India should learn from Australia how to conserve its natural resources for revenue generation and growth
The time has come for re-examining the national script of the social discourse. Unquestionably, secularism as a theme has been a front runner in the last seven decades of the Indian evolution. This is understandable even though a dubious commentary on what stimulates emotional energy, in India.
There also has been talk on development in various shapes and sizes. There have been periods of emphasis, from the glorification of the Soviet model to that of the capitalistic market economy. On July 7, a noble laureate of Indian origin was reported to be pleading for a market oriented economy with a socially oriented service sector. Irrespective of these permutations and combinations there is, an almost universal discontent with the results of such developments.
The media, whether print or electronic, still displays a high degree of emphasis on that which sensationalises. Murder, rape, embezzlement and wrong doings of those seen as powerful invite large readership and viewership. It is another matter that when action is required, few have appetite to do anything about it. It is the ritualisation of such aberrations which has dulled the sensitivity.
The present Government rode to power on hope. While receding, hope has still not faded. The time has come to put productivity on the map of social discourse. The time has come to make efficiency the core of growth. The time has come to strengthen the faith in success being the prerogative of talent.
This will not happen automatically. The parameters of social discourse will need to be redone, substantially. The content will have to be redefined. The charms of personal networking opening the doors of money, power and influence will have to be put under control. The youth will need to be re-oriented to learn on what leads to ‘success’. A good beginning would be to put the talk of resource optimisations , as a center piece of social discourse.
Analogies from the oceans would help to communicate the point. Australia is a brilliant example of a country that has leveraged natural resources both for revenue generation and realistic growth. It has converted not only things like the Ayers-rock to celebration but stoked global imagination with the glamourisation of the resources of the sea. This comes by the way of ‘naturalisation’ of the whale, the seal, the dolphin, the penguin, the pelican and the kookaburra. People spend tonnes of money to travel to Tangaloomato to watch the whale. They visit Philip Island to sight the seal. They stand on the beaches to feed the dolphins. It does not need the humongous investments in tourist infrastructure which impedes all our developments.
The skill of policy planning is obvious — with applied imagination holding the strings of the purse. India with its enormous costal line has yet to begin talking, meaningfully, of the ocean resources.
The Ram Setu between India and Sri lanka could be converted into a viewing spot. The lakshadweep islands with their celestial clarity of water could be great for scuba diving. The coasts of Andaman and Nicobar could be readied for water sports. The list is long.
There is a need to realise the power of widening and deepening the focus on the development talk. It’s all so tantalising to talk of fugitives, scams and more but at the end of the day, the social discourse has also to see what opportunities exist and what can be created.
To go back to Australia, a natural treasure of Great Barrier Reef has been converted into a viewing extravaganza, with floating jetties, short hop helicopters;snorkeling, scuba diving and more. This reef stretches over 2600km. It has grown on the continental shelf of Queensland for as long as two million years in the south near Bundaberg, and as long as 18 million years in the north. The sea level has changed many times and the sea has been flooded with limestone hills, corals and reef platforms.
We in India have the deep Indian Ocean, rich in resources, to fathom. We need to begin somewhere. May be that will serve as the fulcrum to turn the social discourse around. The consultants and researchers would need to serve as the advance party for this.