BRIC Team reports: She, however, put forth a caveat: India should take care to pick up lessons from the Sri Lankan experience. Iran war shows military force alone cannot be solution to conflicts: T.S. TirumurtiThe island country had made a sudden shift to organic farming, with a ban on fertiliser imports leading to a drop in production of food grains causing economic disruption and social unrest.The panel discussion was part of the Diplomacy and Sustainability Dialogues 2026 jointly organised by the Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technological Sciences (SIMATS) and The Hindu.Ms.
Meiyappan said that in the short term, India should continue to follow the current policies while focusing on a transition to sustainable practices in the long term. “In the short term, you continue doing what you are doing today. You don’t change to organic today, but over the long term, you slowly, gradually veer away...not organic per se, but something that’s more climate-resilient and more sustainable in nature.
Background
You can’t get rid of fertilisers but [determine] how much you are using and for what crop you are using and where the crop is being grown,” she said, responding to a pointed question from the moderator Kunal Shankar, Deputy Business Editor, The Hindu.She also warned that India was looking at curtailment of personal consumption by virtue of general price rise due to the increase in fuel prices, even without the announcement from the Prime Minister. Gold prices, for example, went beyond the threshold of being a safe haven even before the war. After the announcement, the artisans and the local shops selling gold will be impacted heavily, Ms.
Key facts
- She, however, put forth a caveat: India should take care to pick up lessons from the Sri Lankan experience.
- Iran war shows military force alone cannot be solution to conflicts: T.S.
- Meiyappan said that in the short term, India should continue to follow the current policies while focusing on a transition to sustainable practices in the long term.
What this means
Rajeev Agarwal (retd), Senior Research Consultant, Chintan Research Foundation, said that the Iran war has given clear dimensions to projects like India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) while it has exposed the vulnerability of the existing trade routes and connectivity. Choke points and conflict zones, he said, would always make trade connectivity and supply lines vulnerable. An alternative is required that bypasses both these chokepoints and conflict zones.
Projects like IMEC, with certain modifications given the geopolitical changes, could provide such a framework. India should have stepped into vacuum left by U.S. as guarantor of security in West Asia: Talmiz AhmadS.
