Sustainable Development 2.0
Development Alternatives, world’s first social enterprise dedicated to sustainable development, launched two books on 14th of May. ‘To Choose Our Future’ by Dr. Ashok Khosla and ‘The Blue Economy 2.0’ by Prof. Gunter Pauli were the two books launched.
The ugly rise
Dr. Ashok Khosla’s ‘To Choose Our Future’ talks about strategies that can enable us to aim for a more prosperous, vibrant and sustainable future. He says, “I am going to talk about some of the choices we must make. Let’s talk about India. India is doing great things, achieving astounding results. But there are two nations living in the same country. One is called India, 300-400 million and the other is called Bharat, which is somewhere around 800 million people living outside the mainstream economy. So we have a Champaign glass where at the top sits India consuming about 80-90 percent of the economy and at the bottom is Bharat consuming about less than 10% of the economy.”
Union Minister for Women and Child Development, Meneka Gandhi
There has been a consistent rise in the number of workers in informal sector. From 278 million in 1983 to 427 million in 2010. India also has overlooked the fact that it is operating on twice its bio-capacity. With increasing demand for resources by different sectors, the stress on our ecosystem is increasing at an alarming rate. This is leading to over-utilisation and severe depletion of natural resources, with serious implications on food security and socio-economic development strategies.
We are increasingly becoming giants
Ashok Khosla also added that rather than to entirely stress on GDP one should concentrate on human well being. There would be much better outcome in long run. For that to happen the thinking needs to be diversified. First priority has to be to invest in women and children. Education, work and new types of learning system have to be implemented. Second priority has to invest in nature. Strengthening civil society is another aspect which needs to be looked at. These were some of the pointers that could prove beneficial for a sustained development process.
Gunter Pauli- mobilising capital
Prof. Gunter Pauli, took the stage to talk about his journey as a social entrepreneur and what made him to come out with this book. He said, “I need to tell you that if we go along as usual, we are not getting anywhere. Absolutely not! The ‘Blue Economy 2.0’ is a vision. It is because I know I have been able to test it. Some years back, if someone would have told me that I could mobilise $4 billion, I would bluntly told him, you are crazy! But today I can tell you that it had been mobilised. I don’t want to look at 2040 but 2022. Therefore, it is radical transformation that we need. We need to respond to the basic needs and at the same time we need to out-compete the present model. I am not vilifying the global economy. I am just saying that we need to do better. Much better!”
Both authors laid out a vision for a sustainable future that is inclusive of all with equitable distribution of resources.
