Rabinder N. Malik (Japan)
Senior Visiting Fellow/Coordinator, TERI-Japan - TERI-Japan
India's Sustainable Growth - An Overview
In our interdependent world, whatever happens in India will have an impact on the rest of the world, and vice versa. The world is still recovering from its worst global financial crisis but it cannot ignore the most critical issues of energy and environment which are threatening to make the earth less habitable. An unprecedented growth in demand for energy resources is predicted in the coming years, while the fluctuating global oil prices and the pace of global warming make it clear that the future global economic growth cannot follow the same fossil-fuel-based path that the industrialized countries have taken in the past. The developing countries must not repeat the mistakes of the industrialized countries. The world thus needs to focus on investing in renewable energy resources, eco-friendly infrastructure and energy efficiency, and to help the developing countries by providing them access to energy options and enhancing their adaptive capacities through financing and technological resources to cope with the challenge of global climate change.
India’s remarkable economic success story goes hand-in-hand with serious sustainable development challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, bureaucracy, corruption, poverty, lack of water, sanitation and electricity for nearly one-fourth of the country’s population. For over a decade, India has experienced one of the fastest economic growth rates in the world, which has brought immense benefits to the people of India -- incomes have increased, poverty has fallen and industrialization has accelerated. The needs of the millions of consumers at the bottom of the pyramid who are quickly moving out of poverty are addressed through what is known as “frugal engineering” or “Gandhian engineering” – which reflects the competency of Indian engineers to produce a much cheaper and innovative final product that does the same job as a more expensive complexly engineered product, as for example, Tata Motors' frugal, low-cost Nano car. The concept here is: "Getting more (services) from less (resources) for more (people)."
The robust economic growth of India creates significant challenges for managing pressures on natural resources and the environment, necessary for sustaining these accomplishments. Recognizing these challenges, the Indian government launched in 2008 India’s first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), putting in place measures which would promote India’s development objectives of maintaining high economic growth rates while also yielding co-benefits for addressing climate change effectively. TERI’s Business Council for Sustainable Development (TERI-BCSD India), which is an independent platform for corporate leaders to address issues related to sustainable development, has made serious efforts to engage the corporate sector in the implementation of the NAPCC by identifying new business models requiring a renewed responsibility on the part of the private sector to adhere to existing environment-related laws, standards and codes. The objective is to promote green economy that is driven by business, supported by the government, and embraced by the people in India.