Cities…much maligned and much lusted after. What is it about cities that makes them hotbeds of chaos, pollution, and decay, and at the same time centers of innovation, creativity, and wealth creation?

The world is reeling. It all started in 2008 with the subprime crisis in the US, which spared no corner of the globe, followed by the fall of the PIGS economies. Later, when the world was waking up to the recovery call, the Middle East fell into turmoil and a tsunami struck Japan. To add to the fire, S&P downgraded the US’s credit rating from AAA to AA+.

The technological breakthroughs of the Green Revolution in the 60s and 70s sprang us forward. But our growth has slowed. Agricultural growth has missed targets by 1 percentage point for the past 4 years, and the combination of economic growth with a swelling population means more people are demanding more agricultural commodities.

Much has been made of Generation Connected: It demands this;...

The Mercado serves a neighborhood that has been through hard times. The Chamizal, as the neighborhood is known, never recovered from the shift of the clothing factories to Mexico (and later China) with the advent of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Many of the women who worked in the industry lost their jobs and families are still struggling.

This unfolding story is the type of good news we all need to hear. No one enjoys reading stories of AIDS orphans in Africa. It hurts to hear of a nine year old struggling to care for his younger siblings but it is the situation which has given birth to this good news story

The world is watching India to see whether we can rise into a global economic power. Can we spread our growth to include the whole country? Only if we can meet the need for sustainable transportation infrastructure.