The Economic Survey has wide gaps and odd arguments on climate change
The Economic Survey of 2023-24 has a distinct tone of defensiveness. While it has done well in identifying the multitude of challenges facing the country, it has not fully addressed the deep underlying causes that have led to India’s vulnerability, especially in the face of growing nationalism and climate change.
The government’s chief economic advisor has rightly pointed towards the need to adopt an all-hands-on-deck approach and emphasized the importance of government-private-sector-civil society partnerships. However, there is little to reassure other research and academic think-tanks or other civil society organizations on their fear of punitive action should they challenge the policies or approaches of the government and private sector from a sustainability perspective.
A productive partnership with this sector would start with an appreciation of their important role as critics and conscience-keepers when other actors are focused mainly on economic prerogatives. Recognizing the sustained role that agriculture must play in food and nutritional security as well as in employment generation, the survey notes the challenge of crop productivity, albeit primarily in the context of land-holding sizes and emphasizing the need for land consolidation.
Merely talking about this without addressing the resultant incremental need for livelihood opportunities—beyond the need for 8 million additional jobs already identified—that such consolidation would require rings hollow. And linking farm productivity to holding sizes while overlooking the issue of land degradation smacks of a biased approach.
India lost 30 million hectares of land to degradation in the period 2015-19. According to the ministry of environment, forest and climate
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