If we are serious about Digital India, we need to make policy choices on whether the scarce resources should go for the enhanced welfare of the largest number rather than catering to the fancy of the privileged few
India and most developing countries are held up as examples of societies pursuing a direct and faster route to technological transformation from somewhat primitive to advanced technologies in use across the developed world. A unique and appropriate example lies in communications technology, where mobile telephones having bypassed conventional technology, are now commonplace even among the poorest sections of society. Technology forecasting, and the ability to foresee inevitable technological changes, could provide us with the ability to reduce waste in infrastructure and stranded capital assets which would in any case get obsolete.
Fortunately, in the case of telephones, yesterday’s technology has not been extended on a wide scale to large parts of rural India. Hence, the extent to which telephone lines and infrastructure became redundant remains within acceptable limits.
This would not be the case with shopping malls, with which Indians have an ongoing love affair. Yet, with the expansion of online shopping and the emergence of a large number of enterprises that are aggressively marketing their wares online, the profit margins for a number of shopping malls in the country are going down perceptibly. In the midst of this comes a recent article published in TIME Magazine, mentioning that the Schuylkill Mall in Frackville, Pennsylvania, and its 90 stores, are in the process of going out of business. All its popular stores, including Sears, Kmart, Spencer Gifts and Hallmark Cards have been shuttered. The example of this shopping mall is typical, which, according to the article, just a decade ago, was an important part of the daily life in this region of Pennsylvania’s coal mining centre. In those days, teenagers “met to flirt as warm-up-suited seniors walked laps around them”.
This same mall is now expected to be demolished, and as TIME Magazine says, the wrecking ball will put the mall in good company around the nation. It also says that by 2022, analysts estimate that one out of every four malls in the US could be out of business, becoming victims of changing tastes, a widening wealth gap and the embrace of online shopping for everything from socks to swingsets.
Can we, therefore, not foresee that the same thing is likely to happen in IndiaIJ Unfortunately, our preferences and practices are so heavily influenced by what we see in the West that we embrace features from there even when they may be socially out of place in our context. Shopping malls in India are by and large a replica of the designs, structures and components that are seen with shopping malls in the US. These are huge energy guzzlers in a country which still has almost 300 million people without access to electricity.
An interesting article by Bedartha Goswami, written six years ago, referred to the shopping mall virus in India, in which it was mentioned that the energy used per square metre (sqm)per year of shopping centres in India varied between 103 to 532 Kilowatt-Hour (kWh)/sqm/year with an average of 252 kWh/sqm/year. Mumbai was at that stage estimated to have over 650,000 sqm of mall space, with average total power consumption of malls in Mumbai at almost 14 million kWh/month. This estimate from 2011 indicated that the 130-odd shopping malls in Mumbai used as much power as 12,454 rural households, which would possibly cover 1 lakh persons.
Surveys show that a large number of so-called shoppers who visit malls in this country generally do so without the intention of buying anything specific. Visits to a mall are a social activity or at best for dining at a restaurant. Hence, in most shopping malls, the most financially successful outlets are food vendors and restaurants, where walking around in energy intensive air conditioned space and sitting down to a meal, with all the choices available for different types of cuisine, is attractive to most shopping mall visitors.
There is, perhaps, need for effective Government regulation when it comes to a blind emulation of practices followed in the consumerist society of the West.
Just earlier this month, there was a tragic loss of life of a motor cyclist in New Delhi. Understandably, his father held himself responsible for having purchased the superbike for his son eight months earlier, and pleaded with the Government to ban superbikes. He rightly said “they are not meant for our roads”. Yet, in the mindless emulation of what is seen on the highways and very different road conditions of the developed world, we have lost this life of a 24 year as well as those of many others.
Sadly, the advertising business in this country seldom evaluates the social implications of promoting various products. In a free society and in a democracy consumer sovereignty is paramount, but whenever there is a major cost to society, there has to be some restriction or regulation of consumption as,say, in the case of tobacco products. Even the largely weak warnings on consumption of tobacco were resisted for a long time by the tobacco industry. However, the Government has acted in a determined manner to atleast outlaw smoking in public places, and thereby impose a restriction on consumption of tobacco.
Going back to the subject of shopping malls, there is need for a comprehensive assessment of the amount of transportation generally associated with people visiting shopping malls, the use of space for buildings and other infrastructure, including parking places, and most importantly, the huge guzzling of energy that takes place in every shopping mall.
This should be compared with the alternatives of the traditional “mom and pop” stores round the corner and, of course, now the growing opportunity for online shopping. Such an analysis would certainly suggest that no permission should be granted to build new shopping malls and plans implemented for existing malls being converted to meet a larger set of social objectives than catering for rich and pampered consumers at very high social cost.
Some may argue that shopping malls do not discriminate between different income classes, and a large number of low income persons also frequent them just to indulge in the experience of being part of this symbol of American lifestyles. No doubt, India has a large number of regulations already, and many would oppose more restrictions on such economic activities, but the time has come when we need to make policy choices on whether the scarce resources of this country should go for the enhanced welfare of the largest number rather than catering to the fancy of the privileged few. If we are serious about ‘Digital India’, let us promote online shopping and move away from socially undesirable shopping malls.
(The writer is former chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2002-15)
