Green recovery – a COVID era buzz-phrase – has achieved instant stardom. It creeps into every discourse on the economy and the post-COVID state of the world. Although its definition and contours are nebulous, it broadly refers to ensuring that the post COVID economic recovery has a positive impact on climate change.

As with many concepts that emerge from the affluent West or the corridors of multilateral organisations, the question for developing economies, or the ‘Global South’, is whether this is a valid paradigm in their context. Can countries which, even during the pre-COVID era, struggled to meet the basic needs of their people, afford the luxury of expensive, environment-friendly solutions yielding far-future socio-economic benefits – while striving to fuel their economies back to at least 2019 levels? In other words, is ‘green recovery’ a practical option?

Consider the Indian context. Around 230 million individuals slid below the national daily minimum wage threshold (Rs 375 per day) during the first wave of the pandemic, based on a study by the Azim Premji University. Simultaneously, the Pew Research Centre estimates that India’s once burgeoning middle-class fell by over a third during this period.

While the impact of the second wave is yet to be estimated, there are clear indications of further devastation, particularly in the rural areas of India. The immediacy and gravity of the crisis defines the priorities and agenda for rebuilding India: address the ravaged socio-economic fabric of the country. This, above all.

Read the full article about sustainable COVID-19 recovery in India by Ketaki Karnik at AVPN.