Lack of energy is good for the environment.

"The Indian economy has exited recession after two consecutive quarters of de-growth as the gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.4 percent in the three months ended December 2020 as against a contraction of 7.3 percent in the September quarter. India is among the few major economies to post growth in the last quarter of 2020," reported ndtv.com. "India's Mukesh Ambani is back to being the wealthiest person in Asia," reported the Business Standard. "With a net worth of about $80 billion, Ambani is again richer than Zhong Shanshan, whose bottled water company tanked a record 20 percent this week." "Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive the CERAWeek global energy and environment leadership award next week in recognition of his commitment to sustainability in the energy and the environment." Makes you proud to be Indian, doesn't it? It must be good for the environment if Indians cannot afford energy at stratospheric prices because of extortionate taxes. "With a 48-hour work week, India ranks fifth among all countries for which ILO (International Labor Organisation) estimates actual mean working hours," wrote Rukmini S. "Despite the long hours, Indian workers are not making enough money. India had the lowest statutory minimum wage for any country in the Asia-Pacific region, except Bangladesh as in 2019." Some, especially the self-employed, work every day of the week. "While our work pressure is heavy, we also have high joblessness. Clearly, our economy has too few doing too much," wrote an editorial in the Mint. Worse "is our rapidly falling rate of female participation in the overall labor force. The World Bank places it at 20.3% last year, down from healthier figures in past decades." In 2019, it was 23.41, below that of Libya, Sudan and Pakistan, and well below that of Bangladesh. "So far, our V-shaped revival of gross domestic product has not translated into a recovery of lost jobs. India's unemployment rate rose to 9% in December, by data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), with around 9 million losing their jobs between September and that month," wrote Lalit Bhasin. "India has a LFPR (labor force participation rate) of just about 40%. In other words, just 40% of the 20 million joining the working-age group each year come forward looking for a job. Among women, this participation ratio is even lower," wrote Udit Misra. "Formal worker's wages were cut by 3.6% but informal workers witnessed a much sharper fall of 23% due to the pandemic, observed the ILO's Global Wage report 2020-21," wrote Sayantan Bera. "Rising fuel expenses are having a cascading effect on manufacturing costs across sectors, which is resulting in higher prices for the end consumer," reported Economic Times. Rejoicing V-shaped GDP growth dose not show that "Several surveys after the lockdown have confirmed an increase in hunger and decline in food intake," wrote Prof Himanshu. If you cannot afford food you are hardly likely to buy petrol. Blessed are the poor.