Why do you think India should take the Green Economy seriously?
India is supposed to have the world’s largest working age population. Now some people see this as a problem. I see this as an opportunity. When you look anything as a problem, you try and ‘’fix’’ it with whatever ‘’solutions’’ are available. When you look at it as an opportunity, you seek to build something far more sustainable. In this case, I see the largest work force in the world addressing the greatest challenge that humanity currently has – the climate emergency. Building the world’s largest workforce equipped to solve the greatest challenge to humanity is being opportunistic, if only we can get our act together.
When you say a ‘’Green Economy’’ what do you mean by it in this learning portal initiative? There are so many who claim to practice Green Economy everyday in the news but on closer inspection it looks like false claim.
Green Economy can only be relative and not absolute. From wherever one is trying to adopt greener practices in whatever enterprise one is attempting just now. Everyone needs to start somewhere and needs to gradually proceed towards the next step. There are individuals and institutions that are already cognizant of the greener imperative, for them radical shifts can be easier. But there are also a large number of people who despite mounting evidence continue to believe that their safety and security rests with the strengthening of the status quo. They need to be encouraged to take one step of transformation at a time. My vision is to cater to all these people through the learning portal.
Educational institutions are forced to adopt curriculum that equip the students to survive in the changing ecosystem. Their own evaluation gains weightage if they offer such futuristic courses even as they struggle to balance this with the status quo offering employment opportunities for their students. We hope to cater to such educational institutions at the under graduation and post-graduation levels offering comprehensive certificate courses and value-added courses under the broad umbrella of the Green Economy initiative.