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Formula One Grand Prix @ Buddh International Circuit:

The context of Neo liberalization and New Urbanism

Shyne U

Abstract

In recent times India is witnessing a series of global and iconic events like Common wealth games, F1

Grand prix etc. These events, along with the international fame, glory and media attention have also

brought about discussions on their contextual setting in terms of social and economical geography in a

third world country like India. The involvement of the democratic state in the various aspects of these

events and their premises has also brought in wide level criticism. The paper tries to observe these

developments in the larger context of globalization, neoliberalization and the emerging trends after New

Urbanism.

The first Indian Grand Prix happened on the 30 October 2011 at the Buddh International circuit, Greater

Noida, Uttarpradesh or rather FIA included Indian Grand Prix in its list of circuits through the event. Thecircuit is part of the 2500 acres Jaypee Greens Sports city, a private real estate development and is

expected to cost around 10 billion Indian rupees to build. Thus the circuit is a fully privately owned and

operated premise. It was with the onset of neoliberalization state started absolving from its

responsibility of providing infrastructure and initiated private participation in the infrastructure sector.

Jaypee Greens is an outcome of such an infrastructure project called Yamuna Express corridor where the

company received development rights along the road corridor it had to build and operate. For the

purpose fertile farmlands were acquired by the State Government in 2001 and passed on to the

developer for the project. Since then a number of realty projects involving multimillion investments

have sprung up and the farmlands acquisition has continued for more and more such projects by various

developers.

In India where motorsports has the least amount of audience, an event like F1 race appeals to a very

few elite class who follow them. But the economy tickets costing Rs 2500 each were sold out a week

prior to the event and the race was to be celebrated along with performance of western icons of

Metallica and Lady Gaga and more and more race tracks are being added in these parts of the world-

Singapore and Abu dhabi being the entries prior to India. It is in this context we need to analyse the

event as more than a sports event and as part of a process which is finding physical manifestations in

different parts of the world through similar processes. Globalization has erased the boundaries of

national interests and transcends economies in its pursuit of consumption and profitability. As Edward

Soja advocates, Investment of productive capital to create symbolic capital1

finds itself invited tomanifest in such forms in these countries. The image created by such events and premises are projected

as world class and used to generate profit by the private capital. This phenomenon leads to the

establishment of so called Galactic metropolis2 associated with postindustrial global capitalism, "a city

which, rather than being a single coherent entity, consists of a number of large spectacular residential

1Edward Soja: Inside Exopolis-Scenes from Orange County

2Tim Hall, Urban Geography (London: Routledge, 1998), 80

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and commercial developments with large environmentally and economically degraded spaces between.

These global premises are extremely exclusive and enormously large parcels of development which

create islands of segregation within the locality into which they are inserted. As in the case of the

Greater Noida where the F1 circuit is situated, existing locality is finding difficulty in traversing around

these mega developments and finding their livelihood. School children are disconnected from their

schools and farmers have to travel double the distance to sell or buy the farm related goods.3 Thus these

global insertions come into direct contestations with the locality. Further on what is observed in such

private developments is that the individual developments or gated compounds are maintained by the

developer, but the immediate precinct becomes no mans land. Both the state as well as the private

developer doesnt take responsibility of such areas but at the same time draw the minimal resources

available in these areas are extracted to the maximum by the mega developments. We can find a

precedent in such development in the case of Gurgaon, a largely privately developed satellite city of

Delhi. In many areas of Gurgaon public roads are in a bad shape, many of the developments still depend

upon diesel generators in order to meet their power requirement and draw large amounts of ground

water to serve their mega demands including landscaping. This present condition of Gurgaon where the

democratic state is staying away from its responsibilities to the majority, may be the future of all such

private capital oriented developments. As Edward Soja states- minorities collectively make up the

majority to draw a veil over the real geography.

As Saskia Sassen rightly points out place has become central to globalization. National state transform

to be territorially rooted economic actors in the market4. Actually its not the cities rather the peripheries

which are witnessing such developments. State is assisting in these transformations by framing policies

for privatization as well as absolving from the responsibilities of providing the basic infrastructure.

Neoliberal state becomes a consummate agent, rather than the regulator of the market.5 These

developments even though advocated as part of a national policy of neoliberalization, largely depend

upon state level political patronage, further strengthening Saskia Sassens argument of territorial roots.

