The 1980s and early 1990s was a time of confrontation between
industry and the environmentalists. Ecological considerations formed no part of industrial production strategy. Industry treated the ecosystem as a source for raw material procurement, and as a convenient dumping site. But the effects of environmental abuse, shareholder pressures, and regulatory measures by government forced industry to clean-up its act.
The confrontation has not ended. But it has led to strategies where economic and environmental considerations are no longer thought to be incompatible.
Solutions offered by the developed world apply to the large-scale sector, while the major challenge in India lies in developing clean technologies that work for the medium and small sectors. The government of India envisages an 8 per cent GDP
growth rate. But this growth is not going to be pollution-free. It cannot be so because the government’s regulatory mechanisms are non-existent. Industry today
uses resources and pollutes freely because it can do so.
In India industrial water usage is rising at a rapid pace. Water is already a source of conflict between communities and industry. Industry’s use of water puts immense pressure on local water resources and pollutes the
environment through discharge of wastewater. Industry not only uses up a lot of water, it does so in a very inefficient manner. Scarcity of water is already proving to be a major infrastructural bottleneck. By 2050, industry will
need almost four times the water it uses now.
One of the main reasons Indian industry wastes water is because it costs almost nothing to do so.
Industry is the largest consumer of
energy in the country. But Indian industry produces and uses energy inefficiently. Emissions from petroleum-based fuels as well as coal are taking a huge toll on human lives in our cities. But India needsall the energy that it can get. The country currently has a
power deficit of almost 10 per cent — a major hurdle for its economic growth. The challenge lies in meeting the rising demand for power without devastating the environment.
Tragically, even when industries generate surplus power, they find it difficult to sell it to the state electricity boards due to their dismal payment record.
India produces, uses and trades in pesticides which are banned or whose use is restricted in other countries. Through our crops, the poison of pesticides and fertilizers has seeped into our food chain and is present everywhere — in milk products, vegetables, fish, grains, meat and the groundwater.
India and its industry need to think beyond oil and carbon fuels. They even need to look beyond solar cookers and streetlights. Making pollution control technologies work for medium and small industry is still a dream.
Environment protection in Indian industry is still in its infancy. The management of many, if not most, companies limit themselves to worrying about how to stick to rules and regulations.
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