closed XV de Novembro St. to vehicles, because it had very high pedestrian traffic. The plan had a new road design to minimise traffic: the Trinary Road System. This uses two one-way streets moving in opposite directions which surround a smaller, two-lane street where the express buses have their exclusive lane. Five of these roads form a star that converges on the city centre. Land farther from these roads is zoned for lower density developments, to reduce traffic away from the main roads. In a number of areas subject to floods, buildings were condemned and the land became parks.

Today, Curitiba is considered one of the best examples of urban planning worldwide. In June 1996, the chairman of the Habitat II summit of mayors and urban planners in Istanbul praised Curitiba as “the most innovative city in the country.”

Curitiba was recently recommended by UNESCO as one of the city-model for the reconstruction of the cities of Afghanistan, after the U.S invaded in 2001.

In the 1980s, the RIT (Rede Integrada de Transporte, Integrated Transport Network) was created, allowing transit between any point in the city by paying just one fare. At the same time, the city began a project called the “Faris de Saber” (Lighthouses of Knowledge). These Lighthouses are free educational centers which include libraries, Internet access, and other cultural resources. Job training, social welfare and educational programs are coordinated, and often supply labor to improve the city’s amenities or services, as well as education and income.

Curitiba is referred to as the ecological capital of Brazil, with a network of 28 parks and wooded areas. In 1970, there was less than 1 square meter of green space per person; now there are 52 square meters for each person. Residents planted 1.5 million trees along city streets. Builders get tax breaks if their projects include green space. Flood waters diverted into new lakes in parks solved the problem of dangerous flooding, while also protecting valley floors and riverbanks, acting as a barrier to illegal occupation, and providing aesthetic and recreational value to the thousands of people who use city parks.

In 2007, the city was the third place in a list of “15 Green Cities” in the world, according the U.S. magazine “Grist.” After only of Reykjavik in Iceland and Portland in the United States. As a result, according to one survey, 99% of Curitibans are happy with their hometown. The “green exchange” employment program focuses on social inclusion, benefiting both those in need and the environment. Low-income families living in shantytowns unreachable by truck bring their trash bags to neighborhood centers, where they exchange them for bus tickets and food. This means less city litter and less disease, less garbage dumped in sensitive areas such as rivers and a better life for the undernourished poor. There’s also a program for children where they can exchange recyclable garbage for school supplies, chocolate, toys and tickets for shows.

Under the “garbage that’s not garbage” program, 70% of the city’s trash is recycled by its residents. Once a week, a truck collects paper, cardboard, metal, plastic and glass that has been sorted in the city’s homes. The city’s paper recycling alone saves the equivalent of 1,200 trees a day. As well as the environmental benefits, money raised from selling materials goes into social programs, and the city employs the homeless and recovering alcoholics in its garbage separation plant. Open University, created by the city, lets residents take courses in many subjects such as mechanics, hair styling and environmental protection for a small fee. Retired city buses are often used as mobile schools or offices. Downtown areas were transformed into pedestrian streets, including a 24-hour mall with shops, restaurants and cafes, and a street of flowers with gardens tended by street kids.

The “capacity building job line” was created to generate a better quality of life for people in the region surrounding a new economic development axis of Curitiba. Key initiatives include the South-Circular bus line, which links the southern and eastern regions of town; Entrepreneurial Sheds, business incubators designed to help small companies get established and prosper; and the Crafts Lyce, which trains people for professions such as marketing and finance so that they can find employment in new companies that emerge from the business incubator. Specifically, the goal is to provide jobs and income for the unemployed among 400,000 people living in 15 peripheral towns, and to structure and develop the region according to integrated planning principles. About 15,000 new jobs have been generated so far, and 15,000 more are expected.

There’s a model, inexpensive, speedy transit service used by more than 2 million people a day. There are more car owners per capita than anywhere in Brazil, and the population has doubled since 1974, yet auto traffic has declined by 30%, and atmospheric pollution is the lowest in Brazil.

Culture

Musicians on a street.

Paiol Theatre.

Paranaense Museum.

Museum of Expeditionary.

Arts and entertainment

Curitiba is the first city in Brazil to have an IMAX movie theatre. It is in the Palladium Shopping Center which is the biggest mall in Southern Brazil. Curitiba also has many theaters. The biggest and most important one is the Guara Theater. Every year, in April, it hosts the Curitiba Theater Festival, with various artists playing in Curitiba Theaters and even on the squares.

Museums

For the famous Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer Curitiba became the home to his extravagantly designed museum, the state museum of Curitiba. Its design includes a gravity defying construction that was intended to look like a Parana Pine, one of the city’s symbols, but is widely interpreted by locals as an eye which gave the Museum its nickname – Museu do Olho, or Museum of the Eye. In keeping with the Curitiba history and culture of science, the museum offers many science exhibitions, including Curitiba biennal/Curitiba biennial, twice-yearly exhibitions. The Curitiba museum also includes the Oscar Niemeyer Curitiba auditorium.

Museu Paranaense (“Paranaense Museum”) – dedicated to the arts and history;

Oscar Niemeyer Museum – the largest museum of Latin America, dedicated to plastic arts;

Museu de Arte Sacra (“Religious Art Museum”) – the focus are religious and sacred Christian art in general;

Museu do Expedicionrio (“Museum of Expeditionary”) – dedicated to the history of Brazilian participation in World War II;

Museu de Arte Contempornea (“Museum of Contemporary Art”);

Museu da Imagem e do Som (“Image and Sound Museum”) – about cinema and photography;

Museu Metropolitano de Arte de Curitiba (“Metropolitan Museum of Art in Curitiba”) – modern art;

Museu de Histria Natural (“Natural History Museum”) – dedicated to the biology and botany.

Carnival/Carnaval

Main article: Brazilian Carnival

Carnival Curitiba is unique and, as a result, extremely different from the carnivals held elsewhere in the country, and especially the ones that are so prevalent on any TV coverage of the carnival that occurs in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, and Recife every single year. Carnival Curitiba is in fact non-existent in terms of the way that it is done elsewhere. The carnival in Curitiba that does occur every year, in March to be precise to coincide with the Rio de Janeiro carnival, consists of a small celebration on the coast. The beaches that are an hour away via car in Paranagu host the miniature carnival Curitiba celebrations. There is usually traditional Brazilian food like “Feijoada”, their special hotdogs and a variety of salads on offer from stalls. The revellers will usually dance the “samba” and mingle before heading home after the party in the early hours of the morning. The carnival Curitiba offers is therefore out of the town and gives those that do not wish to attend a break. Three clubs are renowned for their carnival Curitiba celebrations: Santa Mnica, Paran and Curitibanos. They are all located within easy distance of the Central area. The costumes are readily available from most of the cheaper clothes stores and can be hired out from a variety of shops within the Mueller mall, as well as smaller independent ones in the weeks leading up to the celebrations for less than for the night.

