Environmental Impact- Policies With Long Term Vision Needed

The A.B. Vajpayee government successfully tested Indian Nuclear Bomb in 1998. There were big hues and cries regarding this. All major world powers termed this act despicable. The US even went on to impose sanctions on India. Twelve years have passed and look at the situation now. The governmental heads of all five major super powers have visited India and declared directly or indirectly that the prosperity in their nations depends to a large extent on India and its population.If people of the developing nations don't travel and prosper, for who else will Boeing and Airbus manufacture air-crafts for? If the capital markets of the emerging nations were not there, where else will Foreign Institutional Investors put in their money and get decent  returns? 

There's another scenario which has arisen recently. Jairam Ramesh was widely acclaimed and appreciated for his pro poor stand. He single handedly denied permission to Vedanta Industries limited for mining in Niyamgiri district of Orissa. Most politicians would have accepted bribes and allowed the company to mine at the expense of tribals who doesn't have any voting rights. Jairam Ramesh certainly chose to differ from others in the case of Vedanta, Lavassa and Posco.

Now it seems the whole government machinery is turning against him. Jairam Ramesh has been forced to give clearances with conditions. The companies are most certain to flout these rules and proceed as they please. The government argues that if companies are turned away in similar fashion, then India won't attract any FDI. 

This is an absolutely wrong perception. We must set the standards for environmental protection and sustainable development rather than doing it in the erstwhile imperialist  manner. The British and other colonial countries thought only about the welfare of their industries. They never took into account wheather the people in the colonies perished or went to hell. Our government certainly can't afford to behave in such an irresponsible manner.  

Initially it might cause a bit of distress and reduced FDI into the nation.Talking about long term, Where else can the developed nations invest their money if not in the emerging markets? Their markets are already saturated and there's not going to be any further significant growth. It's high time that we set the standards for pollution and environmental impact rather that letting the MNCs dictate terms to us. If we don't control them, they will start controlling us like the East India Company did in the 17th and 18th centuries. Should we allow history to repeat? Let's put on our thinking caps and get our acts together.