The same land sold by farmers to the state at a rate of Rs 50-300/sqm is now sold by the developer at an

enormous rate of Rs15,000/sqm. As the developer had announced a number of projects while acquiring

the land, the farmers had expected industries to come up in their land and did not expect such a sports

facility. Devoid of their traditional source of income of farming, faced with the escalating real estate

value and absence of alternative occupation they are forced to move out away from the area and thus

causing gentrification.

Another dimension to this phenomenon is the role of the speculative market in creating artificial

demands for such projects using credit available in the banking system as well as through foreign fund

injection. The Indian real estate sector is expected to receive $25 billion in FDI in the next decade.6

Profitability in the sector is tried to be ensured by luring the upcoming Indian upper middle class into

these projects by various tactics. Globalization of cultural images7 is another tactic used by the

3Standing upto the state: Front Line, Volume 28 - Issue 12 :: Jun. 04-17, 2011

4Rebuilding the Global City: Economy, Ethnicity and Space, Journal article by Saskia Sassen; Social Justice, Vol. 20, 1993

5Neil Smith - New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy

6Real Estate Gurgaon, NRI Realty News (n.d.), http://www.nrirealtynews.com/gurgaon/real-estate-gurgaon.php.7Neil Smith - New Globalism, New Urbanism: Gentrification as Global Urban Strategy

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production capital in order to connect across cultures and enhance interest. It was announced that the

name of the F1 circuit is derived from the name of Buddha. 8 Thus the naming represents the potpourri

of internationalism9 used in naming such exclusive developments intended to invoke global image,

nostalgia etc. The tactics are also extended in the advertising the projects as being global and as

coming to India for the first time and also exemplify the rareness of such event as well as such projects.

The advertisement itselfis a very particular kind of commodity, a commodity built on images.10 The F1

cars were on display at different parts of New Delhi to invoke interest and discussion and also exhibition

runs were conducted on the Raj path. This also shows the event even though conducted in Noida was

targeting the larger city of New Delhi as well as the nationwide audience. The project advertisements

showing the lush green meadow setting and the built forms clad with glass, aluminum or art deco

facades hide the actual uneven landscape in which the projects are set in. But what is observed from

precedents of such developments is that the attractiveness of the sector remains only as long as the

profitability remains and markets get drained out of cash and real estate sector as an unproductive

sector is prone to crash in a credit crunch situation as faced by the world in 2008. Tying the larger

economy to such sector through dependencies can have wider implications to our economic scenario.

We can find that these processes have many global generic characters. Real estate becoming in itself a

centre piece of citys productive economy, an end in itself is a most noticeable factor. These events

when viewed as a process relate to what Teresa PR Calderia has explained about Sao Paulos

transformations11 in which deterioration of industries were followed by such real estate developments

and then followed by social economic divide and subsequent fortified enclaves threatened by crime. The

widening socio economic divide around such precincts in our country also points to such generic

process. Be it F1 Grand prix or Common wealth games, the larger part of the picture is occupied by the

real estate sector and the growth fuelled due to the event rather than the actual sports content. But

our leaders are trying hard to bring in foreign investments also into this sector of infrastructure, due to

its growth potential.12 When growth of a countrys economy need to be seen with importance, whatshould not be left out is the democratic states responsibility towards its citizens. As infrastructure is a

sector with such a huge growth potential in a developing country like India, the profit generation

techniques of the capital involved with it should be controlled to avoid massive gentrification, widening

socio economic divide and subsequent crimes, inequitable allocation of resources, etc and also to

preserve the overall integrity of our financial system.

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8F1 Indian GP venue named 'Buddh International Circuit'" - India Times. 9 April 2011

9Edward Soja: Inside Exopolis-Scenes from Orange County

10William Mazzarell, Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,2003), 20.11

Fortified Enclaves: the New Urban Segregation12

Manmohan invites Japanese firms to invest in infrastructure projects, The Hindu, 25 October2010

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/f1-indian-gp-venue-named-buddh-international-circuit/articleshow/7925228.cmshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/f1-indian-gp-venue-named-buddh-international-circuit/articleshow/7925228.cmshttp://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/et-cetera/f1-indian-gp-venue-named-buddh-international-circuit/articleshow/7925228.cms