INDIA NEEDS INCLUSIVE WEALTH

Lifestyle for the Environment, or LiFE, calls for sustainable lifestyles rooted in responsible consumption, ecological mindfulness, and alignment with nature's regenerative capacities

- NILANJAN GHOSH

GROWTH FETISHISM, a phenomenon that views GDP growth as the ultimate measure of economic progress, has characterised the development paradigm of the global South. The BRICS nations, including India, epitomise this vision. From a paradigmatic perspective, this vision is reductionist, to say the least—the complex multidimensional notion of development is reduced to a single numerical variable. Such unbridled, mindless pursuit of growth often blurs the costs of growth, namely, accelerating climate change, deepening inequality, and a degrading ecosystem.

Climate change is not fundamentally an environmental problem, but a developmental one. It emerges from the systemic failure to factor in the environmental and social costs of unbridled growth. And yet, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, most recovery strategies in the Global South have reinforced the same old blueprint: high capital expenditure, infrastructure expansion, and resource-intensive urbanisation. India, for instance, increased its capital expenditure outlay by over 35% in the immediate post-pandemic year 2022-23 compared to pre-pandemic levels. It is not that such expansions are not needed. India needs physical capital expansion to promote pri-vate investment, given that its past growth has largely been driven by private consumption. But such investments often come at the cost of natural ecosystems—forests, wetlands, and grasslands.