in 1993 , Manmohan Singh, India’s then finance minister, had proudly proclaimed that the country’s economic growth rate over the last year was around four per cent. India’s minister of state for environment and forests in the same government, Kamal Nath, could have easily pointed out to his ministerial colleague that almost all this economic development had come at the cost of extensive environmental damage and high health costs to the Indian people. He, however, like all dutiful soldiers of the ruling party, chose to keep quiet.

A study recently completed by two World Bank ( wb ) staffers, Carter Brandon and Kirsten Hommann ( b&h )