Subir Ghosh's Blog, page 5
April 20, 2015
Are businesses ready for sustainability? CEOs certainly think so
The talk about sustainability has been on for a while. And the responsibility, to a considerable extent, of moving towards a sustainable world lies with businesses. But are corporations ready for the cleansing act? Are they willing to change themselves so that the world too changes in the bargain? On the face of it, apparently many industry leaders are rising to the sustainability challenge. At least, they as...
April 13, 2015
It'll be cities, not nations, that will have to be resilient
India's latest mega-monstrous fad is that of building 100 smart cities. Building cities is not a sinister idea in itself, given the country's rate of urbanisation. The Indian urban population in 1901 was merely 11.4 per cent. This increased to 28.53 per cent in 2001, and is 31.16 per cent now (PDF). According to the UN's State of the World Population 2007, this percentage will increase to 40 per cent in 15 ye...
April 8, 2015
Gujarat terrorism Bill will become an Act of absolute power
The very nature of power is such that more it devours you, the more you need it to survive. You can never have enough. Power is about control, and absolute power is about being in control of things without being answerable. As power keeps consuming you, the more you crave for absolute power. And absolute power, to borrow a mathematical analogy, tends towards infinity. In a political theatre, a dispensati...
April 7, 2015
The Net was born free, but telcos TRAIng hard to put it in chains
Few would dispute the argument that the Internet has empowered us considerably, especially in the last decade or so. But that freedom, call it digital empowerment if you may, will soon be snatched away by a cartel that masquerades as a trade body. This bloc, comprising telecom companies, presents a clear and present danger to our freedoms that, in the context, can be simply summarised as Net Neutrality.
So, wh...
April 5, 2015
Tiny countries show us the way to sustainable power
Some two weeks back, Costa Rica created a flutter in environmental and energy circles. The country was reported to have been running completely on renewable energy for 75 days, and had created some sort of a record. Relying mainly on hydropower, Costa Rica was said to have not used fossil fuels to generate electricity since the beginning of 2015. The credit for this went to hydropower (with roughly 70 per cent...
March 29, 2015
Earth Hour means nothing, unless you start consuming less
We live in times when paying lip-service is a preferred pastime and indulging in gimmickry is a manic obsession. It's little wonder, then, that Earth Hour was celebrated with much fanfare and uproar across the world on Saturday last. The event has become an annual ritual wherein you can unabashedly wash all environmental sins you might have committed in the preceding 364 days. It's become a glitzy happening t...
March 22, 2015
Sustainability practices and goals need to be communicated too
The word "sustainability" sounds unnecessarily big, so much so that it comes across as a strategic initiative that needs to be incorporated into the scheme of things for a big company. Nothing could be further from the truth. One does not need to adopt a sustainable path only if one is big; and it does not mean that a small business does not have the right to follow a sustainable approach. Everyone can and ev...
March 16, 2015
Not going green may just be better than ���greenwashing���
It is a normal human tendency to circumvent rules especially if the prescribed process is tedious, or if one is needed to perform it perforce (by compulsively following laws and regulations). And when you can do this circumventing, and appear fashionable at the same time, it is a folly that one can easily fall prey to. With green fast becoming the new black, this tendency to appear trendy takes the form of g...
Not going green may just be better than ‘greenwashing’
It is a normal human tendency to circumvent rules – especially if the prescribed process is tedious, or if one is needed to perform it perforce (by compulsively following laws and regulations). And when you can do this circumventing, and appear fashionable at the same time, it is a folly that one can easily fall prey to. With “green” fast becoming the new “black,” this tendency to appear trendy takes the form...
March 9, 2015
Climate change affects small businesses more than it does big corporates
When Hurricane Sandy lashed the east coast of the United States in October-November 2012, innumerable small businesses had to close shop. Some 20,000-30,000 of such establishments went out of business practically in the blink of an eye. Disasters, especially those linked to climate change, don’t spare anyone. And small businesses are no exception. The Small Business Majority and the American Sustainable Busin...
