Ashok Khosla, SK Sharma B-32, Qutab Inst. New frontiers are being established in technologies such as information, genetics, ocean, space and nano. The world is also witnessing unprecedented expansion in industrial growth, generation of wealth, financial markets and globalisation. At the same time, it is confounded by unprecedented growth in population, poverty and disease, widespread destruction of the environment, endemic corruption, social unrest and mounting violence. Worse is that though there is concern about sustainability, action often tends to fortify these ills.
Most global problems emanate from exploitation and alienation of the people.
Democracy is now universally recognised as the only vehicle for realising sustainability. However, democracy in both developed and developing nations is often not properly structured, leading to the exploitation of the poor nations by the rich nations, and of the poor in all nations. Most third world nations have pseudo democracies based on the faulty Westminster system and exploitative colonial institutions. Developed nations often provide for local empowerment, but their consumerism driven economic system allows unlimited control over environmental and economic resources leading to exploitation. Gandhi advocated true democracy in which power flows upward from the people.