Chapter 5

Failures

There have been some failures too in the economic development of Auroville, including that of cottage industries. Auroville's economy has not grown as it was envisaged in the beginning. Major areas in which it has failed to achieve success are:

Self-sufficiency
Contribution by industries
Kind economy
Lack of institutional support

Self-sufficiency

Inspite of growth of industries, Auroville is still not self-sufficient in many respects. One of the reasons stated is that population is too low to support self-sufficiency. Hence Auroville fulfills many of its requirements from the markets of Pondicherry.

Contribution by industries

In the absence of adequate resident population, the industries that came up are basically manufacturer of goods and articles which are mostly sold outside and exported, thereby generating money from outside. Despite most of the industries being capital goods based and not services oriented, Auroville still depends on grants and donations.

Kind economy

Inspite of experimenting with an in-kind economy for many years, Auroville has still a long way to go inorder to achieve success in the practice of an in-kind economy. Moreover self-sufficiency and practice of in-kind economy are so inextricably linked that one cannot be achieved without achieving the other.

Lack of institutional support

Since the beginning, Auroville entrepreneurs have lacked financial support (banking etc.), strategic or technical support from Auroville as an institution. Everything depended on the individual entrepreneur, which is also a risk for a town aspiring to be self-sufficient. Similarly, all the liabilities are thrust on the entrepreneurs and he has to fend for himself in case of losses suffered.