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Thematic Report

by Kamakshi Bali | 26-03-2021 00:02 recommendations 1

Business V/S Our Environment. What to choose?

Introduction

While no country can prosper without business operations, it can also not exist with a disturbed environment, for incontrovertibly, businesses go hand in hand with the environment.

If the environment is ignored, it can lead to serious consequences for the businesses, thereby hampering the economy, including the following:

  1. Pollution can harm the health of a person. How then will he/she be productive enough to take the industry to a bigger level?

    Unhealthy Employees, Poor Productivity

  2. No one would prefer visiting a country that doesn¡¯t offer a safe, healthy environment. In this case, how will the tourism industry prosper? Will that not affect the tourism of the country itself, lowering the GDP?

    Decrease in tourism

  3. With an unhealthy environment, will there be a supply of good raw materials for the industry?

    Low availability of raw materials

Taking these factors into account, it does become important for countries to pay equal importance to both business development and environment protection.

What¡¯s happening in India?

India is committed to ease and proliferate the business activities, but in the process of doing so, the environment was found to be harmed. India improved 30 places in one year to a ranking of 100 in the World Bank's 2018 global assessment on the ease of doing business. However, with the progress of business, the environment was degraded. More industries meant more urbanization which in turn meant more population and consequently more pollution. Even today, the garbage in cities is increasing each day and air pollution has taken a dangerous toll on the health of people. The delay of goods and passenger trains, flights and freight during winter in Delhi due to haze is a straightforward example of how air pollution is affecting our economy. With flourishing industries, groundwater in several regions has lowered due to which people have to face terrible drought and live thirsty.

Furthermore, it has also reduced the efficiency of the resources and retarded the process of resource planning. Politically, the availability of resources has divided the society into haves and haves not, widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

But, is the government of India turning a blind eye towards the environment and encouraging the growth of only businesses?

The answer is no. The Indian government has taken several steps in order to save the environment whilst also encouraging business.

The installation of pollution control devices is obligatory for all industries, and hence even the smallest of the business operations have to install a pollution control system. To control water scarcity, the government has increased its pressure on the industries as they take to treating sewage and reuse it as process water. The same economic pressure has led to the improvement of energy and increased the efficiency of raw material industry.

Sustainable development which is development taking place in the present without compromising the needs of the future generation, has become a priority for the Indian government.

To read one more article related to how humans impact the environment, visit:  https://changingplanets.wordpress.com/2020/09/02/haha-advance-are-we/

 

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  • Dormant user Kamakshi Bali
 
 
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4 Comments

  • Yuseon Mentor says :
    Hi Kamakshi,
    this is your mentor Yuseon:D

    Thank you for sharing your insights regarding topics of our thematic report. Found it interesting how you started the report stating that we had to choose between business and environment, as if those two are incompatible.

    It was a good point that you picked India as the storyline for your report, since while working hard to prosper the business, India had overlooked the importance of preserving nature. It
    s a relief that now the government is working for the latter.

    Hope to read your well written next report again,
    Yuseon
    Posted 03-04-2021 01:31

  • Debbie Mentor says :
    Hi Kamakshi,

    This is your mentor Debbie :)
    Thank you for sharing with us about the current situation in India. We are fortunate that the Indian government is putting obligatory measures for businesses to follow so that we are all protecting the environment. Hopefully in the near future, we would be able to do more for the environment without sacrificing flourishing industries of India.

    Regarding the introduction about making a choice between business development and environment protection, personally I feel that this is not a choice between the two. In the short term, there might be benefits from ignoring the environment but in the long term, it would work for each other. :)

    Keep up with the work, Kamakshi!

    Green Cheers,
    
Debbie
    Posted 30-03-2021 23:28

  • Khushi Chindaliya says :

    Khushi Chindaliya says :
    Hello Kamakshi,

    I found your description of how environment degradation impacts businesses very interesting. Reading the report, I thought of more ways on how ignoring environment can affect an organisation. (For example: the increase in temperature and heat waves caused by climate change will reduce the working hours of daylight labourers negatively impacting a lot of firms.)

    I think that you would find it interesting to read the Environment Impact Assessment Draft 2020 (it is under high public scrutiny as it seemingly reduces the role government plays to regulate industries that harm environment.) I look forward to read your future reports!

    Best Wishes
    Khushi Chindaliya
    Posted 26-03-2021 12:11

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