India can lead world in green technology, says US professor

Developing countries like India must work towards building sustainable organisations that not just uses green technology but also employs people at the base of the income pyramid.

Developing countries like India must work towards building sustainable organisations that not just uses green technology but also employs people at the base of the income pyramid.

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That’s what Professor Stuart Hart of Samuel C Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise, Professor of Management, Cornell University, US, pointed out at a talk on Saturday.

Hart is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environmentalism for business strategy.

He was in the city to speak on ‘Strategies and leadership for creating sustainable organisation’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries.

“India has been affected by the global economic meltdown that affected the stock markets, realty markets,” he said.

“The country must create environmentally sustainable way of living that’s affordable, and build livelihoods for the 700 million rural population that represents a silver lining. Helping curb migration to urban areas, this could be India’s rural renaissance.”

Advocating the Green Leap Strategy — converging clean technology with people at the base of the income pyramid — Hart said a green economy would happen in developing countries like India, China and Africa, not in the US.

“Early incubation spaces are in developing countries. And India is in a pole position to be the incubator where American green technology start-up companies can operate,” said Hart.