India must seize global supply chain disruption as opportunity: Amitabh Kant

He said that when Donald Trump exited the Paris Agreement (for the first time in 2016), China stepped up and now controls 80 per cent of the world's critical minerals. A similar vacuum is emerging, and India must take the lead in clean-tech manufacturing, Kant said.

"It's a huge opportunity for India to do battery manufacturing. If you do not do this, we will become a colony importing goods from China and our imports in all these clean tech manufacturing will become huge, much more than what we do in terms of oil," he cautioned.

Kant, along with CSE's Director General Sunita Narain and former deputy chairperson of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, launched the State of Environment - 2025 report.

Narain said there is both good and bad news as we move ahead in 2025.

"The good news is that environmental consciousness is increasing. The 2025 Delhi Assembly elections showed that voters were concerned about issues such as clean air, a clean Yamuna, and garbage on the streets. Governments are introducing environmental programmes; farmers care about their soil and water and industries seek resource security without conflicts.

"On the 'bad news' front, we are burdened with programmes that lack ambition, institutions that remain weak and an approach to environmental management that is costly and non-inclusive," she said.

Kant expressed concern over the poor state of municipal governance in Indian cities, which he said has exacerbated pollution and mismanagement.

"If 42 of the cities in India are amongst the 50 worst polluting cities in the world, then there is a huge failure of municipal governance. It has nothing to do with finance. It has nothing to do with the central government," he asserted.

Kant also said that water and electricity in India should be priced properly to prevent wastage.

"I entirely agree that water needs to be priced because India, with 17 per cent of the world's population, has just 4 per cent of water. Secondly, 90 per cent of water is being consumed by agriculture. That means rice and sugar cane is consuming all your water. And we are actually exporting virtual water in the name of basmati rice," he said.

He added that free electricity has encouraged excessive groundwater extraction. Those who consume less should pay less, and those who use more must pay significantly more. This is how Singapore transformed itself, Kant said, citing its shift from a per capita income of USD 600 in 1965 to USD 90,000 today through governance and economic reforms.

Citing an example from Nagpur, Kant said that even poor women in the city's poorest slum areas expressed their willingness to pay for water after receiving a piped water supply.

"People want to pay for water; it's the politicians and administrators who do not want to charge for it," he said.

Kant also criticized populist policies that offer free services without ensuring sustainability.

"Everybody has got used to free doles and the Kejriwal system of governance of giving free doles and buying out everybody. And everybody must realize, including women, that if you keep getting free doles, you will make the country go bust," he said.

He urged a shift towards efficiency and accountability at all levels of government. "I am a very strong believer that the failure of India is not about finance. It is a failure of good governance at all levels. That must be the hallmark of India," he said.