'India heading for a crisis worse than pre-1991 days'

Despite the positive economic growth in India over the past two decades, it is perhaps heading for a crisis worse than pre-1991 days, said Aseem Shrivastava, economist and co-author of Churning the Earth: the Making of Global India.

Despite the positive economic growth in India over the past two decades, it is perhaps heading for a crisis worse than pre-1991 days, said Aseem Shrivastava, economist and co-author of Churning the Earth: the Making of Global India.

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He was speaking at the book launch held in Mumbai on Monday.

“India is increasingly dependent on foreign capital… The real fear is what will happen to our balance of payments should the money exit at this rate (rupee-dollar rate),” said Shrivastava.

Co-author Ashish Kothari, founder member of environmental group Kalpavriksha, said that while India has lost 50% of forest land, generation of e-waste and plastic waste has increased.

“It has a massive impact on nature,” said Kothari, adding that 95% of applications for clearing forests for development projects get clearances.

The book is divided in to two parts: Twilight: There is no alternative and Dawn: There is an alternative. It deals with how lack of ecologically sensitive policies have created more inequality among rich and poor.

“It is now accepted that India has the third largest ‘ecological footprint’ impact after the US and China. It is already unsustainable,” said Kothari.

The authors spoke about failure of trickle-down policy, impact of globalisation, population explosion and irreversible damage to sensitive ecological systems.