BUDGET 2026-27: WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, MADAM FINANCE MINISTER ?

Preservation and protection of the natural environment has never been a priority in our annual Budgets; ALL Finance Ministers have taken it for granted and have treated it as an infinite resource rather than a living entity to be nurtured and carefully harvested on a sustainable basis. In July 2014 I had written a blog on these pages about precisely this: Budget 2014- Shortchanging the Environment. Eleven years down the line this catastrophic deficiency in planning persists, even though a new, and compelling, dimension has been added now with the acceleration of Climate Change (CC). The need now is, not only to provide public funding for measures to counter CC (adaptation, mitigation) but also for rehabilitation of those directly affected by it- poor farmers, landless labourers, fishermen, nomadic tribes. Unfortunately (and predictably) this Budget, like its predecessors, does none of this.

We should perhaps have expected this from the tone of the Economic Survey 2026, released a couple of weeks earlier. In it, the Chief Economic Advisor blatantly bats for growth and neo-capitalism at the cost of the environment. Defying all science, he states that cutting carbon emissions should not be our top priority, and that "a 3*Celsius world would be a liveable one"(!) Confounding all evidence and scientific global consensus, he goes on to maintain that "growth and prosperity strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerability.." Yes, sir, they do, but only if  done in a sustainable and ecologically friendly manner, which is not how it is happening in India. Maybe, if the Economic Advisor had paid more attention to what a fellow economist (without any political bias), Gita Gopinath, had said in Davos, he would have better understood the problem, and how wrong he is. 

This government suffers from a severe case of CID (Compulsive Infrastructure Disorder); Capex is fine and needed for growth, but so is the environment. There are huge environmental costs to rapid infrastructural expansion- both the World Bank and the IMF estimate this at between 3.5%-5% of our GDP, which comes to about USD 200 billion or 1800000 crore rupees. 

The 2026-27 budget proudly mentions the creation of a mineral corridor (for rare earths) in four southern states, three more high-speed rail corridors, zero duties for maritime catches in India's EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) or the high seas, tax exemptions for setting up data centers, but there is no mention of how the environmental consequences of these initiatives shall be addressed or mitigation of them funded. Are these corridors necessary at all, given the large number of expressways being built all over the country? The corridors shall lead to large scale land acquisition and displacement of populations, adding to the 60 million project refugees already created since Independence. Hundreds of thousands of trees (and mangroves, since rare earths are found in large quantities in coastal areas) shall be felled. The boost to maritime fisheries is welcome, but where are the guard rails to ensure that the livelihoods of traditional fishermen will be protected and not replaced by mechanised trawlers or that measures shall be taken to curb overfishing? The data centers require humongous quantities of power and water- where will they come from in this water stressed country?

The damage to the environment by the various corridors will be enormous, as pointed out above. The dilution of the regulations that could have checked this, or compensated for it, such as the Forest Conservation Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Wildlife Protection Act, and the defenestration of the regulatory institutions, have so weakened these checks over the years that we can expect minimum oversight or safeguards in the execution of these projects.

Thousands of crores shall be needed to mitigate, and compensate for, the adverse impacts of these projects, but the Finance Minister has said not a word about this- about who will pay for it and where the funds shall come from. This silence and ambiguity appears to be a deliberate strategy of decentralisation of costs to the states: the political credit and financial gains will accrue to the Center, but the social and budgetary costs will have to be borne by the states from their own resources- an innovative (mis)interpretation of the concept idea of federalism!

Finally, it appears that the 16th Finance Commission is also in lockstep with the central govt. like all so-called autonomous institutions in this country. For it has chosen to completely ignore the right of the Himalayan states to fair compensation for the ecological services they provide to the country (water, clean air, carbon sequestration, climate moderation). These states, supported by a large number of advocacy groups, had demanded a Green Bonus of Rs. 50000 crores over the five year period of 2026-2031. Not only would this have been fair compensation, these funds would have met their developmental needs without having to resort to unsustainable  exploitation of their forests, rivers minerals and tourism potential. Any idiot can see that excessive and unsustainable "development" of the Himalaya (and other mountain ranges like the Aravallis and Western Ghats) is not in the interest of the country as a whole, and that therefore these mountain states should be incentivised not to do so.

But the 16th F.C. failed to see this simple truth. Early reports indicate that it has not provided any Green Bonus; nor has it provided any special grants (outside the Center's discretion, which has now become totally politicised) for climate mitigation or disaster relief. All it has done is tinker with the definition of forests which, in pure financial terms, is meaningless. Even worse, the 16th FC has now discontinued the RDG (Revenue Deficit Grant) which these states had been receiving since 1974, making a huge dent in their finances. They shall now have no option but to continue to ravage the fragile Himalayan environment to fund their development activities.

