Who were these analysts who had predicted mass famine, internal violence and economic mismanagement in India of the 1970s? Disagreeing with economic policies of the late 1960s and the early 1970s is one thing. Using such strong words is another. Notice that the claim is about the 1970s, that is, after the Green Revolution had started. And by the mid-1970s, India was self-sufficient in food. Hence, these analysts are presumably Paul Ehrlich (who was a biologist) and Lester Brown, from US Department of Agriculture. Several pinches of not just salt, but also pepper, are warranted. Nevertheless, without blowing up importance of such cross-country rankings, they serve some utility. Consider it differently. A critical country is one with a score of more than 90. Sticking to the methodology used, a score of more than 7.5 on any of those 12 heads pushes a country towards a critical state. If one uses a cutoff of 7 rather than 7.5, India has problems with demographic pressures, a legacy of violence and uneven economic development. This is in 2008. If one tracks changes over time, India has had problems in all these areas, as well as with sustained human flight. It is extremely debatable whether demographic change and human flight should be described as problems. On violence and uneven development, there can be no dispute these are serious public policy issues.

As a postscript, Ehrlich never recovered from his trip to Delhi and his famous book (“The Population Bomb”) states, “psychologically, the population explosion first sunk in on a stinking hot night in Delhi. The streets were alive with people. People eating, people washing themselves, people sleeping, people working, arguing and screaming. People reaching their hands in through taxi windows to beg...People, people, people.” This is emotion, not reason. When will Ehrlich be exorcised?

... contd.