IN THE developed world, conducting business today is also about being environmentally accountable. Governments have imposed stringent regulatory measures. Multilateral bodies have created mandatory codes of conduct, which boardrooms must pay heed to. Investors look not only (or merely) for profits; ecological responsibility is a more important dividend. Companies now publish sustainability reports to prove they are proactive about being clean. The productivity paradigm has shifted: pollution control is a concept of the past. It has given way to pollution prevention and waste minimisation.

All this is prelude to a question: since we live in a world the corporate sector approvingly calls the global village, would it be odious to make a comparison and expect Indian industry to be similar? The answer isn't yes or no. Indian industry today has no choice. Since it is extremely dependant on natural resources (as raw material and as process input) it must leapfrog into intelligent use. The poisonous loop of cheaply bought input, unregulated throughput and polluted output must be closed.

But these are ideas Indian industry would deliberately dismiss as