At the World Economic Forum(WEF) in Davos, Harvard economist and former IMF Chief, Gita Gopinath, reinforced the unpopular opinion that Pollution poses a greater threat than tariffs to the Indian Economy. It is because while trade barriers can be reversed through policy decisions, chronic environmental degradation embeds itself into the production structure of the economy. Illustration by The Geostrata While the world speaks at length about trade wars and external factors inf

India loses over 1.7 million lives annually to pollution , accounting for approximately 18 per cent of overall annual deaths in the country . At the recently concluded World Economic Forum in Davos 2026, Ms. Gita Gopinath, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, delivered a critical message. Gopinath asserted that the single greatest threat to India’s long-term economic stability and sustainability is the toxic air and water flowing through the countr