Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela

John D. Macomber; Tarun   Khanna

Chapter | Kumbh Mela, January 2013: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City | 2015

Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela

Abstract

India's Kumbh Mela, a religious festival occurring once every 12 years at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, attracts over 80 million pilgrims to a temporary "pop-up megacity" over the course of two months. A team of faculty and students from five Harvard schools attended the Kumbh Mela to learn from the phenomenon. The festival was a planning, organizational, financial, and spiritual success—in stark contrast to the understood concept of India as unable to accomplish projects at large scale. The authors propose that the concept of government as a minimalist platform—focusing on a handful of tasks and doing them well—was the key to success. The administration focused on land allocation, roads (mostly for walking), public safety, electricity, and water. Non-government actors provided almost all other products and services. This was a match of ambition with capability that can be replicated in other fast growing, semi-informal cities in the developing world.

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Macomber, John D., and Tarun Khanna. "Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela." In Kumbh Mela, January 2013: Mapping the Ephemeral Mega City, edited by Rahul Mehrotra and Felipe Vera. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2015.

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Government and the Minimalist Platform: Business at the Kumbh Mela

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