We affirm resolved: prioritizing economic development over environmental

protection is in the best interest of the citizens of India.

We observe:
Economic development is defined by Trasgakes
Tragakes, Ellie. Chief Examiner for IB Economics. "Glossary." Economics for
the IB Diploma. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Page 543.
Economic development: Broad based rises in the standard of living and wellbeing of a population, particularly in economically less developed countries. It
involves increasing income levels and reducing poverty, reducing
income inequalities and unemployment, and increasing provision
and access to basic goods and services such as food and shelter,
sanitation, education, and health care services.

Contention One is Women

Subpoint A: Education
Empowerment of women means helps development.
Esther Duflo. French economist, Co-Founder and Director of the Abdul Latif
Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and Professor of Poverty Alleviation and
Development Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
December 2012. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 50. Issue 4. Pages 10511079. Women Empowerment and Economic Development
http://economics.mit.edu/files/7417 TK.
There are two rationales for supporting active policies to promote
women. The first is that equity is valuable in and of itself: women are
currently worse-off than men, and this inequality between genders
is repulsive in its own right. For example, in the United Nations 2005 report on the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United
Nations, writes: The full participation of women to all levels of
decision-making is a basic human right. The second, a central
argument in the discourse of policymakers, is that women play a
fundamental role in development. The gender gap in education,
political participation, and employment opportunities should
therefore be reduced not only because it is equitable to do so, but
also because it will have beneficial consequences on many other
society-wide outcomes. It should be done, in other words, to increase efficiency.
Accordingly, in the same report, Kofi Annan argues that gender equality is in fact
a pre-requisite to achieving the other MDGs. The stance that
women empowerment is desirable for efficiency shapes both the
policy debate and the resultant economic policies the world over.
Micro-credit schemes, for example, have been directed almost exclusively at women, because, it is
argued, women invest the money in goods and services that improve the well-being of families, in
goods that are conducive to development. Similarly, most conditional cash transfer benefit programs in
developing countries, such as PROGRESA/Opportunidades in Mexico, direct the transfer to women, not
men. Transfers conditioned on school enrollment are often higher for girls or even positive only for girls.

Measures to enforce womens access to political positions through

quotas have been instituted in 87 countries, including India, where a 1993

constitutional amendment required that one-third of rural village council seats and village presidencies
be reserved for women. Former World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, addressing the Fourth UN
Conference on Women, said:

Education for girls has a catalytic effect on

every dimension of development: lower child and maternal
mortality rates; increased educational attainment by daughters and
sons; higher productivity; and improved environmental
management. Together, these can mean faster economic growth and,
equally important, wider distribution of the fruits of growth. . . . More
education for girls will also enable more and more women to attain leadership positions at all levels of
society: from health clinics in the villages to parliaments in the capitals. This, in turn, will change the
way societies will deal with problems and raise the quality of global decision-making. Wolfensohn
makes four claims. First of all, that education of girls would change out comes for their children and the

We might call this a reduced form argument: broad empowerment of

women could change outcomes. Education could have an effect, for example,
through, for example, by improving their understanding of how to raise
children, use contraception, and manage their homes. His second claim is

rest of us.

empowerment of women in a narrower sense (power or the

ability to influence decision making) would also change outcomes .
The third claim is that these changes would be positive. The comment also raises a
that

fourth issue, assuming that increasing decision making of women would indeed lead to different (and
better) outcomes, that is what policy instruments are available to policymakers to achieve these
changes. Do they need to wait for it to come from improvement in their human capital (the quote
suggests it would be a consequence of their improved education), or can policy interventions, such as
changes in the law, change in electoral rules, changes in the rule governing programs, or other similar
top down interventions change effective power?

AND Education is key to decreasing poverty, increasing

immunization and increasing life expectancy.

Department for International Development. January 2005. Girls education:

towards a better future for all
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/development/docs/girlseducation.pdf
TK.
Education has a profound effect on girls and womens ability to
claim other rights and achieve status in society, such as economic
independence and political representation. As the following examples demonstrate, having an
education can make an enormous difference to a womans chances of finding well-paid work, raising a

Women with at
least a basic education are much less likely to be poor. Providing
girls with one extra year of schooling beyond the average can boost
their eventual wages by 10 to 20 per cent.1 An infant born to an
educated woman is much more likely to survive until adulthood. In
healthy family and preventing the spread of diseases such as HIV and AIDS.

Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 per cent more likely to live

An educated woman is 50 per cent more likely to have

her children immunised against childhood diseases.3 If we had reached the
beyond age five.2

gender parity goal by 2005, more than 1 million childhood deaths could have been averted.4 For
every boy newly infected with HIV in Africa, there are between three and six girls newly infected. Yet, in
high-prevalence areas such as Swaziland, two-thirds of teenage girls in school are free from HIV, while
two-thirds of out-of-school girls are HIV positive. In Uganda, children who have been to secondary school
are four times less likely to become HIV positive.5

Poverty feeds the endless cycle of Environmental Degradation and

Poverty.
Haimanti Bhattacharya and Robert Innes, University of Arizona,
2006, Is There a Nexus between Poverty and Environment in Rural India?,
University of Arizona, http://www.google.com/url?
sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CEQQFjAC&url=http%3A
%2F%2Fageconsearch.umn.edu%2Fbitstream
%2F21201%2F1%2Fsp06bh01.pdf&ei=_c44U9bnD_LisASlq4CYBQ&usg=AFQj
CNHpxW90mkxASk1RwKuMGXIWEIcaug&sig2=YdNCwNjhOPNzRPLtiww3jg,
BZ
Many studies have established that the rural poor in developing
countries are heavily dependent on local natural resources for their
sustenance. Due to weak property rights and limited access to
credit, insurance and capital markets, rural poverty leads to
resource degradation in many ways. The poor depend heavily on the
open access resources like the forests, pastures, water resources
that leads to their over exploitation. Animals like sheep or goats that
act as capital resource for the rural poor degrade the vegetation and
soil faster than the livestock of the richer rural population like
buffaloes. Cultivable land degrades quickly due to lack of
investment for maintaining the soil quality that erodes the soil
fertility. Land tenure system can also play a crucial role in the
investment for maintaining soil quality. Since the environment as in
the most developed countries is not an amenity but a necessary
input for the rural households, environmental degradation in turn
implies a shrinking input base for the poor households that increase
the severity of poverty. This cyclical relationship is commonly
referred to as the poverty-environment Nexus.Poverty is said to be
both cause and effect of environment degradation. The poor people,
who rely on natural resources more than the rich, deplete natural
resources faster as they have no real prospects of gaining access to
other types of resources. Poorer people, who cannot meet their
subsistence needs through purchase, are forced to use common
property resources such as forests for food and fuel, pastures for
fodder, and ponds and rivers for water. Population pressure driven
overexploitation of the surface and underground water resources by
the poor has resulted into contamination and exhaustion of the
water resources. Urban population is also using rivers to dispose of
untreated sewage and industrial effluent. The result is that health of
those dependents on untreated water resources is increasing at risk.
In the absence of capital resources, the poor are directly dependent
on natural resources. Moreover degraded environment can
accelerate the process of impoverishment, again because the poor
depend directly on natural assets. Acceleration in poverty alleviation
is imperative to break this link between poverty and the
environment.

Contention 2: Infrastructure
INFASTRUCTURE is NEEDED TO STRENGTHEN THE
ECONOMY
Along with providing jobs and demand for manufacturing the development of
Indias infrastructure is critical for its huge population centers, Manish
Agarwal in 2013 writes Indias torrid rate of urbanization means that
massive investment will be required in everything from metro
systems to clean water supplies, power generation to affordable
housing. He further writes, For Indias economy to make sustained
progress, we have to build better roads so that the transportation of
goods becomes efficient; we have to build ports; we have to enhance
our power capacity; and we have to improve access to coal and other
raw materials. These are all very important requirements.

Thus by having solid infrastructure, India will be able to

bolster and enhance its economic growth.
Overall, the best interests of the people lie in the current
problems India faces which according to Pollution Issues
in 2006 is
PollutionIssues.org, 2006, Poverty, PollutionIssues.org,
http://www.pollutionissues.com/Pl-Re/Poverty.html, BZ
Regardless of the reason or the area of the world in which a poor
population lives, certain reciprocal elements will act on the
population and its environment. Lack of education, oppression, lack
of appropriate infrastructurefrom water-treatment facilities to
better roads and communicationall exacerbate the twin problems
of poverty and environmental degradation. One cannot ask people to
heal the environment, or even just mind it, if they can barely sustain
themselves.
Better infrastructure will allow for more efficient use of recourses, and less
waste mismanagement. additionally, according to the Daily Star this year, if
the Indian government were to through economic development, set up
industrial zones with adequate utility and infrastructure facilities in
unused public land. It would both save arable land and accelerate
industrialization. Further more Business Standard Magazine cautions this
year that Tuberculosis, which kills around 1,000 people a day in India
is made worse by lack of access in the public sector. By building hospital
and roads, as well as water treatment facilities we can help reduce disease.