Whether or not the BJP gains from this year's Budget is a moot question; what is not moot is that the short-sighted neglect of the environment continues unabated in our planning and funding processes. Ms Sitharaman and her co-pilot in the Finance Commission have just nudged us a bit closer to environmental collapse, and the financial collapse of some states.

NOT JUST AQI, WHAT WE NEED IS A BSI ( BULLSHIT INDEX ).

 ONE has always had the highest admiration and respect for Merryll Streep' s acting qualities, graceful beauty and composure. To these qualities I should now add her strong moral conviction and the courage to speak out: her take down of Trump at the recent Golden Globe awards function was something to watch, and won her a standing ovation. (Hopefully our Bollywood marionettes watched it too). But I find that she is also relevant to the India of today: as proof, here is another of her statements:

" Funny thing about getting older, your eyesight starts getting weaker but your ability to see through people's bullshit gets much better."

I can vouch for the fact that never was a truer word spoken: at three score and fifteen, I can no longer spot the prettiest lady in a crowd before Neerja can bat an eyelid  (as I was wont to earlier), and I take quite a few wrong turns on the road as the traffic signs have become as blurred as Mr. Modi's visions for 2047, but give me a piece of bullshit and I can spot it for what it is instantly, through the layers of grandstanding, hypocrisy and ignorance which is the hallmark of our government and ruling classes.

IIT Kanpur got it all wrong when it diagnosed the NCR smog as consisting mainly of vehicle emissions, construction dust and paddy burning. It failed to detect a major ingredient- Bullshit (BS)- whose particles- BS 2.5 by lesser politicos and BS 10 by Ministers- have seen a major increase since 2014. These emissions are usually disguised as droplets of nationalism, religious revivalism or Viksit Bharat slogans. They affect, not the lungs, but the IQ of the residents here, which explains why the BJP keeps winning elections. In fact, I have a theory about this: the lower the IQ of a particular place, the higher its AQI readings. To test this thesis I am now looking for a nerd who can build a  B***S**T Index (BSI).

Readers would be well aware of the blasts of BS sprayed on a regular basis by those who decide the nation's destiny- that there is no connection between air pollution and lung diseases, that 2025 was the "cleanest" year in Delhi's history, that AQI and temperature are one and the same, that the EU trade deal is the "mother of all deals" (which presumably would make the Trade deal with the USA the "mother-in-law" of all deals), that mountains should be defined by height, not their ecological importance, that that those who feed stray dogs should keep them in their homes- the largest adoption programme in the world's history, considering that there are 70 million of these community dogs, that the US SEC's summons could not be served on Adani because it did not have an official stamp, that the globally acclaimed Sonam Wangchuk   is a security threat to India, that we need to take "revenge" for centuries of occupation by outside forces, that it is one Chief Minister's personal mission to hound a minority community and expel six lakhs of them from the state's voter list, that trade unions are responsible for the country's lack of progress. It's a long list, folks, and getting longer with each BJP election victory, which is why the smog keeps getting thicker.

But the mother of all BS 10's was discharged recently by our suave, foreign university educated (MBA, University of Pennsylvania) bureaucrat-turned-billionaire Railway Minister who announced that he was banning the wearing of "bandh gallas" in the Railways because it was a (British) "colonial legacy." Now, generations of IAS officers will agree that the bandhgalla is the nearest they have got to a hangman's noose, that it is an instrument of torture, especially during the summer months. It needs to go, for climatic reasons. But to banish it because it is a colonial vestige reeks of  ignorance and hypocrisy posturing as nationalism and  "desh bhakti". It also indicates that the Hon' Minister suffers from both long and short term memory loss.

He forgot that the "bandhgalla" is not a British invention-it (or a close variant of it) was the formal dress of the Mughal courts and the ruling families of Mewar and Rajasthan; the more showy "achkan" or "sherwani" also belongs to this apparel family. Worse, by landing up in Davos just a week later in a three-piece suit- an indisputably British attire - he not only displayed short term memory loss but also his lack of sincerity about banishing colonialism! 

Did he also forget that the whole system of railways in India was built by the British, replacing the humble bullock-cart, and changing the face of the country? Would he also like to ban (with a little help from the RSS, no doubt) the English language, the University system of education, allopathy, nuclear technology and the watch, sunglasses and pens which adorn our Prime Minister's personage, all products of colonial nations?                                                         Maybe he would like to rethink his passion for all things "colonial", be a bit more discriminatory and focus on those things and practices which truly reflect the worst of the colonial past and have no place in a modern India. Here is a short list:

Unelected (and usually unelectable) Governors who behave like Viceroys and lord it over elected governments; Raj Bhavans which function as opulent embassies of the Center in the states (and sometimes as dens of conspiracy); summer vacations of Supreme Court judges (even though tens of thousands of cases are pending in that court and no other institution enjoys this facility); the humiliating practice of addressing judges as "Mluds" in a free country; the royal trappings of just about everything in Rashtrapati Bhavan, including a cavalry regiment exclusively dedicated to escorting the President, on the lines of the Praetorian Guard of the Roman emperors, or the Garde Imperial of Napoleon, or the Gardes Suisses or the Gardes Francaisses of the Swiss and French monarchs, respectively. The President is no monarch, (or at least so we hope), and there is no need to display such in-your-face-pomp to the citizens of a democracy, especially when it comes at such a cost.