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Brazil

Curitiba is influenced by European, Arab and Japanese immigrants. The better restaurants are all located in central area, that is to say not too far away from the heart of Curitiba. As a result, the majority of them are near metro stops and the bus terminus and can easily be reached via walking. Although offering traditional Brazilian drink. The Caruso restaurant is a traditional form of Brazilian cuisine that is made up of rice, black beans, and sausages with borecole and orange slices on the side. It may sound like a basic dish but the flavour is immense. Italian Pizzaria Geppetto and Pizzaria O forno are the better Italian restaurants in the city.

UN Convention on Biodiversity

United Nations Convention in Curitiba.

On March 20-31st 2006 an important world gathering of the United Nations on biodiversity has taken place in Curitiba, addressing items of the 1993 Convention on Biological Diversity adopted by 188 countries. This convention seeks to discuss strategies to safeguard life from the threats directed against it. Starting with the Summit of the Earth or Rio de Janeiro Eco-92 the topic has been gaining centrality and has been the subject of numerous official documents, especially the 2000 and 2003 Cartagena Protocols on biosecurity. The Curitiba preparatory document, developed by specialists of the UN and of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment for issues from Brazil, defines biodiversity as follows: including all the different species of plants, animals and microorganisms (estimated in more than 10 million species), all the genetic variability within the species (10 to 100 genes per specie) and all the diverse ecosystems formed by different combinations of species. Biodiversity includes the environmental services responsible for maintenance of life on Earth, for the interaction between living beings and for the offer of goods and services that sustain human societies and their economies.

Transportation

Bus route plan for RIT (Rede Integrada de Transporte).

A bus stop in the city.

How the tube-station works.

Biodiversity publicity in the bus stop.

Public transport

Main article: Rede Integrada de Transporte

Curitiba has a unique transportation system, developed locally and causing much interest worldwide. This Bus Rapid Transit system is very simple and practical. Public transportation consists entirely of buses. There are several different types of bus, each with a different function. All stations are easily accessed and enclosed. The buses have been changed to make for easier entry and exit. Together with other low-cost changes, this bus system aims at becoming a comfortable and preferred transportation choice for the public.

The popularity of Curitiba’s BRT has effected a modal shift from automobile travel to bus travel. Based on 1991 traveller survey results, it was estimated that the introduction of the BRT had caused a reduction of about 27 million auto trips per year, saving about 27 million liters of fuel annually. In particular, 28 percent of BRT riders previously traveled by car. Compared to eight other Brazilian cities of its size, Curitiba uses about 30 percent less fuel per capita, resulting in one of the lowest rates of ambient air pollution in the country. Today about 1,100 buses make 12,500 trips every day, serving more than 1.3 million passengers, 50 times the number from 20 years ago. Eighty percent of travelers use the express or direct bus services. Best of all, Curitibanos spend only about 10 percent of their income on travel, much below the national average.

Curitiba’s Master Plan integrated transportation with land use planning, calling for a cultural, social, and economic transformation of the city. It limited central area growth, while encouraging commercial growth along the transport arteries radiating out from the city center. The city center was partly closed to vehicular traffic, and pedestrian streets were created. Linear development along the arteries reduced the traditional importance of the downtown area as the primary focus of day-to-day transport activity, thereby minimizing congestion and the typical morning and afternoon flows of traffic. Instead, rush hour in Curitiba has heavy commuter movements in both directions along the public transportation arteries.

Other policies have also contributed to the success of the transit system. Land within two blocks of the transit arteries is zoned for high density, since it generates more transit ridership per square foot. Beyond the two blocks, zoned residential densities taper in proportion to distance from transitways. Planners discourage auto-oriented centers and channel new retail growth to transit corridors. Very limited public parking is available in the downtown area, and most employers offer transportation subsidies, especially to low-skilled and low-paid employees.

Roads

Afonso Pena International Airport (CWB).

Orange Taxis in the city.

Moving around in a car can be difficult in and around the city centre because of the many one-way streets and frequent traffic jams. This makes the public transportation system more attractive if one wants to go there. The Trinary Road System allows quick access to the city centre for car drivers. Some avenues are spacious and laid out in a grid and apart from some points around the city centre, Munhoz da Rocha Street and Batel Avenue, traffic jams are not thus severe. Coming from So Paulo use BR-116 South. From Florianpolis use BR-101. From Porto Alegre use BR-116 North. Recently, the city installed around 140 traffic radars, causing much discontent among drivers in general.

International Airport

Afonso Pena International Airport is Curitiba’s main airport. It is located in the nearby city of So Jos dos Pinhais and all commercial flights operate from this airport. With a constructed area of 45 thousand square meters, Afonso Pena/Curitiba International Airport serves some 3.5 million passengers a year. The apron has 19 boxes for aircraft parking, six of them served by boarding bridges from the terminal. The airport also has auxiliary buildings, a waste treatment station, a large parking lot, and is encircled by expansive grassy areas and gardens. (Small aircraft may also use the Bacacheri airport.) It is integrated into Curitiba’s transportation system, with rapid buses and shuttle service connecting the airport to the city.

Others

The city has approximately 62 miles of bike routes, used by around 30 thousand bikers daily. On the city streets, there are almost one million vehicles, of which 2,253 are Taxis. They are all painted orange. To service all these vehicles, there are more than 355 gas stations throughout the city. With so many cars, nearly 500,000 tickets are issued yearly, even though there are more than 40,000 existing traffic signs in all the city.

Sports

Arena da Baixada “Estdio Joaquim Amrico Guimares,” set for 2014 FIFA World Cup.

See also: 2014 FIFA World Cup and Sports in Brazil

Several football teams play in Curitiba. Coritiba play at Estdio Major Antnio Couto Pereira, Clube Atltico Paranaense at Estdio Joaquim Amrico Guimares and Paran Clube at Estdio Durival Britto e Silva. Both Coritiba and Atltico Paranaense have won Campeonato Brasileiro Srie A, in 1985 and 2001, respectively. Estdio Joaquim Amrico Guimareswill be one of the 12 stadia to host games of the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be held in Brazil.

The Autdromo Internacional de Curitiba (Curitiba International Autodrome) is located in nearby Pinhais.

Neighborhoods

Map of Curitiba, with the neighbourhoods and boroughs.

Satellite view.

Bairros (neighbourhoods) of Curitiba are geographical divisions of the city. There is no delegation of administrative powers to neighborhoods, although there are several neighborhood associations devoted to improve their own standards of living. Curitiba is divided into 9 regional governments (boroughs) covering the 75 neighbourhoods of the city. All districts are served by the system of integrated urban transport.

Most districts of Curitiba was born of colonial groups formed by families of European immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century.

The centre (“Downtown” in American English or “CBD” – central business district – in other English use), place of foundation of the city, is the most bustling area, which concentrates most of the financial institutions of Curitiba.

