Air Pollution is a bigger threat to Indian economy than tariffs : Gita Gopinath

Air Pollution is a bigger threat to Indian economy than tariffs : Gita Gopinath

KAKALI DAS

Gita Gopinath is one of the most respected economists in the world today. She teaches at Harvard University and has served as the Chief Economist and Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. When someone with her experience and credibility speaks about India, it matters. Recently, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she made a statement that should have forced India to pause and reflect. Instead, it triggered anger, trolling, and denial.

What she said was simple. She said that pollution is a bigger threat to the Indian economy than tariffs. She said that tariffs are not India’s biggest challenge. She also said that becoming the third largest economy in the world is not the real problem.

The real problem is pollution and the damage it is causing to people’s health, productivity, and long term economic growth. For saying this, she has been attacked on social media. She has been called anti national. She has been accused of insulting India on a global platform.

The most important question we need to ask is this. What exactly did she say that was wrong.

India today is living in deep denial. This denial has grown stronger over the past decade. Around 2014, a powerful wave of nationalism swept across the country. Nationalism by itself is not bad. Indians have always loved their country. Patriotism is not new to us. But there is a difference between loving your country and refusing to see its problems.

What we are seeing today is not healthy patriotism. It is aggressive nationalism where criticism is treated as betrayal. If someone questions a government policy, they are attacked. If someone questions official data, they are abused online. If others support them, the abuse turns into police complaints, legal cases, and sometimes visits from enforcement agencies. A citizen speaking honestly can suddenly be branded anti national.

We need to ask whether this is helping India. Loving the government is not patriotism. Loving a political party is not patriotism. Patriotism is loving the country and wanting it to do better. If you truly love your country, you speak up when something is going wrong. You do not hide problems. You try to fix them.

There is another strange argument that keeps coming up. People say why talk about India’s problems on international platforms. But what is an international platform today. Social media is global. YouTube is global. A video recorded in a living room can reach millions across the world in minutes. There is no clear line anymore between domestic and international conversations. Pretending otherwise is pointless.

Hiding problems does not make a country strong. Telling the truth does. Accepting that something is broken and trying to repair it is the highest form of patriotism.

Let us look again at what Gita Gopinath actually said. She said pollution is a serious challenge for India. She said the economic cost of pollution is far greater than the cost of tariffs imposed on India. She said pollution affects productivity, public health, and long term growth. She said India has made progress in infrastructure and economic expansion, but pollution remains a major problem, especially in cities. She also said that from an investor’s point of view, the environment matters because people have to live and work here. Pollution must be treated as a national mission.

Nothing in this statement is shocking. Nothing in this statement is false.

Indian cities regularly appear on lists of the most polluted cities in the world. This is not a secret. The world already knows this. Global investors read reports. They look at air quality data. They understand health risks. They do not wait for one economist to tell them what is happening.

India is now close to negative net foreign direct investment, which means more investment is leaving the country than coming in. There are many reasons for this, but environmental conditions are clearly one of them. When companies invest in India, they are not just investing in machines and buildings. They are sending people. Senior managers, engineers, specialists, and their families have to live in India for years.

Companies cannot manage large operations in India entirely from abroad. Senior leadership needs to be present. If employees refuse to relocate because of health concerns, companies hesitate. If air pollution shortens life expectancy and water is unsafe, people will not come. This is not ideology. It is basic human behavior.

Countries that take environment seriously will think carefully before expanding operations in India. The argument that other cities around the world are also polluted is misleading. Many countries have reduced pollution through strict enforcement and long term planning. India has largely failed to do this. In many cases, we focus on controlling pollution readings rather than pollution itself. Spraying water near monitoring stations to reduce air quality readings does not clean the air. It only hides the truth.

This denial is dangerous.

What makes the outrage against Gita Gopinath even more ironic is that in the same interview, she defended India strongly. She said India’s GDP measurement system is not fraudulent. She said she sees no problem with the methodology. She said she believes India will become the third largest economy in the world by 2028. These positive statements were largely ignored by those attacking her.

This reveals a deeper problem. When international experts praise India, we celebrate them. When they raise concerns, we dismiss them as biased or hostile. Hunger rankings are called western propaganda. Freedom rankings are dismissed as western thinking. Environmental reports are labelled foreign conspiracies. But when the same institutions say something positive, we quote them proudly. This selective listening exposes our insecurity.

If everyone is against us, we must ask why. It cannot always be a conspiracy.

