"3rd Sustainability Summit: Asia 2008"
"Competitive Redefined"
Address by
Mr. Somnath Chatterjee
Hon'ble Speaker, Lok Sabha
It gives me immense pleasure to be amidst you all at the '3rd Sustainability Summit: Asia 2008'. I am grateful to Shri Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development Advisory Council, for his initiative and leadership in organizing this Summit and for giving me the opportunity to associates myself with this event. I greatly appreciate the vision and the concerted efforts of all those spearheading the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainability Development (CESD) to develop the requisite capability among Indian Industry by taking several pro-active measures to promote the process of sustainable development while retaining its competitiveness.
The goal of sustainability is of special significance to us in view of the prevalence of large-scale deprivation and inequality in access to developmental benefits, more likely to intensify in the context of the current financial crisis which has, in fact, brought in sharper focus the question of sustainability vis-à-vis our developmental priorities and strategies. I sincerely hope that the Summit will provide solution for maintaining compatibility between material progress and the sustainability of development – social, economic and environmental. The spectra of climate change is looming large over the world and its effect have also started impacting on our social, economic ad environmental spheres. Shrinking of glaciers and melting of ice-sheets have posed a serious threat to human settlement. Seasonal and terrestrial ecosystem changes have resulted in inequitable water distribution and affected rainfall patterns, hampering agricultural productivity. Besides, many new water-borne and vector-borne infections have started emerging, posing new challenges to our health-care preparedness. Above al, it has made a dent on our bio-diversity, the essence of the sustenance of our ecosystem.
If we have perpetual and a life of inhuman existence, industrialization and urbanization will have to be seen from the perspective of human concerns. The challenge is to find development strategies that improve the living standards, create employment and promoted opportunities and which, at the same time, are environment friendly. Regrettably, the developed world has failed in its commitment to transfer green technology and additional finance to the developing countries. In such a scenario, we have to find the most appropriate technology that can make development possible while promoting and preserving the environment.
India has proven competence for business model innovation in health, telecom and small-scale products and services. Moving this to the global marketplace could gain enormous competitive advantage to Indian companies. The transition will require radical transformation of the strategies of the corporate world with lot more farsightedness and unraveling the untapped markets existing in different challenges. There are many companies, which have generated business from 'waste to wealth' concept. Then there are some who have found a market by providing rechargeable solar LED lamps, an affordable and durable solution to a long-standing issue and replace and replacing traditional kerosene-based lamps that are polluting and hugely inefficient. Around two billion people around the world are using kerosene. That's 20% of the global lighting costs, delivering 0.2% of the output. In Kerala, they have packaged Ayurveda and Tourism and created an industry which providing employments to many people.
Accordingly to the Task Force report of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Resources, India produces, in its talukas, 400million tons/ year of agricultural residue, which can produce 53000 MW of power. Even if half of this is possible, coupled with the large-scale wind energy production, which holds a potential of 45000 MW, India can develop into an energy secure nation. Less than 40% of the households in India have tap water connections, which again is a chance for the business to reach 600 million people. Investment potential for decentralization water purification system, itself, exceeds US $ 10 billion. There are enormous opportunities for contributing towards building a dependable health-care infrastructure for our people. All these have to be accomplished with innovation in strategy, in planning, in processes, in designing and in delivery, without ignoring the environmental sensibilities and, above all, with sincere commitment to the people's causes.
Mahatma Gandhi, has once observed, 'Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed'. The motto of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs should guide us in our developmental activities. The traditional business management theory that there is only one responsibility of business: to use its profits' needs to be given an urgent rethink and an overhaul. The paradigm of development and economic growth needs to be transformed, keeping in mind the ecological concerns and value-laden business practices Despite all the encouraging talks about economic growth the averaged about 6 per cent annually, across the Asia-Pacific region in recent years, it is indeed an unpalatable fact that millions of people still live in absolute poverty, surviving on less than one dollar a day. A study conducted by the Asian Development Bank has pointed out that the rich are getting richer and faster, than the poor in the developing Asia as disparities in standards of living continue to widen in this one of the most dynamic regions in the world. The ADB report has expressed fear that in societies where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, there is danger of policy levers being captured by the rich for their own benefit and a weakening of the institutional foundations of the growth and weakening of the institutional foundations of the growth process. These findings may further aggravate due to the forecast of recession in advanced economies and the slow growth rate in the Asian nations due to global meltdown Friends, India, with a billion-plus population, are endowed with a vast reservoir of resources – natural and human- and are steadily moving into the world domain as a major economic and political force. Nonetheless, we have many challenges to reckon with, both on the domestic and the international fronts. Amidst all the talks of high economic growth, rapid industrialization and phenomenal scientific progress, including the Mission to Moon, we are besieged with the problems of poverty, poverty-induced social hazards, food insecurity, water-conflicts, energy shortage, unemployment, lack of healthcare facilities, inadequate infrastructure, unbalanced social, economic and political growth, environmental degradation, etc. Notwithstanding all the plans and programmes initiated in the aftermath of Independence with a view to ameliorating the lot of our people, we still have 26 per cent of our population living below the poverty line and rank 127th in the World Human Development Index. We are already becoming the world's third largest source of greenhouse gases. Some of the Indian cities are among the most polluted in the world today. While these are some of the domestic challenges, issues such as climate change, the menace of global terrorism and financial crisis are adding to the trouble with varying but significant impact on the country's development. The imbalance in the economy has to be corrected if India has to truly become an important player in world affairs. We can turn these challenges into remarkable opportunities, if the country as a whole work together, discarding the ways of negative and confrontational politics, to achieve sustainable development, ensuring ecological efficiency and broadly inclusive growth.