List of neighborhoods by regional:

Matriz: Centro, Centro Cvico, Batel, Bigorrilho, Mercs, So Francisco, Bom Retiro, Ahu, Juvev, Cabral, Hugo Lange, Jardim Social, Alto da XV, Alto da Glria, Cristo Rei, Jardim Botnico, Prado Velho and Rebouas;

Santa Felicidade: Santa Felicidade, Lamenha Pequena, Butiatuvinha, So Joo, Vista Alegre, Cascatinha, So Brs, Santo Incio, Orleans, Mossungu, Campina do Siqueira, Seminrio, CIC (north region) and part of Campo Comprido;

Boa Vista: Boa Vista, Bacacheri, Bairro Alto, Tarum, Tingi, Atuba, Santa Cndida, Cachoeira, Barreirinha, Abranches, Taboo, Pilarzinho and So Loureno;

Cajuru: Cajuru, Uberaba, Jardim das Amricas, Guabirotuba and Capo da Imbuia;

Fazendinha/Porto: Porto, Fazendinha, Santa Quitria, Vila Isabel, gua Verde, Parolin, Guara, Lindia, Fanny, Novo Mundo and part of Campo Comprido;

Boqueiro: Boqueiro, Xaxim, Hauer and Alto Boqueiro;

Pinheirinho: Pinheirinho, Capo Raso, Tatuquara, Campo de Santana and Caximba;

Bairro Novo: Stio Cercado, Ganchinho and Umbar;

Cidade Industrial de Curitiba: CIC (center and south region), Riviera, Augusta and So Miguel.

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Brazil

Twin towns Sister cities

Curitiba is twinned with:

Asuncin, Paraguay

Coimbra, Portugal

Crdoba, Argentina

Corrientes, Argentina

Guadalajara, Mexico

Hangzhou, China

Himeji, Japan

Krakw, Poland

Lyon, France

Montevideo, Uruguay

Orlando, United States

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

Suwon, South Korea

Treviso, Italy

Famous places

Museu Oscar Niemeyer (Oscar Niemeyer Museum).

Curitiba is mostly known for some of its famous places:

Autdromo Internacional de Curitiba (Curitiba International Autodrome)

Bosque Alemo (German Woods)

Bosque de Portugal (Portugal Woods)

Feirinha do largo da ordem (Largo da Ordem Sunday Market)

Jardim Botnico de Curitiba (Botanical Garden of Curitiba)

pera de Arame (Wire Opera House)

Rua XV de Novembro (November 15 Street)

Universidade Federal do Paran (Federal University of Parana)

Notable people

Botanical Garden of Curitiba.

Skyline at night.

Curitiba in the morning.

Passeio Pblico.

Arts

Isabeli Fontana – Super Model

Dalton Trevisan – Writer

Paulo Leminski – Poet and Writer

Jaime Lerner – Architect and Urbanist

Larry Grehan – Irish writer

Luiz Carlos Alborghetti – TV host

Guilherme Weber – Actor

Isadora Ribeiro – Actress

Marjorie Estiano – Actress

Tamajoara Proena – Teacher

Vilanova Artigas – Architect

Fernanda Machado – Actress

Aviation

Pierre Clostermann – WWII fighter french pilot, engineer

Science

Csar Lattes – Physicist

Newton da Costa – Mathematician

Ned Kock – Systems Scientist

Politics

Beto Richa (Mayor of Curitiba)

Roberto Requio (Governor of the State of Paran)

Sports

Football

Alexandro de Souza

Mixed martial arts

Anderson Silva

Wanderlei Silva

Cristiane Santos

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

Murilo Rua

Motorsports

Enrique Bernoldi – Formula One driver – IndyCar driver

Raul Boesel – Formula One driver – IndyCar driver. 1987 World Sportscar Championship champion.

Augusto Farfus – WTCC driver for BMW.

Ricardo Zonta – Formula One driver. 1998 FIA GT Championship champion

Basketball

Rolando Ferreira – (Gold medalist at the 1987 Pan American Games)

Beach Volleyball

Emanuel Rego (Gold medalist in 2004 Olympics)

In popular culture

Oilman

Main article: Oilman (Brazil)

Born as Nelson Rebelo in 1960, eldest of three sons, “Oilman” is a famous persona of Curitiba assumed by a former college professor on the streets. According to local legend, Nelson was retired from his career for mysterious reasons, although his physics seminars maintained an excellent reputation where he taught at UFPr Sciences.

Nelson’s street performing began where he attended college, at the Leontius Cooper school in Curitiba, when with the encouragement of other colleagues he publicly impersonated Elvis Presley, including dress, speech habits, and full musical performance. This happened in honor of the birthday of the college director, at the time of Elvis’s death. This was a tremendous local success leading to local TV broadcasts.

However, according to residents of Curitiba, sometime thereafter, Nelson suffered a psychotic breakdown in class. In the midst of a lecture, the romantic interest he expressed for a student was not returned. According to the official version from the college, he retired for health reasons.

Following his retirement, he reemerged on the streets as the “man who smeared oil on himself and rode his bicycle wearing only a tiny speedo”. But according to Nelson, his character was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Steven Seagal. Over the years, Nelson has attracted more than 300 different names for his outlandish street character, such as “Herman Munster”, “Underwear Man,” and “Hero of Curitiba”, the best known being the Oilman.

Rebelo Nelson plans to release a book about his character soon in the future.

Source: Wikipedia Portuguese

INRI Cristo

Main article: Inri Cristo

Curitiba is also the home of Brazilian media personality, INRI Cristo, an ethnic German born Iuri Thais who claims to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. He has traveled the world seeking donations until returning to his homeland and establishing a school for his disciples seated on plastic lawn chairs. He is a frequent guest on Brazilian comedy talk shows and boasts of numerous arrests by Brazilian police.

References

Notes

^ IBGE, Produto Interno Bruto dos Municpios 2005. Retrieved in 07/April/2008.

^ “Mapa da Regio Metropolitana de Curitiba – Paran”. Curitiba-parana.com. http://www.curitiba-parana.com/geografia-mapas/mapa-regiao-curitiba.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

^ “Regio Metropolitana” (in Portuguese). Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba. Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. http://web.archive.org/web/20070811015523/http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/Cidade/cidade_regmetro.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-08.

^ European Immigration to Curitiba

^ “A imigrao rabe muulmana em Curitiba” (in Portuguese). Etni-cidade. http://www.etni-cidade.net/2008/a_imigracao_arabe.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-03.

^ “Quase metade de Curitiba dos “estrangeiros”" (in Portuguese). Bem Paran. http://www.bemparana.com.br/index.php?n=23799&t=quase-metade-de-curitiba-e-dosestrangeiros. Retrieved 2008-08-06.

^ a b Fenianos, E. (2003) Almanaque Kur’yt’yba, Curitiba: Univer Cidade, p.6

^ Curitiba name origin

^ Climate of Curitiba

^ Curitiba is the coldest capital of Brazil

^ Cold fronts and rain in Curitiba

^ Winter of Curitiba is dry and cold

^ “Weatherbase: Historical Weather for Curitiba”. http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=4838&refer=&units=metric.

^ a b c “City of Curitiba, Brazil”. Convention on Biological Diversity. http://www.cbd.int/authorities/casestudy/curitiba.shtml. Retrieved 2008-05-23.

^ “Livro mostra roteiros das rvores de Curitiba/Pr” (in Portuguese). Ambiente Brasil. http://www.ambientebrasil.com.br/noticias/index.php3?action=ler&id=18883. Retrieved 2005-05-25.

