India is so much more a Continent than a Country: 1,250 times bigger than the landmass of the United Kingdom, with $2.94 Trillion GDP (despite the challenges of COVID), making it the fastest growing and fifth largest economy in the world. The subcontinent’s rail network sprawls across a staggering 68,000 kilometres, half as much as the United States and seven times greater than the United Kingdom; and it also has the fastest growing demographic on the planet, with a population of more than 1.35 Billion: projected by the United Nations to overtake China within the next two years, 17.3% of the world’s inhabitants now live in India… wealthier than ever before, increasingly ambitious, and more than ever before switched into the vast potential of modern technologies. Small wonder then that multinational behemoths like Amazon, Walmart and Apple are currently jostling for a place in India’s future…because mass consumption is a demographic virtue, and the subcontinent has it in spades.
And, of course, managing the pandemic across such a vast, teeming population has brought its own particular challenges too: but India is meeting them head on. With effect from 21 June, the Modi Government implemented a new programme of centralised procurement, taking responsibility for ordering and disseminating 75% of dosage volumes, where individual States had previously been struggling to cope with the unremitting scale of managing and funding large scale vaccine distribution: 8.7 Million vaccines were administered last week (free of charge), and within a matter of weeks, between four and five million doses will be delivered on a daily basis.
To put that in some perspective, at the peak of its vaccine delivery programme in March the United Kingdom was “jabbing” 500,000 people a day, and the United States was managing 1 Million daily doses in April, its best month so far. Few can doubt the Indian Leviathan will emerge stronger and better than ever before when the anguish of COVID is finally boxed up and defeated: survival and strength are built into the subcontinent’s DNA…
In the meantime a major feature of that COVID induced anguish has been the unprecedented sense of confinement and isolation we’ve all been feeling, each of us adapting as best we can to the challenges of lockdown restrictions. So it’s safe to assume that in the post COVID world, freed up and unfettered from those restrictions, the world’s bustling millions will strive to come together again as never before…more conscious than ever before of the need to protect our precious planet in the process.
Eco Tourism will never be the same again…
We’ve all seen clearer skies, roads less congested (by up to 73%, the lowest since 1955), and in our millions become more aware (much more aware) of just how important it is to protect our planet from the threat of climate change. So when travel does start up again, when all those planes return to the skies and cars to our roads, we’ll be better informed, more responsible and maybe even a little chastened by the experience: better equipped to build a better future together.
That’s certainly the settled expectation at Eco Hotels, the world’s first carbon neutral hotel brand: offering “green hospitality” as part of a progressive program to deliver planet friendly, impact investment strategies capable of making a real difference to our shared world. And nowhere more so than India…
Because the World is growing and changing, millions want and deserve better…and we’re determined to change with it.
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHospitalityWorld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHospitalityWorld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.
Article also published in the Economic Times.
