With the increase in transport and accommodation problems in many cities, some governments are encouraging businesses to move to rural areas. Do you think the advantages of this outweigh its disadvantages? Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

The world is becoming an increasingly urban dominated place and we have seen an exponential growth post industrialization in the population of cities. This phenomenon was much more pronounced in the last decade. To attempt to solve the crisis that is soon facing us, we have various proposals from the government to decrease the population density in cities and prevent the problems associated with a high population, especially about the movement of people and their residences. One of the most discussed idea to address the rise was to shift companies to villages in order to decongest cities. To start with, there are a lot of benefits possible with the decongestion if achieved successfully. In addition to solving the space constraints of a limited urban area thereby leading to a huge pressure on the real estate, it also addresses the concern of traffic effectively leading to decrease in accidents. Since the population of villages tend to be spread out instead of being concentrated and with the availability of spaces that can be used to develop infrastructure that can support the shift, it will be a really productive development both financially as well as for the general health of the population. One of my friend's who is an entrepreneur was very upbeat about this concept as it will have a side effect of reducing his operating cost as the rural economy is comparitively more pocket friendly. Conversely, this movement make the rural areas more prone for increased levels of pollution which spoils the healthy environment associated with villages. It can also affect the livelihood of farmers by decreasing the area available for cultivation of crops. According to a survey, 65% of people living in villages were against the idea of industries moving from urban & sub-urban places to the hinterland. To conclude, although there are concerns related to farming and health of people, its in the larger interest of the state to promote shifting of corporations from cities to villages, although it will be prudent for the administrators to ensure protection of environment that can be counter-productive to the goal.