The Institute organized the launch of Assem Shrivastava and Ashish Kothari’s book ‘Churning the Earth: The Making of Global India’ and discussion on ‘Radical Ecological Democracy: Escaping India’s Globalisation Trap’ on March 25, 2014. The participants included academicians; researchers, administrators, media representatives and others keenly interested in development issues.
In his presentation titled ‘Radical Ecological Democracy: Escaping India’s Globalisation Trap, Mr Kothari underscored that the current dominant models of development emphasized material growth (through industrial and financial expansion) measured in per cent economic growth, per capita income, etc. Development, therefore, has come to mean economic growth at all costs.
Kothari cited several examples of sustainable development in the country. He underpinned that Radical ecological democracy (RED) aimed at achieving human well-being, through pathways that empower all citizens to participate in decision-making, ensures equitable distribution of wealth and respects the limits of the earth and the rights of nature. According to him voices of resistance have already begun to emerge.
Kothari concluded that models per se cannot be replicated but learing’ from projects/small initiatives can be replicated. Also policy has a major role to play in spread of initiatives.