Fifth, it isn’t that we just have to accommodate another five hundred million in our cities in the coming thirty years, and, therefore, that we just have to build the infrastructure that that level of urbanisation will require. There is another way: instead of going on locating economic activity in urban conglomerates, and then expending resources in alleviating the condition in slums, why not strive to provide urban facilities in rural areas, and thereby stem migration in the first place?

Sixth, as much as other countries, India will be confronted with massive, perhaps insuperable problems if climate does change to the degree it certainly will if little is done to reverse course: the melting of Himalayan glaciers will, after a temporary burst of increased water supply, leave the entire North Indian plain in the grip of acute water famine; similarly, if China continues to denude eastern Tibet, the pattern of monsoons will be affected. Moreover, ecological deterioration in our neighbours will have direct repercussions for us. What happens if each country keeps putting off remedial action till the others begin to take it? To take just one instance, forty six per cent of the population of Bangladesh lives within 50 miles of the coast. If, following India’s lead and that of China, each country keeps putting off remedial steps till the others have taken them, and global warming proceeds apace, how will India cope with the inundation of scores of millions from Bangladesh? But how can we persuade others to act if we do not act ourselves? By example, not by hectoring.

... contd.