^ “The Agache Plan”. Prefeitura Municipal de Curitiba. http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/Paginas/ENG/Default.aspx?idf=532&servico=40. Retrieved 2008-08-12.

^ (in Portuguese) (PDF) Sntese de Indicadores Sociais 2008. Curitiba, Brazil: IBGE. 2008. ISBN 85-240-3919-1. http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/listabl.z=pnad&o=3&i=P&c=262. Retrieved 2010-01-16.

^ a b http://web.archive.org/web/20070703141121/http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/pmc/curitiba/index.asp?noframe=sim&conteudo=imigra/index.html

^ German immigration to Curitiba

^ Polish Memorial of Curitiba

^ Italian immigration in Curitiba

^ Ukrainian memorial in the city of Curitiba

^ Paran Governament (Ukrainian community in the State)

^ Slavic community in Curitiba

^ Jews of Brazil site Source listing Curitiba as one of the important Jewish communities. A Habad article gives the number of 844 religious participating families there in the year 2007

^ Brazil’s Jews during the Vargas Era and After by Robert M. Levine 1968. This is a book about early Jewish settlers in Brazil

^ Digital edition of Levine’s book

^ A research paper about the Jewish immigration to Brazil during the second world war.

^ Jewish in Curitiba

^ “Beit Chabad”

^ Israel Synagogue in addition to the Hevra Kadisha Synagogue and the Habad Synagogue mentioned in the Chabad reference

^ Jewish Genealogy site lists cemeteries.

^ Stephen Roth Institute: Antisemitism And Racism

^ Japan Square in Curitiba

^ Curitiba Economy – FIFA report

^ Curitiba – Economic ranks

^ GDP – Curitiba

^ “A capital do Paran se destaca na rea de TI e oferece oportunidades para profissionais do setor.” (in Portuguese). Revista TI. http://www.timaster.com.br/revista/materias\main_materia.asp?codigo=648. Retrieved 2003-10-11.

^ Economy – City of Curitiba

^ Housing Program Curitiba

^ Shopping in Curitiba, Brazil

^ (in Portuguese) (PDF) GDP. Curitiba, Brazil: IBGE. 2006. ISBN 85-240-3919-1. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/noticia_impressao.php?id_noticia=1288. Retrieved 2009-07-21.

^ (in Portuguese) (PDF) per capita income. Curitiba, Brazil: IBGE. 2006. ISBN 85-240-3919-1. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/presidencia/noticias/noticia_impressao.php?id_noticia=1288. Retrieved 2009-07-21.

^ “Maratona Ecolgica de Curitiba – Ladeiras e incentivos do povo curitibano” (in Portuguese). Copacabana Runners. http://www.copacabanarunners.net/maracur.html. Retrieved 2008-08-07.

^ “RUN THE CURITIBA MARATHON”. Charity Giving. http://www.charitygiving.co.uk/assets/mini sites/voice for change/uk curitiba marathon brochure.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-07.

^ “MARATONA ECOLGICA INTERNACIONAL DE CURITIBA” (in Portuguese). Faculdade de Desporto da Universidade do Porto. Archived from the original on 2007-07-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070707004450/http://www.fcdef.up.pt/neb/artigos/eros/maratona_ecologica.pdf. Retrieved 2008-08-07.

^ UFPR – History

^ “CURITIBA, UNA CITT DA FANTASCIENZA” (in Italian). Eco Fantascienza. http://www.ecofantascienza.it/articoli/curitiba.html. Retrieved 2008-10-18.

^ “S 1% das cidades est livre de analfabetismo” (in Portuguese). O Estado de So Paulo. http://www.estado.com.br/editorias/2007/06/20/ger-1.93.7.20070620.3.1.xml. Retrieved 2007-06-23.

^ “ndice da Educao Bsica” (in Portuguese). Jornal da Globo. http://jg.globo.com/JGlobo/0,19125,VTJ0-2742-20070426-278406,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-28.

^ Jonas Rabinovitch and Josef Leitman, “Urban Planning in Curitiba,” Scientific American, vol. 274, no. 3 (March 1996), pp. 46-53

^ “Curitiba busca recuperao de biodiversidade local Terra – Ambiente”. Noticias.terra.com.br. http://noticias.terra.com.br/ciencia/interna/0,,OI1926962-EI299,00.html. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

^ “Prefeitura ENG”. Curitiba.pr.gov.br. http://www.curitiba.pr.gov.br/Paginas/ENG/Default.aspx?idf=532&servico=40. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

^ About Curitiba

^ Parks of Curitiba and floods

^ Irazbal, Clara Elena (2002) Curitiba and Portland: Architecture, City Making, and Urban Governance in the Era of Globalization, Ph.D. Dissertation in Architecture, University of California, Berkeley, p.112

^ Curitiba – urban plannig

^ “” (in Japanese). Nikkey Shimbun. Archived from the original on 2004-11-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20041103064150/http://www.nikkeyshimbun.com.br/020615-24brasil.html. Retrieved 2008-10-21.

^ RIT Curitiba – Trajetory

^ Social programs in the city

^ “15 Green Cities”. Grist. http://www.grist.org/article/cities3. Retrieved 2007-07-10.

^ Curitiba a green city

^ Curitiba – low pollution

^ Palladium Shopping Center

^ Teatro Guara

^ Museums in the city

^ “Museu Oscar Niemeyer” (in Portuguese). Descubra Curitiba. http://www.descubracuritiba.com.br/?s=exposicao&ss=museu&id=584. Retrieved 2008-01-17.

^ Carnival in Curitiba

^ Cuisine in Curitiba

^ UN Convention on Biodiversity and Biosecurity

^ “CNN Transcript – Special Event: The People’s Planet – December 24, 2000″. Transcripts.cnn.com. 2000-12-24. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0012/24/se.01.html. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

^ EPA-International Best Practices & Innovations-Urban Management, Sustainable Transport and Mobility Management

^ Urban transport of Curitiba

^ Roads in Curitiba

^ Traffic radars in Curitiba

^ Afonso Pena International Airport

^ Bike and Taxi in Curitiba

^ “Curitiba | FIFA World Cup 2014″. Curitiba2014.com. http://www.curitiba2014.com. Retrieved 2009-07-22.

^ a b c d e f g “Cidades-irms” (in Portuguese). Cmara Municipal de Curitiba. http://www.cmc.pr.gov.br/ass_det.php?not=7417. Retrieved 2007-05-22.

^ “Acordos de Geminao” (in Portuguese). Cmara Municipal de Coimbra. Archived from the original on 2008-01-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20080123100358/http://www.cm-coimbra.pt/170.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-17.

^ a b “Asuntos Federales y Electorales – Ciudades y Provincias argentinas hermanadas con contrapartes extranjeras” (in Spanish). Secretara de Relaciones Exteriores. http://www.cancilleria.gov.ar/portal/seree/dirfe/hermanamientos2.html. Retrieved 2008-07-02.

^ “Honorowe Miasta Bliniacze – Kurytyba (Brazylia)” (in Polish). Krakow.pl. Archived from the original on 2007-12-21. http://web.archive.org/web/20071221041332/http://www.krakow.pl/miasto/miasta_partnerskie/?id=honorowe_miasta_blizniacze_01.html. Retrieved 2006-01-13.

