Kussmauls in Asia

Everywhere we go in Trivandrum, we see construction.Trenches are dug alone some of the roads for various utilities;in Karyavattom, both sides of the road were dug up at the same time;one for water, the other for electricity, I'm told.Construction in India is quite different than in the US.A key factor seems to be that compared to machines, people are less expensive  in India than in the US, so that many things that in the US would be done by machines or otherwise mass produced,in India are done by people or created on location, exactly as needed.Nine years ago in India, I noticed piles of rock and gravel along a road, and then I saw men and women sitting with chisels, breaking rocks into gravel. Children played nearby some of the rock-breakers (on-site child care?).I haven't seen anyone making gravel recently, so maybe things are improving.Occasionally along the side of the road you see a backhoe, but more often you see teams of men digging away with pickaxes and shovels.(This is hard work, but it might be better than having no work at all.)New, tiled sidewalks are appearing along some of the roads in our neighborhood; the tiles appear to be mass produced, but the concrete borders and curbs are poured on site, in molds made to the exact size needed.There are also many new buildings in progress, mostly apartments,including one right next to our building, and several others within a few blocks.Most are made of concrete, poured into forms one floor at a time.The scaffolding is almost always bamboo or other wood, very rarely metal,which adds to the impression that everything is improvised on site, as needed.When we look out over the city now we see mostly trees (palms and others),with occasional taller buildings, but this seems likely to change...