26 December 2024 – What does the Indian National Association for The Club of Rome focus its efforts on?
The Indian National Association for The Club of Rome was set up in 2011 and was led by Subramanian Ramadorai, who was Adviser to the Prime Minister of India in the National Council on Skill Development across two governments. In April 2016, I took over and we have continued to concentrate on issues that are relevant to the diverse geographies we have in India. We have the Himalayan region, large desert areas, long coastal zones, two ecological or biodiversity hotspots as well as several ecologically fragile ecosystems, which require different approaches.
Therefore, part of our work focuses on resource efficiency and resource utilisation, particularly looking at water, forests, soil, land and renewable energy through our collaboration with the Government of India. We are also involved in creating green jobs, associated with the effective conservation of natural resources through these efforts with state governments.
With The Club of Rome’s inaugural Report – The Limits to Growth as the guiding force, we advocate for growth in a sustainable manner in India.
As part of our policy and dialogue efforts, every year the association holds a conference that involves representatives from state governments. We work closely with state departments, especially the State Planning Commissions, and have a strong presence in planning commissions of various states, particularly in the Himalayan region and the central and western desert regions of India. We are also ramping up our efforts in coastal regions in south India, with the governments of Goa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as well as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in central India.
Why are you involved with the Indian National Association for The Club of Rome?
The Club of Rome is a part of Indian curriculum from our early education, including the syllabus set by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, for millions of students. It is a part of the policy domain and public administration as well as political science in India at the university level. Being associated with The Club of Rome is prestigious. At the same time, in the Indian context, The Club of Rome is working in very small pockets. The national association acts as a think tank and has around 36 members. We try to put into practice the thoughts and ideas which germinate through consultations of the members in our collaborations with state governments.
For example, we are running some pilot projects in the Himalayan region, Chhattisgarh and the Bundelkhand region of central India. As the Himalayan region is a biodiversity hotspot and very ecologically fragile, the infrastructure development of the area needs to be modelled to ensure there are nature-based solutions. We collaborate with the government agencies such as the Border Road Organisation (BRO) to preserve the region while implementing new developments. Through successful pilot projects, these collaborations could set norms for the agencies in India.
What is your biggest learning from The Club of Rome’s holistic approach to global issues?
Systemic thinking is required everywhere. It has allowed us to achieve more, with strong feedback, stakeholder involvement and community support. At the same time, larger policies in India have very little space for community involvement. People can share their feedback on Parliamentary committees to some extent, but there are issues of access, with some members of Parliament covering multiple districts with huge numbers of constituents. Systemic thinking has worked well in instances such as our work on the resource efficiency policy with the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), a public policy think tank and government agency. Dr. Ashok Khosla, a prominent environmentalist, former Co-president of The Club of Rome (2007-2012) and member of the Indian National Association of The Club of Rome, pioneered drafting the report based on the consultations we did. The NITI Aayog and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India (MOEFCC) initiative was supported by the European Union as well. A part of our work is to integrate the feedback from communities, stakeholders, policy makers, governments and academia while we support the drafting of various policies.
What are some policies you’ve been able to help shape?
We partnered with the government of Madhya Pradesh – Department of Mining and Minerals and the Department of Rural Development on the District Mineral Foundation Trust to establish the Center for Excellence for Mining Affected Areas (CEMAA), with their water and resource management agency, Madhya Pradesh Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI). The recommendations made through this collaboration were focused on the portion of the mining royalties which needed to be reinvested in the development of the area, especially towards education, health, environment and resources for the community. These were passed on by the government of Madhya Pradesh to the Government of India and approved across 580 districts where the District Mineral Foundations were operational. This was a successful collaboration which hinged on the shift in policy which arose post-COVID, with health infrastructure becoming a primary focus.
What are some other sectors of your policy work in India?
Now, our prime focus is biodiversity issues in the Himalayan region. This program is with the support of Hindustan Unilever Limited. They are supporting our chapter with a three-year program on a policy framework for the Himalayan region. This is focused on pairing biodiversity protection with infrastructure development.
Where do you think we can draw the most strength to achieve a more just society during the next decades?
A just society is very challenging. We have been in injustice for a long time in the Indian scenario. We have a lot to do. While our governments and corporate sectors think in five-year windows, as a think tank, we know the policies need to be for the long-term. Issues of casteism and religious bias are polarising people, and the media promotes these. Altogether, this is dangerous for maintaining justice. While democracy and the judiciary are systems which are operating to build a more just society, defining justice here is difficult. With the diversity of India maintaining justice is challenging, but we continue trying.
