India: Caught Between Meteoric Growth and a Brewing Climate Crisis

By Sana Bagersh

During my visit to New Delhi this week I learned a lot about the emerging India: the bold ingredients that power its tech engine towards economic dominance and possibly even geopolitical leadership.

I had heard EY’s recent prediction that India will become the third-largest economy in the world by 2028 – overtaking both Japan and Germany – with a GDP that crosses US$ 5.2 trillion.

So during my visit to New Delhi this past week, meeting friends and business contacts, I probed to understand more. What I learned helped to explain the EY prognosis, but what I saw, and inhaled, confounded me about the future.

Sure, I was impressed by the country’s bold strategies, dazzled by its burgeoning innovation ecosystem, and enticed by the potential of its massive youth population. The experience was an eye opener, but… breathing in the city’s air was a throat choker!

I experienced a city that was blanketed by heavy smog, unlike anything I’ve seen in other bustling metropolises. I was told that New Delhi’s air pollution problem was caused by an overpowering mix of car emissions, wood-burning fires, cow dung cake combustion, industrial waste, and (this was new to me) farmers burning stubble left from crops.

In fact, air pollution levels have been increasing so much year on year that New Delhi is consistently among the world’s most air-polluted cities, with an alarming number of deaths annually.

The authorities in India are known to be generally responsive, enforcing a raft of laws that include protecting wildlife, forests, water, and noise pollution. And in order to curb pollution and improve air quality, the federal government has instituted measures to limit construction activities, introduce water sprinklers, and order state governments to curb crop burning. Within the capital, the government installed large scale smog towers to purify the air, but there hasn’t been enough scientific evidence to show that this works.

Air pollution has a deleterious effect on human health, disrupting life, work and education, and I would imagine that if it grows unchecked, it could have unfavourable consequences on the country’s future economic prospects.

I talked about this with a group of businessmen based in New Delhi. One of them, a software engineer, is hopeful for serious action, and that the issue is addressed by environmental policy makers at Cop28.

“The air pollution problem in New Delhi cannot be viewed as a sporadic smog issue. Rather it must be tackled with rigorous measures and binding legislation. This means no half-baked, PR-headlined ad-hoc appeasements. Because at this time, whenever the air improves, the issue is put on the backburner.”

Another person in the group said, “I work for an international company and we attract talent from all over the world. I know that if the air pollution problem persists or deteriorates, my company will consider moving to another location. This could be another city in India, or another country altogether.”

So here I was, contemplating all I’d heard in New Delhi, and thinking, what a pity for the rosy prospects of economic leadership to be scuppered by, well, ‘bad weather’.

Seriously though, after feeling the palpable excitement about country’s future, I sincerely hope the new breed of innovators will take the proverbial Indian bull by the horns and lead it to greener pastures and cleaner air. The country deserves nothing less.

And I suspect that some of these gifted disruptors will be walking the halls of Cop28…. looking for answers.