The Modi government refers to the cabinet led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who became the 14th Prime Minister of India in May 2014. The government is headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies within the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of political parties.
Under Modi’s leadership, the government has focused on transformative initiatives aimed at economic growth, infrastructure development, and national security. Some of the landmark policies include the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), demonetisation of high-value currency notes in 2016, and the controversial revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, which ended the region’s special status. The Modi government has also emphasized initiatives such as ‘Make in India,’ ‘Digital India,’ ‘Skill India,’ and the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India Mission).
While it has received praise for boosting economic growth and improving infrastructure, it has also faced significant criticism. Its handling of the anti-CAA protests, the 2020 farmers’ protests, and issues surrounding the delivery of data—such as the absence of a national census and the lack of transparency regarding COVID-19 death tolls—has sparked public debate. The government has also been criticized for its response to social issues, such as the Hathras rape case and the conflict in Manipur.
Despite these challenges, the Modi government, now in its third term, continues to maintain a dominant political presence, securing electoral victories at both state and national levels.
I have often wondered if policy(ies) could effectively render ‘goods’ as ‘inferior’ (economically speaking) – think tobacco, opioids, coal, diesel, plastics.
Health / Environmental concerns (sometimes degrading to hyper-activism) have motivated search for alternatives – but the biggest contributor to adopt an alternative is the campaign to demonize the ‘good’ – thus rendering it as a social pariah. That approach is hardly any different from the approach by corporations to often belittle (obliquely) the competing products – Although, in several cases a smear campaign against products in the market can be contestable.
Several years ago, scientists developed the technology for plastics that offered a low cost solution to several problems and satisfying several needs – the material could be strong, light-weight, moulded into desired shape….. – the basic raw material again, largely derived from petroleum.
Incidentally the non-fuel use for petroleum is growing (think fertilisers where it provides the feedstock). The new and varied uses helped investments to discover more petroleum – reducing costs further, for all its uses (fuel, feedstock, raw-material…) – this is an outcome of a complex set of interactions of technology life cycle, product life-cycle…
Polyester cloth (again basic raw material is petroleum) when first introduced, rapidly substituted use of cotton clothing – there were several positive social benefits – more clothing was available to clothe the population – Then cotton came back as a premium raw material for clothing – and also the two (cotton and polyester) could be blended – they compete, substitute, blend…
Banning reduces competition – and very likely to reduce the availability of substitutes – and posits ‘goods’ as adversaries that may not be aemnable to blend – All of that can do very little good to a society
The government should help the companies come with better alternatives especially in the food packaging industry. Then only they should go for any ban.
This is 2019 – we are not in the old “yuga” – the consumption style has changed over the decades. The idea of mobility, ease and affordability is the key.
PET bottles are used in almost all the developed and developing nations in the world. They can’t be banned overnight. Even sachets are very important to the food industry – one can except every liquid food product to be sold in glass bottles – they are quite heavy and often not portable like PET bottles – and what about glass disposals ?
As the author right;y said first the government should work on the waste management and then go for any such bans
Ban Modiji first….
I really don’t understand why Modi government is always in so much of hurry. They never analyse the impact step or decision. Whether it Demonetization, implementing 12.5 % of tax on Gold or vehicle violations rules act anything. Just do not consider the inconvenience he is causing to common man, he keeps creating unnecessary pressure situation. Does not realise how much difficult it gets for us to adjust. He is Just trying to copy foreign countries. Really fed up of his experimental policies. Has he given any good alternative which is cost effective before banning plastic ? Are we going to buy cotton bags to use everyday? Does he understands the values of this plastic to poor people? They literally survive by this, their utensils, work items everything is made up of plastic. How dares he to extract money from us like this.? I am so upset to give him vote this time.
Banning single use plastics is the great step by the government.
Finally a good idea from the Government. Going by past records, I’m not sure how well this will be implemented though.
Our single use culture of just manufacturing crappy products so we buy-use-throw at an alarming pace, in the name of convenience, is destroying Earth, our health and well-being. Which are more important to protect than some notion of what’s bad for the economy.
