have to be especially conscious about this issue at this point in time because economic liberalisation presents both an opportunity as well as a danger in both cases preservation flows from imaginative usage rather than fossilisation this is counterproductive as it dooms architecture to steady degeneration and irrelevance eventually all asian cities will end up looking like clones of each other one certainly this is not just applicable to the four metropolitan cities but a myriad smaller towns across india from varanasi to panaji the current conservation strategy wherever it exists is merely to ban all change the key to saving these buildings indeed whole neighbourhoods is to find imaginative ways to reuse them on a commercial basis this not only allows preservation but generates jobs profits and social interaction this can be used to demonstrate the potential success of such a strategy the important thing is to create the incentive framework that will encourage the process of urban restoration the quality of life in indian cities has deteriorated steadily over several decades with unplanned construction pitted against aging infrastructure and decaying civic institutions the universities of oxford and cambridge for instance continue to use buildings that are almost 1000 years old contrast their state of preservation with the relatively young walled city in delhi with in particular commercial districts have been torn down and completely rebuilt style fontstyle italicthe author is chief economist deutsche bank the building boom in the rest of asia has erased effectively all history nonetheless this paralysis has created a unique opportunity for the longerterm regeneration of indian cities the changes are necessary but do we really need another shopping mall to prove this way is to pedestrianise whole areas encourage restaurantsbars cafes and support cultural activity in the trafficfree spaces eg covent garden in london a few buildings may be saved by public spending and enthusiastic individuals but citycentres cannot be regenerated by turning them into lifeless museums this in sharp contrast with the unimaginative concrete blocks that indian architects still insist on churning out however the real oppor tunity to transform indian