As a vital component of the society, the corporate world, which is immensely benefited by the former, is under obligation to give back to the society its due. Our entrepreneurs in both the corporate organizations and in their individual capacities should turn these challenges into opportunities by meticulously making use of their vision, innovation, state-of-the-art technology and perseverance. They should imbibe the principle of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and fulfill their obligation towards the people. Beside, there is an urgent need to have a re-look at business competitiveness which, even while enhancing its profitability and shareholders’ values, creating wealth and pursuing opportunities for growth, can also ensure the sustainability of business itself from all other angles as has been proved by the ITC Limited. As an Indian, I am proud to know that the ITC is an 'carbon positive' and 'water positive' company, besides being able to achieve 100 per cent recycling of solid waste in many of its operations and I sincerely compliment both the management and the employees of the ITC for their splendid achievements and contribution to sustainability development.
I hope and trust that all the stakeholders in our national life – the Government, Corporate houses, individual entrepreneurs, members of the civil society, and the people in general, will come forward in promoting sustainability development. This calls for a new perception of competitiveness that can create the possibility for sustainability development and long-lasting competitiveness. The corporate houses should associate themselves with programmes like 'social forestry', eco-tourism, and promote the use of bio-diesel among our common people and entrepreneurs. They should commit themselves to green technology by complying with the norms of 'water positive', 'carbon-positive' and almost absolute recycling of solid waste contents. They can bank upon the unconventional sources of energy like solar energy, wind energy, ocean energy, bio-gas energy, etc. in undertaking their industrial activities.
The parliament and government will have to continue to make every possible endeavour to promote economic growth while sustaining the ecology. Today we have in place a National Action Plan on Climate Change, focusing attention on eight priority National Missions namely solar energy, enhanced energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, conserving water, sustaining the Himalayan eco-system, a "Green India", sustainable agriculture and strategic knowledge platform for climate change. Environmental considerations are increasingly being integrated into the planning, designing and implementation of our development programmes.
I would like to share with this distinguished gathering some of the developments in this regard at the parliamentary level. Our Parliament, as the highest deliberative and legislative body, has been giving serious attention to this problem and only last year the Lok Sabha has about four and a half hour long debate on global warming. Our Parliament’s Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Science and Technology and Environment and Forests has been constantly evaluating the functioning of the Ministries concerned. I have also taken several initiatives to make our selected representatives more aware of the imperative of ecological conservation and sustainable development. I have constituted a Parliamentary Forum on Global Warming and Climate Change and another one on Water Conservation and Management, besides the Forum on Youth, Forum on Children and Forum on Population and Public Health with a view to equipping the Members of Parliament with adequate information and knowledge about issues and developments in these vital areas. We have been organizing Lectures by subject experts on topical interest for the benefit of the Members since 2005. The Lectures by global environmental activists like the former US Vice-President and Nobel Laureate Mr. Al Gore, Dr. R K Pachauri and Dr. Sunita Narayan, among others, were indeed, eye-openers to the gravity of the challenges that the world community is facing on the environmental front today. I am happy to say that water harvesting and water conservation systems have been put in place in Parliament Complex as well as at my official residence. These measure have, no doubt, gone a long way in sensitizing the members of Parliament on the imperative of sustainable development.
Friend, today we have an opportunity to be the world leader in the movement for ensuring competitive and sustainable development, drawing the rest of the world – including the developed part – into this process of transition in the developmental path, helping to create a mutually profitable relationship between countries in this endeavour. India's vast resources and potential for the sustainability market can be utilized to achieve this objective.
As we struggle to provide a better standard of living to our people, our commitment to protect environment remains as strong as before. The 21st Century is being hailed as an Asian century and India is poise to be one of the robust engines of growth and a leading player in the emerging global economic and political order. It speaks of our sincerity and commitment that despite our developmental imperatives, we have pledged that our per capita Green House emissions will not exceed the per capita GHG emissions of the developed countries. We must work together to make growth inclusive and both the public and private sectors must build a partnership to find out new economic activities and industries enterprises to generate employment opportunities that do not overlook or bypass the poor. I am sure, the CESD, in concert with India Incorporated, civil society groups and individual entrepreneurs will continue its effort ceaselessly in maintaining a fine balance between material progress and sustainability of natural resources, a challenging but rewarding responsibility. I am glad you have chosen to spend two days at this thought-provoking Summit. The corporate world should use this opportunity to comprehend and deliberate how you, as part of the world's largest and most vibrant democracy, could play a leadership role in the radical transformation to sustainability.
I would like to once again express my thanks to Shri Y C Deveshwar for giving me the opportunity to share some of my view on such a vital issue having bearing on our people and our environment. I also compliment the Organizers of this Summit who have taken so much care to make this event a great success.
Thank you.
Edited transcript of the Address by Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, Hon'ble Speaker, Lok Sabha at 'the 3rd Sustainability Summit: Asia 2008 "Competitiveness Redefined" organized by CII in partnership with NFCG on December 11-12, 2008 in New Delhi