^ “Krakw otwarty na wiat”. www.krakow.pl. http://www.krakow.pl/otwarty_na_swiat/?LANG=UK&MENU=l&TYPE=ART&ART_ID=16. Retrieved 2009-07-19.

^ “Curitiba, une ville modle du dveloppement durable” (in French). Veille Technologique. http://www.zecite.org/t050901.htm. Retrieved 2005-11-30.

^ “Online Directory: Florida, USA”. Sister Cities International. Archived from the original on 2007-12-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20071218233241/http://www.sister-cities.org/icrc/directory/USA/FL. Retrieved 2008-04-17.

^ “Cenni storici ed informazioni generali su Treviso” (in Italian). BelPaese.it. http://www.belpaese.it/treviso/comune.html. Retrieved 2008-04-28.

External links

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Official

(Portuguese) Official homepage

News

(Portuguese) Bem Paran Newspaper

(Portuguese) Gazeta do Povo Newspaper

Tourism

Curitiba travel guide from Wikitravel

(Portuguese) Maplink – Curitiba Street Guide and Maps

(Portuguese) Tourism in Curitiba

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Knowledge Based Economy

Post Prec | Post Succ | Top |

by kyozotchy

Knowledge Based Economy

Abstract:

For the last two hundred years, neo-classical economics has recognised only two factors of production: labour and capital. This is now changing. Information and knowledge are replacing capital and energy as the primary wealth-creating assets, just as the latter two replaced land and labor 200 years ago. In addition, technological developments in the 20th century have transformed the majority of wealth-creating work from physically-based to “knowledge-based.” Technology and knowledge are now the key factors of production. With increased mobility of information and the global work force, knowledge and expertise can be transported instantaneously around the world, and any advantage gained by one company can be eliminated by competitive improvements overnight. The only comparative advantage a company will enjoy will be its process of innovation–combining market and technology know-how with the creative talents of knowledge workers to solve a constant stream of competitive problems–and its ability to derive value from information. We are now an information society in a knowledge economy where knowledge management is essential. This page lists and rates Internet resources related to the field of knowledge based economy and knowledge management in the new information society.

Prof. Loveleen Chawla

KNOWLEDGE BASED ECONOMY

(with special reference to India)

“We are living through a period of profound change and transformation of the shape of society and its underlying economic base … The nature of production, trade, employment and work in the coming decades will be very different from what it is today.”

In an agricultural economy land is the key resource. In an industrial economy natural resources, such as coal and iron ore, and labour are the main resources. A knowledge economy is one in which knowledge is the key resource. It is not a new idea that knowledge plays an important role in the economy, nor is it a new fact. All economies, however simple, are based on knowledge about how, for example, to farm, to mine and to build; and this use of knowledge has been increasing since the Industrial Revolution. But the degree of incorporation of knowledge and information into economic activity is now so great that it is inducing quite profound structural and qualitative changes in the operation of the economy and transforming the basis of competitive advantage. The rising knowledge intensity of the world economy and our increasing ability to distribute that knowledge have increased its value to all participants in the economic system. The implications of this are profound, not only for the strategies of firms and for the policies of government but also for the institutions and systems used to regulate economic behaviour.

What Is Knowledge Economy?

“Capitalism is undergoing an epochal transformation from a mass production system where the principal source of value was human labour to a new era of ‘innovation mediated production’ where the principal component of value creation, productivity and economic growth is knowledge.”

Definitions:

Defining the knowledge economy is challenging precisely because the commodity it rests on “knowledge” is itself hard to pin down with any precision. Perhaps for this reason there are few definitions that go much beyond the general and hardly any that describe the knowledge economy in ways that might allow it to be measured and quantified.
# The knowledge economy is a vague term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge, or a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge to produce economic benefits.

# The knowledge economy is the story of how new technologies have combined with intellectual and knowledge assets – the “intangibles” of research, design, development, creativity, education, brand equity and human capital – to transform our economy.
The Knowledge Economy is emerging from two defining forces: the rise in knowledge intensity of economic activities, and the increasing globalisation of economic affairs.

The rise in knowledge intensity is being driven by the combined forces of the information technology revolution and the increasing pace of technological change. Globalisation is being driven by national and international deregulation, and by the IT related communications revolution.

However, it is important to note that the term ‘Knowledge Economy’ refers to the overall economic structure that is emerging, not to any one, or combination of these phenomena. Various observers describe today’s global economy as one in transition to a “knowledge economy”, as an extension of “information society”. The transition requires that the rules and practices that determined success in the industrial economy need rewriting in an interconnected, globalised economy where knowledge resources such as know-how, expertise, and intellectual property are more critical than other economic resources such as land, natural resources, or even manpower.

According to analysts of the “knowledge economy,” these rules need to be rewritten at the levels of firms and industries in terms of knowledge management and at the level of public policy as knowledge policy or knowledge-related policy.

Concepts:

A key concept of this sector of economic activity is that knowledge and education (often referred to as “human capital”) can be treated as:
• A business product, as educational and innovative intellectual products and services can be exported for a high value return.
• A productive asset.

The initial foundation for the Knowledge Economy was first introduced in 1966 in a book by Peter Drucker. The Effective Executive described the difference between the Manual worker and the knowledge worker. A manual worker works with his hands and produces “stuff”. A knowledge worker works with his or her head not hands, and produces ideas, knowledge, and information.

Knowledge Economy Vs. Traditional Economy:

It can be argued that the knowledge economy differs from the traditional economy in several key respects:

• The economics is not of scarcity, but rather of abundance. Unlike most resources that deplete when used, information and knowledge can be shared, and actually grow through application.

•The effect of location is either diminished, in some economic activities: using appropriate technology and methods, virtual marketplaces and virtual organizations that offer benefits of speed, agility, round the clock operation and global reach can be created . or, on the contrary, reinforced in some other economic fields, by the creation of business clusters around centres of knowledge, such as universities and research centres having reached world-wide excellence.

• Laws, barriers and taxes are difficult to apply on solely a national basis. Knowledge and information “leak” to where demand is highest and the barriers are lowest.

• Knowledge enhanced products or services can command price premiums over comparable products with low embedded knowledge or knowledge intensity.

• Pricing and value depends heavily on context. Thus the same information or knowledge can have vastly different value to different people, or even to the same person at different times.

• Knowledge when locked into systems or processes has higher inherent value than when it can “walk out of the door” in people’s heads.

• Human capital — competencies — are a key component of value in a knowledge-based company, yet few companies report competency levels in annual reports. In contrast, downsizing is often seen as a positive “cost cutting” measure.

• Communication is increasingly being seen as fundamental to knowledge flows. Social structures, cultural context and other factors influencing social relations are therefore of fundamental importance to knowledge economies.
These characteristics require new ideas and approaches from policy makers, managers and knowledge workers.

Driving Forces:

Commentators suggest that at least three interlocking driving forces are changing the rules of business and national competitiveness:

• Globalization — markets and products are more global.

• Information/Knowledge Intensity — efficient production relies on information and know-how; over 70 per cent of workers in developed economies are information workers; many factory workers use their heads more than their hands.

