BAD SCIENCE BAD GOVERNANCE

I used the following concept in my actual UPSC essay on the topic "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining".

How?

I used the example of pollution in NCR- a very "leaky roof"

BAD SCIENCE BAD GOVERNANCE/

Reflexive modernisation

The sociologists Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Scott Lash coined the term reflexive modernisation to describe the state of affairs where societies were increasingly making efforts (in large part through science) not just to enhance material well-being but to solve the problems and mitigate the risks of caused by previous generations of science, technology and modernisation.

The groundwater-fuelled Punjab agro-ecological crisis presents a case of seemingly endless cycle of reflexive science (and scientifically guided governance). Efforts to protect groundwater thus exacerbated the air-pollution crisis, which we are told is in turn to be mitigated by new technologies such as the Turbo Happy Seeder.

As many have noted, the real solution to Punjab’s groundwater woes, Delhi’s air pollution woes (to the extent that it is due to crop-burning) and India’s imbalanced agricultural economy is to diversify cropping to decisively break the paddy-wheat cycle. A groundwater-enabled revolution in cultivation of rice during the summer in Eastern India — starting with West Bengal (and later, even Bihar) as well as spectacular improvements in paddy cultivated in traditional seasons in southern India, starting with Tamil Nadu — has reduced India’s reliance on Punjab as its rice bowl.

While crop diversification is a hard and complex problem, we may take heart in the fact that cropping patterns and food habits have been transformed before through public policy, as seen in the spectacular rise in paddy cultivation in Punjab four decades ago.