Second, neither the draft on environment nor the pattern of development which underlies it are sustainable:

n India’s per capita energy consumption is one-tenth that of OECD average, it is one-sixteenth of that in the USA; at even the optimistic forecasts for nuclear and hydro power projects, coal-fired power plants are expected to generate 60 per cent of India’s electricity in 2030. What would be the effect on air-quality were India’s pattern of growth to take it near the per capita power consumption of the developed world?

n Only 10 in a thousand Indians own a car; 700 of 1000 do so in the OECD countries. What would happen to availability of space were India to aspire to meet the transportation needs of a billion people through the private automobile?

n Underground fires in India’s coal belt — in particular, in the Dhanbad-Jharia landmass — constitute the highest incidence of such fires in the world. Apart from the danger such fires present, do the fires not represent an avoidable loss of resources?

n Were India and China to aim at attaining the levels and pattern of consumption typical of the OECD countries today, what would be the draft on the world’s resources? Would India be able to hold its own in the race that would ensue for resources? Look at the strain to which it is already being put in attempting to secure oil as against China.

n If things continue as they are, between now and 2050, close to five hundred million people will be added to our cities. Seeing what the condition is of our cities today; seeing what will be required to provide the infrastructure that just the existing urban population needs; given how much will be required to renew the proportion of existing infrastructure that would require replacement over the next thirty years; will we have the resources to provide the infrastructure that another five hundred million — that is, half the total population of India today — will require by that date? And there is another factor: as a recent report of the Emerging Markets Forum points out, by that time our per capita incomes may be what that of Spain are today. As a result, the quality of urban services demanded will be higher.

... contd.