• Computer networking and Connectivity developments such as the Internet bring the “global village” ever nearer.

As concerns the applications of any new technology, it depends how it meets economic demand. It can stay dormant or get a commercial breakthrough.

Globalization

The other main driver of the emerging knowledge economy is the rapid globalisation of economic activities. While there have been other periods of relative openness in the world economy, the pace and extent of the current phase of globalisation is without precedent.
The global communications revolution has been accompanied by a widespread movement to economic deregulation, including

# the reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers on trade in both goods and services; the floating of currencies and deregulation of financial markets more generally;

# the reduction of barriers to foreign direct investment and other international capital flows, and of barriers to technology transfers; and

# the deregulation of product markets in many countries, particularly in terms of the reduction in the power of national monopolies in areas such as telecommunications, air transport and the finance and insurance industries.
Together these changes have led to rapid globalisation. As a result, goods and services can be developed, bought, sold, and in many cases even delivered over electronic networks.

Increasing knowledge intensity

The last twenty years have seen an explosion in the application of computing and communications technologies in all areas of business and community life. This explosion has been driven by sharp falls in the cost of computing and communications per unit of performance, and by the rapid development of applications relevant to the needs of users. Digitalization, open systems standards, and the development software and supporting technologies for the application of new computing and communications systems – including scanning and imaging technologies, memory and storage technologies, display systems and copying technologies – are now helping users realise the potential of the IT revolution. It is in the Internet that these technologies come together, and it is the Internet phenomenon that exemplifies the IT revolution. Over the first decade of its development the Internet remained a specialist research network. By 1989 there were 159,000 Internet hosts worldwide. Now, just 10 years later, there are more than 43 million.

In economic terms, the central feature of the IT revolution is the ability to manipulate, store and transmit large quantities of information at very low cost. An equally important feature of these technologies is their pervasiveness. While earlier episodes of technical change have centered on particular products or industrial sectors, information technology is generic. It impacts on every element of the economy, on both goods and services; and on every element of the business chain, from research and development to production, marketing and distribution.

Because the marginal cost of manipulating, storing and transmitting information is virtually zero, the application of knowledge to all aspects of the economy is being greatly facilitated, and the knowledge intensity of economic activities greatly increased. This increasing knowledge intensity involves both the increasing knowledge intensity of individual goods and services, and the growing importance of those goods and services in the economy.

Computer Networking and Connectivity

It is virtually impossible to separate technology from the act of living in today¹s world. We are all connected to our work, to our product and service providers, and to each other in myriad ways that could never have been predicted just ten years ago. Out of this vast degree of interconnectivity spring networks – and nodes of contact within networks – that add momentum to the pace of still more technological opportunities and developments. It is an undeniable fact that ICTs play a very important role in the development of every nation these days. This is because growth is induced by the flow of information and this realization has led most economies into knowledge based ones. Developing countries have realized this and are rigorously pursuing the use of ICTs as a platform for socio-economic development.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) is a rapidly growing segment of the economy, which is expected to increase yet more rapidly over the next few years. Current internet commercial transactions are estimated at hundreds of millions and are projected for billions within the decade. The growth of net transacted revenues will be energized with Visa and MasterCard’s release of secure software standards for their card members’ internet transactions, and the acceptance of standards for micropricing. All in all, it is reasonable to project that, in a decade’s time, the vast majority of economic transactions will involve a significant electronic component. Business is experiencing a significant transition. This transition is based on the fact that we are now in a networked environment. ICT can bring business transformation, changing work environments and global economy. Advent of the “new economy”, embodied by the expansion of the internet, would be the signal of the end of geography and space. Distances are reportedly abolished as markets are from now on at a click away.

Growing Interest

Various management writers have for several years highlighted the role of knowledge or intellectual capital in business. The value of high-tech companies such as software and biotechnology companies, is not in physical assets as measured by accountants, but in their intangibles such as knowledge and patents. The last few years have a growing recognition by accounting bodies and international agencies that knowledge is a crucial factor of production. For example, the OECD has groups investigating ‘human capital’ and also the role of knowledge in international competitiveness.

Policy Implications

The evolving knowledge economy has important implications for policy makers of local, regional and national government as well as international agencies and institutions e.g.:
• Traditional measures of economic success must be supplemented by new ones
• Economic Development policy should focus not on ‘jobs created’ but rather on infrastructure for sustainable ‘knowledge enhancement’ that acts as a magnet for knowledge-based companies.
• Develop regulation and taxation for information and knowledge trading at international level, looking to future knowledge-based industries rather than traditional industries.
• Stimulate market development through new forms of collaboration.

Issues And Challenges:

The main challenges facing policy makers and business leaders are the following:
• It is difficult to ‘go it alone’. Stakeholders, especially employees and business partners must share similar views for your own initiatives to succeed
• alone recognition and reward systems usually do not sufficiently recognise recognizee contributions. They are linked to performance measures of the traditional economy.
• Measures of return on investment are done using traditional accounting methods, thus investments in knowledge enhancing activities need strong advocates at senior levels.

Emergence Of The Knowledge

The emergence of the knowledge economy can be characterised in terms of the increasing role of knowledge as a factor of production and its impact on skills, learning, organisation and innovation.
• There is an enormous increase in the codification of knowledge, which together with networks and the digitalisation of information, is leading to its increasing commodification.
• Increasing codification of knowledge is leading to a shift in the balance of the stock of knowledge – leading to a relative shortage of tacit knowledge.

• Codification is promoting a shift in the organisation and structure of production.

• Information and communication technologies increasingly favour the diffusion of information over re-invention, reducing the investment required for a given quantum of knowledge.

• The increasing rate of accumulation of knowledge stocks is positive for economic growth (raising the speed limit to growth). Knowledge is not necessarily exhausted in consumption.

• Codification is producing a convergence, bridging different areas of competence, reducing knowledge dispersion, and increasing the speed of turnover of the stock of knowledge.

• The innovation system and its ‘knowledge distribution power’ are critically important.

• The increased rate of codification and collection of information are leading to a shift in focus towards tacit (‘handling’) skills.

• Learning is increasingly central for both people and organisations.

• Learning involves both education and learning-by-doing, learning-by-using and learning-by-interacting.

• Learning organisations are increasingly networked organisations.

• Initiative, creativity, problem solving and openness to change are increasingly important skills.

• The transition to a knowledge-based system may make market failure systemic.

• A knowledge-based economy is so fundamentally different from the resource based system of the last century that conventional economic understanding must be re-examined.

What’s New About The New Economy?

“In the 21st century, comparative advantage will become much less a function of natural resource endowments and capital-labour ratios and much more a function of technology and skills. Mother nature and history will play a much smaller role, while human ingenuity will play a much bigger role.”

