Despite spending decades creating innovative models for sustainable living, Dr Hariharan expressed the feeling that he has fallen short of sparking the widespread change he had hoped for.
Published Apr 28, 2025 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 28, 2025 | 8:00 AM
Dr Chandrashekhar Hariharan.
In an emotional and powerful conversation in Let’s Talk Water with South First Deputy Editor Nolan Pinto, veteran sustainability pioneer Dr Chandrashekhar Hariharan, Trustee of Alttech Foundation, shared a rare and deeply personal reflection on his 40-plus years of work on net-zero solution projects across India.
Despite spending decades creating innovative models for sustainable living, Dr Hariharan expressed the feeling that he has fallen short of sparking the widespread change he had hoped for.
“To me, after 40–42 years of doing such things, I know that I have not been able to, with those inspired isolated examples that I created, bring that change among people,” Dr. Hariharan said. His voice, usually firm and hopeful, carried a rare tinge of sadness. “My whole idea was that if I create one such model, there will be people to emulate that. That did not happen.”
Speaking candidly, Dr Hariharan lamented the current trajectory of “development” in India, describing it as an impending Armageddon fueled by misplaced priorities. “When I go to colleges and listen to people aged around 20 or 21 years, they tell me they want to join conglomerates and MNCs,” he said, “I don’t know what to do with them.”
It wasn’t anger he expressed, but a profound sense of loss — a loss of values, of imagination, of connection to the deeper needs of India’s future. “None of them are vested with the significance of some value that they can bring to India,” he said.
In a heartfelt call to action, Dr Hariharan pointed to the wisdom of India’s past — the sterling work of Mahatma Gandhi and economist JC Kumarappa — as a wellspring from which today’s youth and leadership could draw inspiration.
“How do you enlarge the green footprint of India?” he asked. “How do you go back and learn from our fathers, people like Gandhi and JC Kumarappa, who have done such sterling work in this country?”
Yet, despite his lifetime of contributions, Dr Hariharan concluded his reflection with a painful admission: “I give up. I know that I am, therefore, a massive failure.”
Dr Hariharan’s words are not merely a personal lament; they are a mirror held up to a society that must decide whether it will continue down its current path, or finally reckon with the ecological, social, and moral debts it is piling up.
Watch the entire conversation on the podcast.
(Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
