This so-called "in-fill" development is central to the smart growth philosophy, a sort of back-to-the-future approach that aims to conserve land, reduce reliance on automobiles, create affordable housing and stimulate job growth.
Reliance eventually won $19 million in damages from VSNL as compensation for lost opportunities stemming from VSNL's monopolistic control over its landing station (Reliance's original claim was for $406 million).
At times this feels like early-70s hippy back-to-the-land self-reliance meets the American survivalist "Prepper" movement.
In the early stages, most of the increase came about through the extension of cultivation, but as land became scarcer, reliance had to be placed on increasing productivity per hectare.
"As long as commodity prices remain reasonably high — and they should, unless there is a hard landing in Asia — reliance on exports of primary goods appears to be the region's future, for better or worse," said Riordan Roett, the head of the Latin American studies program at Johns Hopkins University.
To eliminate the nation's reliance on imported oil and gas, Romney says he will lift many offshore drilling restrictions and free up states to use federal lands for energy production.
The results reveal a negative relationship between the reliance on land finance and the amount of urban public green spaces, indicating that local governments' pursuit of maximizing land lease revenue will not be able to finance more public green spaces, and may even cause the loss of public green spaces.
Local governments' current reliance on land sales is a source of many of the economy's distortions – and much of the corruption.
Several major Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Chongqing, are considering experimenting with a property tax that would be aimed at speculators and help reduce the reliance on land sales for income.
A fiscal and tax overhaul is also needed to wean local governments off their heavy reliance on land sales and borrowing for income, which has led to high local government debt.
