Gayatri Keswani

NO NO Not NANO

Sustainable Development is the need of the hour

 

Gayatri Keswani

Proposes a Policy of Pause and Ponder

 

 

 

 

 

 

(L) Desertificatin with Nano   (R) Ratan Tata

Tata’s Nano has been in the news for quite some time now. First it created a sensation by being a lakh rupee car and now it is again in the news due to the Singur controversy. There are many who feel that such controversies are an impediment to India’s development. But, in this race for more and more development, let’s pause and think for a moment- Do we want mere development in terms of increasing number of industries and increasing the means of luxuries? In this rat race have we forgotten that ours is an agriculture country, where majority of the people have agriculture as their occupation? For the past two decades so much of agricultural land has been used for urbanisation and for the development of so called Special Economic Zones {SEZs}, that we might face severe food crisis in the near future. When the world is talking about reducing the carbon emissions, we are heading towards increasing the same by producing cheaper cars and increasing the number of industries. Will we be able to sustain this kind of development?

The question that arises is that should we then stop progressing? NO, Definitely NOT. The answer lies in using our natural resources wisely. Instead of madly using the land resource for industrialization, these so called industrial giants can educate the farmers and make them aware of increasing the food production using eco-friendly methods. The farmers can be made aware of carbon credits and these companies can tie up with MNCs to credit their carbon emissions in India. This way we will be increasing the food production, saving the environment and most importantly not depriving livelihood of millions of our countrymen.