Reality checks on growth by Mr Rajwade

There is plenty of news now-a-days and hence we tend to ignore. However, a news paper like Business Standard publishes a post (A V Rajwade: Reality checks on growth - Environmental fundamentalism is proving a major hurdle to economic development in India), It is sure to attract and that too on a topic like Environment. While there is no need to get emotional on this kind of articles, I felt somehow, the columnist missed a serious point, hence, wanted to point out.

A human being lives for some specific time period. ignoring the philosophical thoughts here, we know that many do not live to see what they started when they start on a big scale. I am sure Jamshedji would be feeling bad that Mr Ratan Tata has tried to cash in on weaknesses of so called middle class (who want to copy by having two or three cars), by introducing nano car. Instead of selling this to a common man who can afford big cars, the cars are being sold by well off people. Now, we wonder who the common man...even woman, is. Ultimately, this car only helps to clog the existing roads.

The columnist in business standard, probably missed a point. Who is asking for development and what kind of development. Whether the development, whatever happened, is seriously helping the poor, is a point worthy of considering. Mobile has changed the way we communicate. This also brought in too much waste which we do not know how to deal with. Is there a thought process to carry out LCA (Life Cycle Analysis) for products being launched? I am sure Mr Ratan Tata would be happy that for his dream car, NANO, there was no need for any public hearing. Had there been one, I am sure, Nano would have remained in his dreams.

Coming to projects which are being planned in remote areas where there a rich bio-diversity, what is planned today can impact 100 years hence. Who cares? The one, who is planning it does not, for sure. Can they assure that overall impact is being considered?

Unfortunately, environmental impact is not a localised phenomena for some of those big projects and everyone knows this. If someone says, public hearing was done in the tribal areas and the project was approved, either the project proponents or the authority which is approving is trying to make fools of the public.

We will join the advanced nations like some of the European countries, only when we start debates, not only on new projects but also on new products for their environmental worthiness and to see how deeply the impact assessment has been done. Then only we will do justice for being in India, a land of Intellectuals.