India's lessons to the world

India is overtaking China both in terms of economic growth and in terms of population. Economically, India’s GDP is already growing at above 7.2% while China is growing at 6.8% while its poverty rates decrease in all states. In terms of population, India has 1.324 billion people while China’s population is peaking at 1.379 billion. The latter might not be a blessing as overpopulation brings with it a lot of issues, mainly environmental, but India’s model is much more adapted to overpopulation than Western models and the rest of the world could get a lot of inspiration from the special relation traditional India has kept with its nature.

Hence India has several lessons for the world: the first is about how modern India managed to increase its growth and reduce its poverty, the second is how more traditional India might be a model to mitigate climate change.

India just had a currency and tax reform to crack tax evasion

In November 2016, the Indian authorities decided to remove all 500 and 1,000-rupee notes from circulation in an attempt to crack down on undeclared cash economy and tax evasion and boosted the digitalisation of the economy. This was effective and was followed in July 2017 by the introduction of a goods and services tax across the whole country. However, the effect of that new tax was balanced out by a welcome increase in public pensions and wages – which are still very low in India – but this contributed to a consumption-led recovery.

The recent reforms resulted in a consumption-led recovery

Thus, India’s economy reached a peak of 7.2% growth at the end of 2017 since the trough of the global crisis in 2010, thanks to increased domestic consumption fuelled by a Keynesian-style increase in public spending and thanks to the multiplier which disseminated the increased public pensions and wages on an amplified scale to the entire economy. Meanwhile most Indian states had seen their poverty rate decrease, from 15% in the central state of Madhya Pradesh to more than 30% in the southern states of Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry between 1993 and 2011[1].

Besides right macroeconomic measures, India has another lesson for the world economy and fight against climate change, leading from its traditional respect for its nature and its animals, particularly the cow while it is the source of agriculture in the West.

The cow, a symbol of India respectful approach to nature

Most people know that cows are sacred in India but much fewer people know that it is impossible to eat beef in most states of India and that killing a cow can send someone from seven years in jail in Rajasthan to life imprisonment in Gujarat. The animal is revered in the Hindu religion, the main religion in India, as it is considered as a host to thousands of their gods and goddesses. As a result, cows have a licence to roam in most towns and cities of India, sit peacefully amid traffic and roundabouts, and even have priority of movement over pedestrians and motorists. Recently, “cow vigilantes” have appeared to run after, attack and even kill people suspect of trafficking on cattle intended for slaughter[2].

It is almost the same for pigs, although they are not revered but rejected as impure by Muslims, which constitute the second biggest religious group in India, at over 180 million. But the consequence is the same. Pigs are free to roam just as dogs in most parts of India’s villages, towns and cities and are not eaten not only by Muslims but also by most Indians, except Christians and lower caste people.

As a result, most Indians are vegetarian and those who are not only eat chicken, mutton and fish. But it is not only cows that are revered. Most other animals are held in high consideration, as shown by the numerous temples devoted to other animals like elephants, monkeys and even rats (Karni Mata temple in Rajasthan).

India is showing the way to a new relation with animals and nature

According to the World Resources Institute[3], India’s contribution to Earth’s global warming since the beginning of industrialisation in 1850 has been merely 3% while the US has contributed 27%, while India population is 4 times larger than US, so it means that each Indian contributed 36 times less to global warming than each US resident.

This has a lot to do with standard of living of course. Indians use less cars, mostly motorbikes, and hardly use heating or air conditioning. But it mainly has a lot to do with the lack of cattle industry as the livestock industry has been proved to be the leading cause of world’s greenhouse gas emission, at 51%, compared to just 18% for the entire transportation sector, by the Food and Agriculture Organisation[4]. Indeed, cattle are exhaling methane which is an extremely potent greenhouse generating gas.

Meanwhile, ten billion animals were killed just in the US for human consumption in 2015 and 150 billion in the world each year.

Hence switching to a vegetarian diet might be a much better way to mitigate climate change than changing our modes of transportation, although this is needed too. So maybe we should all think about that before eating our next hamburger and start changing our habits, which would be beneficial not only to the Earth but also to our health.

[1] IMF Article IV consultation on India, 22 February 2017

[2] The Economist, “Cow vigilantism” in India, A.A.K., Mumbai, 15 February 2018

[3] The Washington Post, “The US has caused more global warming than any other country”, Chris Mooney, 22 January 2015

[4] New Harvest, “The world’s leading driver of climate change: Agriculture”, 18 January 2015

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