Should rapid industrialisation and sustainable development go together?

Question

Should rapid industrialisation and sustainable development go together?

Answer 1

In a developing country like India, rapid industrialisation and sustainable development should go hand in hand. India needs an accelerated pace of industrialisation in order to become a major player in the global economy. Rapid industrial growth will lead to lesser dependence on imports and will also bolster exports. These two benefits will lead to a healthy exchequer. Industrialisation will be a major provider of jobs and ancillary sources of livelihood. The overall impact will be a healthy national economy and a developed nation.

At the same time, it is seen that industrialisation causes a negative impact on the environment. Apart from degrading the environment through pollution, it also dislocates large chunks of the population from their traditional livelihood. Such effects are undesirable for the nation. Industrialisation and growth is always welcome, but never at the cost of human misery. To ensure rapid industrialisation and simultaneous sustainable development, the country should lay stress on planned industrialisation. Unplanned industrialisation more often than not becomes an industrial hazard. If industries turn populated areas into gas chambers and the country has an unhealthy population, the human cost exceeds the benefits of such industrialisation. If industry targets agricultural land and people are displaced from their agricultural profession, the price is not only paid in human misery but also in reduced agricultural output and consequent food shortages. If industrialisation robs traditional ways of living and livelihood, then all links with past are lost.

Ideally, industrialisation should support community and environment and vice versa. They must never be at the expense of each other. Industry just for industry's sake is a curse. Thus for total, all round and healthy development of the country, rapid industrialisation and sustainable development must go hand in hand.

You may go to http://envfor.nic.in/divisions/ic/wssd/d...

to go through "Sustainable Development in India : Perspectives".

Answer 2

*Yes. What would be the sense of spending all the energy,time and money on industrialization without continued development?

Answer 3

yes

Answer 4

Change does not necessarily assure progress - but progress implacably requires change.