Indian policymakers will have to try and develop renewable energy sources and promote bio-fuels and small hydel projects to put the brakes on the process of urbanisation that is responsible for the creation of slums and the displacement of people, eminent political economist Amiya Kumar Bagchi has said.
Delivering the third Foundation Day lecture at the Centre for Development Studies here on Monday, he said investing in the abundant solar and other sources of renewable energy such as wind power and tidal power could help minimise the impact of unsustainable extraction of non-renewable resources and slow down the process of urbanisation. “Properly implemented, this strategy can generate decent jobs for the majority, long before we can foresee the end of market-driven, in equalising economics and politics.”
Such moves would also be in consonance with the advice of climate scientists who have warned of the dangers of playing havoc with Nature, he said.
Chinese modelUnlike China, Prof. Bagchi said, India no longer had the capacity to go down the accelerated industrialisation path by extracting resources from other countries. Besides, our whole environment is facing near collapse. Pointing to the unbridled promotion of luxury tourism and housing all down the steep slopes of the Himalayas from Arunachal Pradesh to Himachal Pradesh up to the Pir Panjal range in Kashmir, he said the Indian ruling classes had instigated environmental disasters, ignoring the warnings about the dire effects of climate change.
Prof. Bagchi said privatisation of education was churning out students with no knowledge of the subjects for which they received degrees.