Opinion | Can India Grow Like A Superpower Without Polluting Like One?

For large developing countries like India, environmental responsibility must integrate into everyday life; it cannot depend on idealism or consumption choices made by the elite.

A recent Penn alumni fireside chat with former Union minister Jayant Sinha left me thinking about India’s long-term growth story.

The conversation at the event focused on India’s institutional strength, manufacturing, and the scale we would need to achieve in order to genuinely compete with China. One point that came up repeatedly was that India’s only real competitor at this stage is China, not because we are identical economies, but because both countries represent scale, ambition, population size, and geopolitical influence in a way very few others do.

Inside China’s ‘Dark Factories’: No Lights, Almost No Humans, And Robots Working 24/7

Finance Ministry Tells State-Run Banks, Insurers To Cut Travel, Shift To EVs: Report

These Floating Schools In Assam Keep Education Alive During Devastating Floods

Temperature At 46°, Petrol Nearing Rs 100: Why Work From Home Is The Need Of The Hour Now

One of the slides from the discussion captured this well. It suggested that India’s next development phase has to be “farm to green frontier", which is dependent on three transformations: people, energy, and digital infrastructure. Achieving this would require continuous innovation.

While listening to the discussion around GDP and development, I kept circling back to a question that, in my mind, seemed like a conundrum: How exactly does a country like India catch up while also being expected to industrialise responsibly?

Most of today’s wealthy economies industrialised through carbon-intensive growth. The United States built prosperity during an era with very few environmental restrictions. China went through decades of aggressive manufacturing expansion and severe pollution before beginning large-scale environmental reform.

There was a point where images of masked citizens in........

© News18