True, India does not have good waste management practices and true that Indians are just too indisciplined and short-sighted to voluntarily do the right thing.
But banning plastics will force everyone to be more thoughtful and careful, plan better, reuse more and pollute less.
Many facts in this article are wrong. Like the
selective maths that says cloth bags have to be reused 7,000 times. The author may not realize that we do not simply cut more trees for paper to make bags, but reuse newspaper etc to make paper bags. Same happens for cloth and fibre bags. Cheap plastics cause problems when produced, when recycled and when discarded and when all these costs are included, plastic is also a very expensive material!
But we also need to put in place better waste management systems and get disciplined in our behavior.
One thing to watch out for that this may disadvantage small shops compared with online shopping, thus helping big players. If I forget to carry a bag, I may be tempted to not buy from a shop but just order online. Again, this is not necessarily a good reason for continuing to use a polluting, poisonous material.
What do you do when you are suffering from a life threatening disease — worry about your health or worry about your job?
Do you know the salt that you’re consuming and the water that you are drinking contain microplastics. It’s next to unavoidable. Every time you eat food, you are ingesting some amount of plastic content. Recycling don’t work in the US itself. Does this writer really expect it to work in India? The developed world usually ships its waste to third world countries for ‘recycling’. Out of sight, out of mind seems to be their policy. Plastics that contain food waste goes directly to the land fill because its practically next to impossible to extract any usable plastic out of it in an economical way. The concept of recycling may be introduced to the young kids in Indian schools, but first government baboos need to learn what can be recycled and what cannot. Necessary infrastructure and recycling technology needs to be provided to the private industries and NGOs. Then, you may start to see some changes.
Why are most Indian writers act like half-baked intellectuals? Wait, don’t answer…Macaulayism.
Well done you have clearly said***:government that it has failed to put in place adequate garbage disposal mechanisms. So, that’s the place to start — get municipal governments to invest in waste management. The war on plastics should be, er, replaced with a war on plastic waste.???
Not sure what the author’s argument is. There never is a right time to do anything. 40 years ago India was poorer and nobody used plastic bags. We used cloth, jute bags etc. So not sure how poor are affected. If plastic bags stopped being made other bags will get manufactured.
If you are literate you would have known you really cannot destroy plastics. But instead of ban we need to put taxes on the manufacture so that users move to different source for packaging.
How can a extra tax levied on product can help without a substitute in hand
I dont know how old are you but there was substitute before plastics ! Jute, cotton paper etc etc
Why no one shown the guts of asking BJP to first stop using plastic publicity materials like flag, banners, bunting etc. They first set an example and let other parties follow. There were reports that BJP would stop using plastic publicity materials let see.
Emergency food and water were supplied during floods why didn’t they opted for substitute
Really !!
Banning disposable plastics is definitely a good idea. If it is stopped in the manufacturing stage then the public will have no alternative other than carry their own bags or purchase them. Businesses will have to odopt alternative methods for packaging and delivery etc. Paper, cotton, items can be used like pre-plastic days.
Ban is the only way to clean up INDIA cod unlike westerners our people never think of the environment. They are not doing simple things like segregating waste and not littering their cities and towns. No amount of talking or education really helps. In fact the abuse the people who try to educate them…
Even paper , wood , metal, rubber , condoms , sanitary pads , etc are non biodegradable will you ban that also.. Do ban of something will give you solution without a substitute in hand. It’s a vague idea. Of course plastic waste is major headache around the world. But why is it. Because we are running away from civic sense against society littering here and there. Plastic is a miracle material as it is extracted from mother earth( crude oil). How a material made from a parent can be a evil. It is better to reduce, reuse and recycle or else our whole ecosystem will be destroyed. Plastic waste irrespective of category directly used in road construction, brick making etc. And we extract diesel from it as done by some companies
A blanket ban on plastics bags is never a good idea …but finding a sustainable alternative for replacing single plastics use is. At the same time, banning plastics straws, single use cups & tumblers, & low micron/GSM plastics bags, shampoo & gutka sachets, thermocol plates and boxes etc is a must to save the planet.