S.K. Singh, ex-Scientist DRDO and Social Entrepreneur
The Viksit Bharat @2047 initiative envisions India as a developed nation by the centenary of its independence in 2047. This transformative roadmap emphasizes inclusive development, sustainable progress, and effective governance. Projections indicate that India is on course to become the second-largest global economy by 2047. The country could see its spending power grow from just 3 percent of a US consumer today to 24 percent by 2050. Infrastructure, investment, innovation, and inclusiveness are the 4 key areas driving India’s journey to becoming a developed nation by 2047, says Finance Minister of India. Complementing the World Bank report, the latest update from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) World Economic Outlook (WEO) also reinforces India’s strong economic trajectory. The IMF forecasts India’s growth to remain robust at 6.5% for both 2025 and 2026, aligning with earlier projections. India is poised to be a 40.0 Trillion dollar economy by 2047.
This ambitious vision aims to build a nation that is economically robust, socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable. What is missing is the gap analysis to comprehend the requirements of Disruptive Engineering Interventions for Sustainability of Nature as a Business and economic goal. This has a hidden potential and India can become world leader by addressing the needs of effective policies and developing appropriate technologies for Nature’s sustainability.
Let us examine some of the pressing issues for sustainability:
Air Pollution: One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 4.2 to 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide every year and nine out of ten people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. Many of the sources of outdoor air pollution are also sources of high CO2 emissions. For example, the use of fossil fuels for power generation, industry and polluting transport are all major sources of both particulate matter and CO2.
Water Pollution: it has been reported 44% of all wastewater on Earth returns to the environment untreated. This means that human waste, household sewerage, and sometimes toxic and even medical waste are released directly into the planet’s ecosystems. Water pollution happens when hazardous chemicals and toxins contaminate water sources, seriously lowering water quality which, in turn, harms ecosystems and human health. Water can be easily contaminated with various toxic substances and hazardous compounds from factories, cities and farms since these dissolve in it much more easily than in any other fluid on Earth. Occasionally Mother Nature poisons the water too, such as when mercury contaminates oceans, rivers and lakes after filtering out of the Earth’s crust. However, for the most part, human activity is to blame.
Microplastics: Inadequate management of plastic waste has led to increased contamination of freshwater and marine environments. Plastic materials represent between 60% and 80% of the waste present in the marine environment and 90% of the waste floating on the seas and oceans. It is estimated that about 11 million pounds of plastic enter Lake Michigan alone every year while America boasts in technological superiority…. In natural environments, plastic doesn’t go away, instead it breaks down into microplastics that can continue to contaminate our waterways. India has the second-highest level of microplastics pollution in its river systems after China and there are significant differences in the concentration of microplastics in water and sediment samples obtained from freshwater environments.
Abandoned Mining Operations: Abandoned mining operations can leach iron and other chemicals such as copper, lead and mercury into nearby waterbodies. Active mining operations are considered point sources of pollution. But drainage or runoff from abandoned mining operations often adds to nonpoint source pollution. No effective measures are in place for mining closure plans.
Depletion of water within earth: So much water is being pumped out of the ground worldwide that it is contributing to global warming because heat absorbing capacity of water gets diminished.
Sustainability development plan from United Nations focussed more on Carbon emission and we mostly get confined to carbon credits in business promotions. Carbon credits were devised as a mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Companies receive a set number of credits that decline over time. They can sell any excess credits to another company. Carbon credits create a monetary incentive for companies to reduce their carbon emissions. Discharge from apartments are containing toxic materials which go untreated to nearby water reservoir and it is high time to work on the mandatory policy of zero discharge from apartments.
Big Government Public Sector Units are merely doing a discharge of duty in the name of environmental groups treating it as a nonprofit unit and this the problem in the larger context. Government needs to mandate them to get profits from these business units by innovating disruptive engineering interventions using conventional and latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence to design and develop products and systems with a measurable goal in every financial year. Government also needs to craft a separate ministry for effort which can exponentially add revenue to its kitty by solving global issues in sustainability of Nature and indirectly we can save more spending in healthcare.
If it is planned and executed effectively India can count revenue of Billions of dollars by exporting engineering solutions for sustainability to America, Europe, China and other countries and it will help reshaping our economy fast by 2047 besides intangible benefits of environment worldwide.
