A Viksit Bharat needs action, not aspirations, on green alternatives

A recent study by the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW), a not-for-profit think tank based in Delhi, has been released, highlighting that green alternatives need not be anti-business or anti-economy. This fact is often lost in the loud debates, which frequently present economic development and environmental conservation as opposing binaries.

The study has highlighted that India’s green economy could attract $4.1 trillion (approximately Rs360 lakh crore) in cumulative investments and create 48 million (approximately 4.8 crore) ‘full-time equivalent’ (FTE) jobs by 2047. In fact, India could unlock a $1.1 trillion (Rs97.7 lakh crore) annual green market by 2047. “This first-of-its-kind national assessment identifies 36 green value chains across energy transition, circular economy, bio-economy, and nature-based solutions that together represent a defining green economic opportunity for India’s journey towards ‘Viksit Bharat’,” said the study.

All this may happen, but it will not happen automatically. Policy makers must realise the truth that something possible can come into being only if the objective conditions are not ripe for that possibility. Just because the Narendra Modi government has fixed 2047, the centenary of India’s Independence, for the country to become developed, ‘Viksit Bharat,’ doesn’t mean that God or the entire cosmos has become obliged to make it so.

The success of green alternatives—indeed the very possibility of India becoming developed—is predicated on sound policy making and equally sound implementation of policies and programmes. One has to be a ludicrously credulous supporter of the Modi government to claim that policies and decisions of the government are in consonance with the best interests of the environment, or that it has been adopting really green strategies and technologies to improve the situation.

Consider air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Earlier, the government had the excuse of a Delhi state government under the Aam Aadmi Party, which was continuously at loggerheads with the Central government. The excuse sometimes appeared to be genuine because AAP boss and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal did not excel as an able Delhi chief minister.

But now, he is no longer there. In fact, the Bharatiya Janata Party is in total control in the national capital: it also runs the state government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi—a veritable ‘triple-engine sarkar.’ But to what avail? People can’t breathe in the capital of a wannabe superpower.

Similarly, the Yamuna has been reduced to a drain. And the solitary concern that the BJP and the authorities under it have shown is for the devout during Chhatth Pooja. And even that was done by cleaning the river, but by a devious means—making an artificial pond filled with drinking water?

Millions of people are suffering in Delhi-NCR because the authorities have not shown any serious intent to end or reduce the toxic smog and air. Forget about systemic efforts, like a major overhaul of slums and unauthorised colonies; our political masters have failed to adopt even effective palliative measures like big smog guns.

Even a failed state like Pakistan reportedly did a better job; it even deployed AI-guided smog guns to bring down pollution. In other words, our policy and decision makers, instead of dreaming of Viksit Bharat in 2047, can and should start green alternatives and technologies right now. The future is now.