ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an Indian metropolis with a misleading image of a corporate society, ostensibly governed by a transparent, corporate government. Although the city has a thriving middle class of educated professionals, 70% of its population work and live in an informal, second society, operated through unregistered entities, often set within slums and illegal settlements. While noting a symbiotic relationship binding the informal and formal cities socially and economically, the chapter cautions that a Livability Index operating through an informal system of special interests will not succeed in tempering the lives of the majority low income and poor citizens.