What makes the emergence of the knowledge economy important is that it is, in some significant respects, different from the industrial economy we have known for most of the last 200 years. Those differences include the following:

Information revolution

The IT revolution has intensified the move towards knowledge codification, and increased the share of codified knowledge in the knowledge stock of advanced economies. All knowledge that can be codified and reduced to information can now be transmitted around the world at relatively little cost. Hence, knowledge is acquiring more of the properties of a commodity. Market transactions are facilitated by codification, and the diffusion of knowledge is accelerated. Codification is also reducing the importance of additional, duplicative investments in acquiring knowledge. It is creating bridges between fields and areas of competence and reducing the ‘dispersion’ of knowledge. These developments promise an acceleration of the rate of growth of stocks of accessible knowledge, with positive implications for economic growth.

Knowledge, skills and learning

Information and communication technologies have greatly reduced the cost and increased the capacity of organisations to codify knowledge, process and communicate information. In doing so they have radically altered the ‘balance’ between codified and tacit knowledge in the overall stock of knowledge. In essence, creating a shortage of tacit knowledge. As access to information becomes easier and less expensive, the skills and competencies relating to the selection and efficient use of information become more crucial, and tacit knowledge in the form of the skills needed to handle codified knowledge becomes more important than ever.

Information and communication technology investments are complementary with investment in human resources and skills. The skills required of humans will increasingly be those that are complementary with information and communication technology; not those that are substitutes. Whereas machines replaced labour in the industrial era, information technology will be the locus of codified knowledge in the knowledge economy, and work in the knowledge economy will increasingly demand uniquely human (tacit) skills – such as conceptual and inter-personal management and communication skills.

Innovation and knowledge networks

The knowledge economy increasingly relies on the diffusion and use of knowledge, as well as its creation. Hence the success of enterprises, and of national economies as a whole, will become more reliant upon their effectiveness in gathering, absorbing and utilising knowledge, as well as in its creation.
A knowledge economy is, in effect, a hierarchy of networks, driven by the acceleration of the rate of change and the rate of learning, where the opportunity and capability to get access to and join knowledge-intensive and learning-intensive relations determines the socio-economic position of individuals and firms.13 Firms must become learning organisations, continuously adapting management, organisation and skills to accommodate new technologies and grasp new opportunities. They will be increasingly joined in networks, where interactive learning involving creators, producers and users in
experimentation and exchange of information drives innovation.

Learning organizations and innovation systems

In a knowledge economy, firms search for linkages to promote inter-firm interactive learning, and for outside partners and networks to provide complementary assets. These relationships help firms spread the costs and risks associated with innovation, gain access to new research results, acquire key technological components, and share assets in manufacturing, marketing and distribution. As they develop new products and processes, firms determine which activities they will undertake individually, which in collaboration with other firms, which in collaboration with universities or research institutions, and which with the support of government. Innovation is thus the result of numerous interactions between actors and institutions, which together form an innovation system.

Those innovation systems consist of the flows and relationships, which exist among industry, government and academia in the development of science and technology. And the interactions within these systems influence the innovative performance of firms and ultimately of the economy. The ‘knowledge distribution power’ of the system, or its capability to ensure timely access by innovators to relevant stocks of knowledge, is therefore a major determinant of prosperity.

Global competition and production.
Strategy and location.

India As A Knowledge Economy: Aspirations Versus Reality

The Indian vision of a knowledge-based economy will be realised only when it is based on the foundation of a robust industrial economy. To be truly beneficial, the rain of IT must fall at the right place, in the right quantity, at the right time and for the right purpose.

THE Indian software industry has compiled an impressive track record over the past decade. Entrepreneurs, bureaucrats and politicians are now advancing views about how India can transform itself into a knowledge-based economy by riding the information technology (IT) bandwagon. Isolated instances of villagers using e-mail are cited as examples of such transformation. Likewise, e-governance is being projected as the way of the future.

There is no dearth of fascinating stories about IT-enabled changes. But, there is little discussion about whether such changes are sustainable and effective when other areas of the economy continue to lag. For example, 79 per cent of India’s population lives in villages with limited basic infrastructure. Over 60 per cent of the population is considered literate, but with literacy being defined as the ability to read and write simple words in any language, acquired with or without formal schooling. This criterion is so basic, that it is almost irrelevant in the context of a knowledge economy. Yet, Central and State governments have projected IT as a vehicle for social and economic transformation. Are we putting the cart before the horse here? Even if the focus on IT is justifiable, how must IT policy be designed so that the nation is benefited in a balanced way?

In this commentary, we discuss the implications of India’s intensive focus on the IT sector. We argue that India should aggressively pursue manufacturing- and agriculture-based industries to build a robust industrial economy that can be made more efficient with IT. IT projects can certainly be pursued within the private sector. However, government policy should not be heavily skewed in favour of the IT industry when its benefits to society are unclear and when its role within the broader framework of national development has not been adequately articulated. Further, policy-makers should moderate their obsession with IT as a panacea for India’s socio-economic problems.

India As A Knowledge Economy:

The value of IT depends greatly on the existing level of economic development. IT can make existing assets and processes more effective and efficient, but cannot compensate for the lack of a basic infrastructure. What is appropriate for a developed economy is not necessarily appropriate for India, where basic elements of infrastructure including quality education, healthcare, electricity and drinking water remain in short supply.

The impact of IT is best understood when the differences between industrial and knowledge-intensive ventures are recognised. Industrial growth derives from investments in large-scale infrastructure (such as railways, roadways, power grids and dams). Such infrastructure supports the growth of physical-asset intensive industries (such as the steel and transportation industries) that create and move physical entities (such as goods, water and people). These ventures employ numerous workers with limited education and skills, and can uplift large sections of society.

In contrast, ventures in the knowledge economy usually involve the production of knowledge-intensive goods (like software), and the large-scale capture, movement and utilization of information using sophisticated network infrastructure (such as computers, cable, fibre and routers). Beyond the physical labour required for initial construction, building and maintaining such infrastructure requires specialized knowledge.

Despite the hype of the “new economy”, the fact is that economic development is cumulative. The industrial economy made agriculture more productive. The productivity of agricultural labour skyrocketed with the use of industrial and biological innovations including tractors, irrigation systems, fertilizers, pesticides and genetically engineered seeds. Historically, industrial innovation in developed economies has created great wealth and improved living standards across societal divides. This progress has set them up in an ideal position to create and exploit knowledge as they transform into knowledge-based economies. Crucially, the greatest source of productivity and growth attributed to the knowledge economy derives not from the knowledge economy itself, but from its effects on the industrial economy. For example, IT can enable supply chains and factories to work more efficiently.

The “leapfrogging” argument, whereby India skips heavy infrastructure building and transforms directly into a knowledge economy, is therefore suspect. Proponents of leapfrogging describe how isolated villages without conventional telephones have directly adopted cellular phones. The example provides excellent symbolism. However, the underlying principle is not scalable to the level of the national economy where many complex sub-systems work together. Consider the transportation sub-system. The laws of physics do not allow IT to substitute the physical movement of goods by a “virtual” movement. A lightning-fast information network will not in itself help achieve faster and cheaper transport. Better roadways and railways will.

IT, job growth and government policy

Indian IT firms have focussed on developing and delivering IT services to advanced economies. Even if India became the world’s software factory and the most optimistic projections of IT-related jobs (including jobs in call centres and design centres) were upheld, this industry will employ at most a few million people. In a nation with over a billion people, this constitutes but a dent in the employment statistics.

