By Ashok Jainani
The world is heading towards Hybrid, which is the next future for the human race and this planet. If we don’t; either because of the logy political drive or uninventive business models, by 2050, with a population of 10 billion, we would need three planets the size of earth to sustain our current ways of living. The time is running out.
We need to bring a paradigm shift in our collective mindset to a consciousness level where it can be termed as Hybrid Mindset. It involves allowing our perceptions for traditional purchase motivators/behaviors to adopt better, efficient, green and energy optimal solutions for our various demands for goods and services. A Hybrid Mindset denotes two critical things – being mindful and thoughtful about the use and conservation of natural resources, but not at the expense of being powerful.
Mindfully harnessing energy and the environment can make a better future. “Energy” (economic development) and “Environment” (green action) are currently recognized as opposite elements, but to balance these two different paradoxical elements is must-have mindset to making a better future of India and the rest of the world.
Scientists, green activists and above all humanists believe that hybrid strategies are needed to promote sustainable growth and to break the pattern of environmental degradation and natural resource depletion. In this context, it is important to understand the attitudes and behaviors related to consumption of hybrid technologies across different categories, including energy use, energy-efficient buildings, and especially the automobile sector, where arguably, hybrid technology has covered the most ground, at least as far as private consumption decisions are concerned.
Against the backdrop of climate change and the diminishing availability of several natural resources, the introduction of hybrid technology opens less resource intensive options to the consumer class in India and can help the country move in the direction of the global Sustainable Development Goals. As India progresses in the twenty-first century, at a faster rate for more inclusive growth, consumption patterns in India are changing with the rise in income levels and the availability of a larger basket of products from global markets. In the current global context, it is important to identify strategies, more importantly hybrid, to limit our collective ecological footprint while also allowing those who are not able to meet their basic needs to prosper. Mirroring the size and diversity of its economy, environmental risks in India are far and wide ranging and are driven by both prosperity and poverty.
From the printing press to the drones and artificial intelligence, the remarkable economic growth in the past century has led to the needs for energy around the world to acquire more conveniences. However, this growth has also seen the rising issues of degrading the environment and growing scarcity of natural resources. The world is now in the wake of need for a sustainable model of development without damaging ecology and compromising the needs for future generations.
To create a better future for India, we need to balance energy consumption and environmental action at the same time. To adapt this attitude in the acceptance of hybrid products and mindset, we need to have a behavioral shift in our consumption pattern. Adoption of Hybrid Mindset will generate green growth, which is necessary, affordable, desirable and measurable. If we wish to be thanked by the future generations.
