Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword, not only for brands and companies but also for the public. This awareness can be used to see how the new generation has not only adopted and accepted but actually created a way of life. Sumit Mitra, Managing Director, Country Delivery, India, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, speaking on the topic ‘Policy Perspectives: Sustainable Strategies and Innovations’ at Storyboard 18’s Power of Purpose event on Friday 18 October (GEAPP) said, “I believe that the coming generations are practicing what we want to do, they practice it themselves, whether it’s just by taking the metro or with crackers and colors in Diwali and Holi. Avoid, but we think they need to do something else.”
Storyboard 18 and the Network 18 group recently launched a flagship platform aimed at fostering critical conversations on sustainability and purpose-driven leadership. The inaugural event took place on October 18 in New Delhi, featuring a distinguished line-up of speakers. Notable attendees included Union Minister Chirag Paswan, InfoEdge Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman Sanjeev Bakchandani, Rohit Kapoor (CEO of Swagi’s Food Marketplace) and Saurabh Kumar (Vice President, GEAPP).
Talking about ‘Growth India’, industry body FICCI Director General Jyoti Vij said three or four sectors have been identified to achieve the goal of making India a developed economy by 2047. He explained that apart from sustainability, women-led development and the Make in India initiative are important. “A large number of companies have committed to be net zero by 2030 but there are gaps in policy. For this we need to focus on a few areas, understanding that industries need to achieve their mission. Why does that work and what are the policy barriers that we need to remove to do this,” said Vij.
Hisham Mandol, Chief Advisor, Environmental Defense Fund India Foundation, highlighted that India has 195 GW of electricity generation potential but it is not fully utilized. “In the next 10 years, we are going to double the size of our economy. There is a real danger that we will double our needs as well. So actively pushing the government to provide financial incentives for that,” he said. It should start.” He also pointed out that India spends 0.6 percent of its GDP on research and development, which is less than most industrialized countries. “The US spends 3 percent, Israel spends 5 percent. There is a reason why most of the innovation comes from such countries. We have to find ways to develop the technology and do more research and development in India, He added.
Chanda Bhushan, CEO of the International Forum on Environment, Sustainability and Technology, puts forward this argument: “Changing the system in 25 years will mean disruption to the economy. The question is, are we ready for that disruption?” How else do we manage it, instead of just thinking about techno-economic issues, we should install more renewable energy through wholesale planning to change the system.”