Further, a social planner should be concerned not just with the creation of wealth, but also with its distribution across social divides. The IT industry holds limited potential for wealth to trickle down to the poorer sections of society. Unlike a steel plant, IT engenders few opportunities for the uneducated. Any transfer of wealth from the IT sector (for example, by taxing the IT sector to fund social spending) would be achieved through the heavy hand of government.. In fact, the rapid growth of IT will likely lead to a digital divide in the short term, where the rich and educated are empowered and enriched by IT and the poor are oblivious to its impact.
Before embracing IT, Indian policy planners must carefully evaluate whether investments in other areas would yield higher, and more equitable, returns. For example, consider the jute industry.

The country needs to be particularly careful not to give short shrift to the manufacturing sector. China is not known for its strengths in IT, although it now has some presence in the area. But, what China has accomplished in terms of its core industrial base is striking. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China was of the order of billion in 2000 despite all the noise about alleged labour and human rights abuses. Chinese exports exceeded 0 billion in 2000, with the United States alone accounting for 0 billion of these exports. In fact, the value of “footwear” exported annually by China to the U.S. (worth about .2 billion) itself compares with or even exceeds the total value of India’s annual IT exports.

Why are these numbers relevant? Exporting footwear creates millions of jobs for citizens who lack sophisticated skills. According to some reports, a total of 34 million export-related jobs have been created in China, with exports to the U.S. alone accounting for over 20 million jobs in the last decade. These jobs have improved living standards for a substantial fraction of Chinese society. There is much we need to learn from China about how the manufacturing sector can deliver robust and equitable economic growth. Taiwan, Malaysia and South Korea have also flourished using similar approaches.

In contrast with manufacturing, the direct benefits to IT (such as employment in IT jobs) are likely to flow to the few who already have the benefits of education. The trickle-down effects of IT (such as cleaning and maintenance staff for IT firms) are likely to be modest or non-existent outside the large cities. It is also time to discard the notion that the manufacturing sector is inherently less appealing because it may involve some physical labour.

In the more advanced economies, a skilled factory floor worker is frequently paid more than a call-centre employee. Empowered with technology, the factory worker can add value at a remarkable rate. In India, the reverse often holds. Mundane call-centre jobs, often outsourced from more developed economies, absorb well-educated, English-speaking workers whose abilities could be employed much more productively elsewhere.

The actions of governments in India tend to be biased in favour of the IT sector.. The government needs a more balanced policy, one that ensures that the core industrial sector is not ignored in the rush toward IT.

IT and education

IT is fashionable to say that India’s population constitutes its greatest asset. This viewpoint is misleading. People are assets only when they participate meaningfully in the cycle of value creation and consumption by exercising buying power, or creating products and services of value, or by creating and harnessing knowledge. A large fraction of India’s population does not meet, or even come close to, this asset standard. To transform such a situation, a renewed focus is required on the two pillars that have supported the growth of every successful economy – a strong infrastructure core and widespread access to education. Now to discuss the IT-education interface.

Selling parts of used computers on a Chennai street.

Distance learning and e-learning are already being flaunted in some quarters as solutions to India’s education challenges. The argument proffered is that IT can enable the cheap and widespread delivery of education. This reasoning ignores the key challenge – how can the children of the poor and the uneducated be provided with the incentives to come to school, stay in school, and progress to higher institutions of learning? The answer lies in understanding physiology, psychology and economics, rather than in implementing technology. For all its drawbacks and implementation problems, the mid-day meal programme launched by the late Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu addressed this challenge head on. The programme recognised a simple, but fundamental, fact – the brain cannot feed when the stomach itself is unfed. It provided parents with the incentive to send their children to schools, rather than to the fields. For the children to whom the benefits of education seemed like a distant, hazy mirage, it provided an immediate, tangible reason to stay in school.

There is little reason to believe that IT-based learning will advance meaningfully the cause of Indian education. Problems that are enmeshed in the social and economic fabric of Indian society need to be addressed primarily with solutions that are of a social and economic nature. Throwing technology at these problems will not make them go away.

In addition, creating the infrastructure and content to support effective e-learning is very expensive. A rush into e-learning at this stage will only lead to squandered resources.

IT and culture

A Knowledge Economy is characterised by a culture of innovation. For such a culture to take root, innovation must be rewarded and intellectual property must be protected.

A culture that truly enhances innovation supports the view that to try hard and fail is perfectly fine. Yet, the Indian psyche has historically been averse to blessing the risky venture. This attitude transcends into the corporate arena. Consider how static the Indian automobile industry was for three decades before the refreshing winds of competition brought about rapid change. Competition breeds innovation.

While one side of the cultural coin pertains to the incentives for innovation, the flip side pertains to its protection. Ideas, unlike property, cannot be protected by building a fence around them. Intellectual property protection is not a purely economic issue; it also has important cultural dimensions. The economic angle can be addressed with stronger patent laws and punitive procedures. However, the cultural angle will decide whether such protection can be enforced meaningfully. Addressing the cultural angle is a challenge.

The road to technology

A society that is deeply divided by social and economic fissures must think carefully about how it achieves economic and technological advance. The path, in some ways, is more important than the outcome itself.

In the Indian context, particular attention needs to be paid to when, where, and in what form IT and other technological advances are encouraged. There are, indeed, many low-hanging fruits to be harvested. For example, a recent article in The New York Times described how a fisherman working off the coasts of Kerala used a cellphone on the seas to obtain information about spot market prices for fish at Kochi and Kollam. The fisherman netted the equivalent of an additional ,000 in annual income merely by deciding to deliver his catch to the more remunerative market each time his boat came in. This striking example of how simple information flows can enhance market efficiency can be replicated in many ways, and in many markets. However, the stakes are quite different when it comes to the formulation of a national IT policy. Any national policy requires some trade-offs between the benefits to industrial sectors, regions and classes of people. In formulating a national IT policy, the quest for superior technology must be moderated by an understanding of its implications at the social level – what might be good for a private company or an entrepreneur may not always be good for society and vice-versa

Successful technology adoption will move in measured steps, at a pace and in a direction that are in harmony with changes in the socio-economic fabric. The role of the government in ensuring such harmony should not be underestimated. This is especially true in India where the government remains responsible for a significant fraction of the economic output, and where it is actively reshaping rules and regulations as the country integrates into the global economy.

Information technology can change the way a society communicates, collaborates, lives, works and plays. The growth of the IT sector in India symbolises the potential of Indian industry to perform at world-class standards. This success demonstrates much of what can go right when the spirit of human enterprise is given free rein.

However, the success of IT at the corporate level in India cannot solve its myriad economic and social challenges. Just as copious rainfall can lead to dramatic floods, an obsession with IT and the knowledge economy is not useful. To be truly beneficial, the rain of IT must fall at the right place in the right quantity, at the right time and for the right purpose. Neither does the aggressive pursuit of IT represent the sole, or even an obvious, pathway to a first class economy despite the glowing success of high-profile IT companies.

Conclusion:

Prof. Loveleen Kaur Chawla(MBA/NET)

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