India in a post-crisis world

A Frenchman from the environmental business recently encouraged me to think about the global financial crisis as an opportunity rather than a threat to sustainable development. Citing the example of the US, which is likely to be hit very hard and long by the crisis, he pointed out its focus on the creation of green jobs through the promotion of the renewable energy industry and its acceptance of higher vehicular energy efficiency standards driven by the state of California as a driver for national change. He also philosophised about the need to turn on its head the paradigm for development, which he believed strongly would be driven from India - a society that is steeped in historically rich and enlightened value systems. So, who in our country is thinking about the vision for a post-crisis world? And the financial crisis is only a starting point to several crises on investments, infrastructure expansion, income, climate and so on, as first order effects and our way-of-life as a second order effect. How are we reshaping our thinking to learn from past mistakes and seize the opportunity for redefining development paths? Some scholars, I am sure, are debating and discussing the ramifications of the global crisis for India. But, are these scholars talking to those who would translate vision into strategy and action? I am also sure that many of us, individually, are thinking about how to organise ourselves for more effective delivery of services. But, do we stop to ponder about how we can convert our individual perceptions/ideas into a collective approach that should be translated into strategy and action? Sure, India is a country of great thinkers, but the disconnects in our society have been, and continue to be, our greatest weakness. While the national rural employment guarantee scheme started by the government has contributed to the feeling of well-being in rural areas and to the latest estimates of 7.1 per cent GDP growth rate for the year 2008-09, this programme itself can be redirected toward creating the requisite environmental infrastructure in rural areas. Not only would this enhance the availability of water and sanitation facilities, thereby contributing to an improved health situation, it could also, in combination with other measures, stem the migration of people from rural to urban areas. It has been established that people migrating from rural to urban areas in search of employment have a poorer lifestyle than the one they left behind. The government is visualising stepping up investments significantly in infrastructure to create jobs and to put money into the economy. While this may be laudable as a strategy, its impact on the long-term sustainable development of the country could be larger if we were to provide careful thought to the kind of infrastructure that would be set up. Taking an example from the energy sector, it seems futile to throw good money after bad in extending the transmission network to rural areas in the hope that electricity would some day flow through these wires — in adequate quantities and good quality. Instead these resources should be directed towards creating decentralised distributed energy generation facilities based on locally available resources wherein local entrepreneurship is encouraged and the village communities could take control of their own energy economy. In a similar fashion, environmental infrastructure in urban areas should also be fashioned along a new model of decentralised distributed provision of services that would ensure greater ownership, managerial and resource efficiencies. Be it the provision of water or sanitation services, we need to move from a model of providing the vehicles of service delivery to providing the service itself in a most effective manner. Instead of planning for transport systems, we need to strategise on how to meet/reduce the mobility needs of the population. If despite our efforts to boost rural economic opportunities, 50 per cent of India’s population is going to move to cities, then let us plan ahead for the new cities or expansions that will take place so as to optimise utilisation of scarce urban resources. While cutting down the price of petrol to signal low international energy prices, the government should have considered the imposition of a steep congestion tax that could be linked to both geographical areas as well as time of use. Given its economic growth aspirations as well as its population growth projections, India is facing an increasing resource challenge. We cannot afford to squander away the opportunities that come our way to be more efficient.