“I have to be honest and admit that twenty years ago, I was something of a zealot about putting GDP growth uncompromisingly ahead of everything else. I believed that the answers to India’s problems lay in increasing GDP growth…. I still believe growth is absolutely essential but it is equally important to sustain growth, ensure that the benefits of growth accrue tangibly to all, and to pursue that rapid growth in a manner that is more mindful of its environmental impacts and consequences”. (Ramesh, 2015, pg 31)
This book brings to the reader this assurance of a scholar politician Jairam Ramesh, perhaps India’s most knowledgeable and democratic Minister of Environment and Forests (MoEF) ever. It can be seen as a prosaic collection of speeches, lectures, letters, and articles spread across 25 months of this ministerial tenure; or it can be seen as a treasure trove of information, analysis, norm making and normative positioning, political negotiations, and contingent economic calculations...
Rajeswari S. Raina. 2018. Review of Green Signals: ecology, growth and democracy in India by Jairam Ramesh (2015), in Indian Economic Review, November 2017.