The ‘new normal’ for all of us in these days is watching deep blue skies during the day, gazing stars at night, waking up to the chirping of birds and the AQI hovering around liveable standards which our cities had not experienced in last few decades if not more. The Earth is teaching mankind the simplicity of life which the human race had taken to unmanageable levels of complexities, while it heals itself.

The pandemic is looming large, life in lockdown seems surrealistic which was unimaginable until it was announced, catching us by surprise and without adequate time to prepare for this kind of emergency. The days ahead are difficult and we are not sure how long this would last.

But whenever the routine life resumes, albeit slowly and gradually in a staggered manner, one thing is certain — life will not be the same as it was before the pandemic struck the world. We have been taught, probably in the harshest way, that with improved air and water quality, life on Earth has drastically improved not just for humans but also for the flora and fauna around us, which had been degraded by our own efforts for a quest for 24x7 lifestyle, adopting lopsided growth models, with absolute disregard for the ecology.

Change of perspective

This is an opportunity for us to change our perspective towards our surroundings, the environment and people around us and to think of the impacts that our actions have on society and the country at large. The choice is ours whether we continue to burn fossil fuels and pollute our air, water and land or to opt for cleaner, healthier and environment-friendly options. This may be a bit expensive in the beginning but with greater acceptability would become affordable in due course of time.

Inevitable technological advances and disruptions are common globally in modern times in all spheres of our lives; be it the way we work, travel, shop, study or entertain ourselves. Mobility and efficient logistics are the key drivers of the economy and as a developing country we need to embrace solutions that are sustainable and equitable for the masses.

India can leapfrog the western mobility paradigm of private-vehicle ownership and create a shared, clean, and connected mobility system saving 876 million tonnes of oil equivalent, worth $330 billion (₹20 lakh crore), and one giga-tonne of carbon-dioxide emissions by 2030. Transition to electric vehicles has the potential to cut reliance on oil and offer zero emission mobility for a cleaner environment.

The switch over to cleaner mobility solutions offers opportunities for manufacturing across a range of products and services such as electric vehicles, vehicle components, batteries, EV chargers, charging infrastructure and generating millions of jobs across industries and skill levels. The automobile and auto-component sector contribute significantly to the GDP (7.1 and 2.3 per cent, respectively) and employs over 40 million people. Considering that the number of components in an EV is a fraction of those in ICE vehicle, there is an opportunity for the industry to shift supply chain to domestic sources, reduce dependence on imports and develop the ecosystem for in-house value addition across all tiers of manufacturing, thus giving real impetus to ‘Make in India’.

There is a need for large-scale investments in cell manufacturing in order to achieve higher value addition in the battery manufacturing process in the country, since batteries account for 30-40 per cent of the cost of EVs. We cannot ignore the fact that India has achieved significant quantum in mobile phone manufacturing, but the net value addition is low as high value electronic items are all imported. The situation is not really very different for the automobile sector as well.

Lessons from past

It is time to learn from our past experience and have a renewed focus on innovation, design, development and competitive manufacturing locally to not only meet the domestic demand but in making use of the domestic size and scale to become a global leader. Make-in-India with Make-for-the-World should be the new mantra.

We all have seen the disruption that the telecom industry has gone through in less than a generation’s time. The sector has progressed from providing basic mobile telephone with the bare minimum services to being a part of the smartphone revolution along with the rollout of successive generations of wireless technologies. A switch over from traditional ICE to clean energy vehicles is an inevitable disruption more so in view of the Covid pandemic and given the global commitment to health and environment.

New entrants are quicker to adopt new technologies and deliver innovative business models to create values for consumers. These are challenging times for the industry to shed its archaic thinking process and focus on innovation to make smartest moves to surf the wave of change sweeping the world.

This offers the opportunity to move forward with a renewed perspective and divert resources to develop supply chains for cleaner mobility. ‘ Pro-active steps towards ‘zero emission vehicles’ will add ‘health and wealth’ to the nation.

It’s a choice we all have to make for our own lives. Steps to transition towards ‘a new normal’ must be in sync with Nature, within the limits of Earth’s systems and backed by public health considerations to ensure sustainability for life on Earth. May we not lose the sight!

Srivastava is Principal Consultant & Mission Director, and Teja is Young Professional, at NITI Aayog. Views are personal

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