There are plenty of colonial practices which need to be jettisoned, but we can surely do better than begin with the bandhgalla ? When B***S**t becomes state policy, one has to agree with the dude who redefined Pranayam as : Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit. Which is why we need a BSI, folks

WHATSAPP AND THE NEED FOR A DIGITAL DETOX .

 If you ask me, this WhatsApp (WA) texting is getting quite out of hand. I'm no social spark, my social skills being on par with a grizzly just emerging from a four month hibernation, but even I find about 20-25 new messages on my phone when I wake up of a morning. And during the course of the day there will be about another 30 or so. Of this, only about 5 will convey anything meaningful, the rest will be rubbish- generic religious greetings, homilies on how to live well, quotations from unheard sages, all kinds of fake news, RIP messages. Some of these I find intriguing. Let me explain.

Take the RIPs. What's the point of sending an RIP on a group chat if a member or relative/friend of one has passed on? How does that console the effected family? Would it not make more sense if the message were sent directly to the family of the deceased? Is the intention of the messaging to make a public display of your concern or to show genuine sympathy or grief ? If the former, wouldn't it be better to take out a two column insert in the TRIBUNE or TIMES OF INDIA?

Then come the proforma greetings- Happy Republic Day! Happy New Year! Happy Women's Day! Happy Ganesh Chaturthi! Now, apart from the fact that there is little happiness attached to any of these occasions nowadays, not one of these messages is usually composed by the sender- all of them are "Forwards"! These are "pass through" wishes, second hand greetings: this alone says a lot about their sincerity or genuineness. And what's the ruddy point of all this, considering that your cup of happiness is already overflowing since every blessed day of the year is "Happy something or the other"?

Even the "news" or informatory items are usually "forwards", rarely does the sender verify their authenticity or give his own views, and one doesn't have a clue why it has been sent. No only is this  intellectual laziness at its worst, it also assumes that you are an ignoramus who has no idea of what is going on in the world and therefore needs to be reminded every half hour!

I usually delete all such messages without even reading them. In addition, I have on my WA groups a mental list of such serial offenders and delete their messages without even looking at them. So, you may well ask, why am I getting so riled up about all this?

Because, dear reader, there's an environmental cost to this digital diarrhea. The internet contributes more to global pollution levels than the Aviation sector- 3.7 % as against the latter's 3%. Globally, 150 billion WA messages are texted every day (this is in addition to 300 billion emails !) Every WA (or email) message generates 0.3 to 0.7 gms of CO2; attached pictures, video or audio increase this to 17 gms. (This is the result of the energy needed to power your device, servers, and the data centres that store the data). Not much to bother about, you might say. But do the maths to understand my angst.          India has about 800 million WA users; assuming each user sends just 20 messages a day, the daily total comes to 16 billion messages. Assume again that each message contributes 0.5 gms of CO2, the daily emission is 10 grams per user. Extrapolating this for 800 million users, the pollution contribution by Whatsapp comes to 8000 tonnes per day or 2,920,000 tonnes per annum.

The contributions of Gmail, Netflix, Youtube are in addition, and much higher. The latest to join the polluting bandwagon is AI whose data centers consume humungous amounts of power (and water): the AI chatbot Chat GTP's emissions per month are equivalent to 260  flights from New York to London! The digital carbon footprint, currently almost 4% of total emissions, is expected to double in the next five years.

As in other areas of consumption, we must be more responsible, and  incorporate digital, or data, hygiene in our use of the internet. Apart from putting a stop to unnecessary texting, experts advise that we should clear out our old and dated stored messages, photos and videos regularly, avoid sending attachments unnecessarily, unsubscribe from unwanted news letters, compress docs before sending them, stop this pernicious and fashionable practice of "binge-watching". It is not necessary to forward every message received on WhatsApp to all and sundry simply to show how well connected, or informed, you are; moreover, chances are that most of these folks would already have received these messages from others who think just as you do!  Try and spend one day in a week without sending any messages. Every little bit helps and we need to practice digital detoxing on a regular basis. If not, stop complaining about the AQI: a country gets the leaders-and AQI- it deserves.