Pollution is not a small or abstract issue. It kills millions of Indians every year. People fall sick. Productivity drops. Healthcare costs rise sharply. Families lose breadwinners. Children grow up with damaged lungs and weakened immune systems. These are not emotional arguments. These are economic facts.

A country cannot build a strong economy on an unhealthy population. A country cannot attract long term investment if basic living conditions are unsafe. Growth without quality of life is fragile and unsustainable.

Instead of discussing these realities, we attack the person who points them out. That is the worst response possible. Shooting the messenger does not solve the problem. Hiding flaws under the carpet does not make them disappear. It allows them to grow quietly until they cause irreversible damage.

The problem is not limited to air pollution. Water in India is also unsafe. Government data shows that around two hundred thousand people die every year due to lack of access to clean drinking water. By 2030, nearly six hundred million Indians are expected to face severe water stress. Rivers, lakes, and groundwater sources are polluted by untreated sewage, industrial waste, agricultural chemicals, and broken infrastructure.

Pollution control agencies have identified more than three hundred polluted rivers across the country. Water management is a state subject, which often leads to blame shifting and weak accountability. When rivers become toxic, states blame each other. Central schemes exist, but implementation is poor.

The Jal Jeevan Mission has improved access to tap connections, but access does not guarantee safety. Clean water on paper does not mean clean water in reality. Recent incidents have exposed this gap. In Indore, a city repeatedly ranked as the cleanest in India, at least twenty five people died after sewage mixed with drinking water due to damaged pipelines. Residents had complained for months. Action came only after deaths.

Similar cases have been reported from Gujarat and Delhi. Many Indians grow up believing they must boil water or use purifiers. But they still brush their teeth, wash vegetables, and clean utensils with contaminated tap water. Safety becomes partial and uncertain.

Food safety is another serious concern. International authorities recently flagged popular Indian spice brands for containing carcinogenic chemicals. Studies have found antibiotic residues in poultry products due to overuse of drugs in farming. This contributes to antimicrobial resistance, making infections harder to treat.

Food adulteration is widespread. Fake paneer, contaminated milk, synthetic ghee, and unhygienic food production units are regularly exposed. Visuals of fake food being dumped into rivers show how food safety problems worsen water pollution. Pesticides banned in many countries are still used in Indian agriculture. Food labels often do not reflect reality.

Medicines are not always safe either. The World Health Organization has raised concerns about gaps in India’s drug regulation. Dangerous medicines are sold without prescriptions. Children have died after consuming contaminated cough syrups. Studies suggest a significant percentage of medicines sold in India may be counterfeit.

Road safety adds another layer of danger. India records the highest number of road accident deaths in the world, with around one hundred eighty thousand people dying every year. Many of these deaths are avoidable. Poorly designed roads, open pits, missing signs, lack of barricades, and untrained emergency responders turn accidents into tragedies.

The death of a young man who drove into an unmarked pit in Greater Noida highlights this failure. The hazard existed for years. Complaints were raised. Nothing was done. Even rescue efforts failed due to lack of training and equipment.

All these problems are connected by a deeper mindset. Many Indians live with a sense of constant insecurity. One illness can destroy a family financially. One job loss can collapse a household. A child’s future depends on a single exam. Public systems fail so often that people stop trusting them.

Those who can afford it retreat into private spaces. Gated communities replace public neighborhoods. Private hospitals replace public healthcare. Air purifiers and water purifiers replace clean air and safe water. Cars replace public transport. This creates a divided society where the privileged protect themselves while the rest are left exposed.

As the influential withdraw, public spaces decay. Accountability disappears. Corruption grows. Officials face little pressure to improve services they do not personally use. Action happens only after deaths, and even then it is temporary and symbolic.

Gita Gopinath’s warning cuts through this fog. You cannot build a strong economy on poisoned air, unsafe water, dangerous food, and broken public systems. Investors may chase profits, but people will not stay if living itself becomes a health risk.

India does not lack data or knowledge. It lacks urgency, honesty, and accountability. Lives are treated as numbers. Change comes only after tragedy. Until clean air, safe water, reliable food, and secure public spaces become non negotiable priorities, India will continue to grow economically on paper while becoming more unsafe in reality.

Gita Gopinath did not insult India. She warned us. Warnings come from concern, not hostility. Ignoring them will not protect our pride. It will damage our future.

If we continue to deny reality, the cost will not only be political. It will be economic, environmental, and human. And by the time we are forced to confront it, the damage may already be too deep to hide.

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