In Conclusion, you are going to be casting an affirmative

ballot ebcause
1. Indias main problems of overpopulation and poverty
can be reduced through providing economic
development opportunities
2. To solve environmental issues, which are worsened
by overpopulation and poverty, the economy must be
prioritized to solve the problem
3. In order to sustain a healthy environment and
provide economic growth, infrastrcutre would allow
for greater economic freedom and environmental
protection, thus we urge a pro ballot.

CARDS USED

From the International Economic Development Council (IEDC)

[http://www.iedconline.org/hotlinks/whtecodev.html ]
What is Economic Development? No single definition incorporates all of the different strands of economic
development. Typically economic development can be described in terms of objectives. These are most

the creation of jobs and wealth, and the improvement of

quality of life. Economic development can also be described as a process that
influences growth and restructuring of an economy to enhance the economic
well being of a community. In the broadest sense, economic development encompasses three
major areas: Policies that government undertakes to meet broad economic objectives
including inflation control, high employment and sustainable growth. Policies and programs to
provide services including building highways, managing parks and providing medical access to the
disadvantaged. Policies and programs explicitly directed at improving the business climate
commonly described as

through specific efforts, business finance, marketing, neighborhood development, business retention and
expansion, technology transfer, real estate development and others. The main goal of economic
development is improving the economic well being of a community through efforts that entail job

creation, job retention, tax base enhancements and quality of life. As there is no
single definition for economic development, the re is no single strategy, policy or program for achieving
successful economic development. Communities differ in their geographic and political strengths and
weaknesses. Each community therefore, will have a unique set of challenges for economic development.

The need to upgrade Indias infrastructure is especially

acute in huge cities.
Manish Agarwal, Summer 2013. Wrote an article for
PricewaterhouseCoopers. A passage to modernity.
[http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/capital-projects-infrastructure/assets/gridlinesindia-article-2013.pdf] VF

Yet Indias vast infrastructure needs are expanding all the time, and this presents enormous opportunities.

The population has already surpassed 1.2 billion, and it continues to

grow at a heady rate. Global trade is placing acute pressure on
Indias inefficient ports. Rapid industrialization is intensifying the
strain on the nations unreliable networks for electricity and water.
The railway system already infamously overcrowded faces rising
demand for freight capacity. And the government has fallen far short
of its plans to build 20 km of roads each day an urgent requirement
in a nation where 65% of all freight is transported by road , and where
traffic is so severe that the maximum highway speed for trucks and buses is only 30-40 km per hour. The
need to upgrade Indias infrastructure is especially acute in huge
cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. Indias urban population of around 375
million is projected to reach 500 million by 2017. By 2030, the country is expected to have 68 cities with

This torrid rate of urbanization means that massive

investment will be required in everything from metro systems to
clean water supplies, power generation to affordable housing.
over 1 million residents.

Infrastructure is necessary for a sustainable economy.

Manish Agarwal, Summer 2013. Wrote an article for

PricewaterhouseCoopers. A passage to modernity.

[http://www.pwc.com/gx/en/capital-projects-infrastructure/assets/gridlinesindia-article-2013.pdf] VF
For Indias economy to make sustained progress, we have to build
better roads so that the transportation of goods becomes efficient;
we have to build ports; we have to enhance our power capacity; and
we have to improve access to coal and other raw materials. These
are all very important requirements.

Setting up industrial zones will save arable land.

The Daily Star, 03-31-14. British newspaper. Allow unused public land
to build industrial zones. [http://www.thedailystar.net/allow-unused-publicland-to-build-industrial-zones-17965] VF
Business leaders yesterday urged the government to set up
industrial zones with adequate utility and infrastructure facilities in
unused public land and on the premises of closed nationalised mills.
Setting up industrial zones in such a manner will save arable land
and accelerate industrialisation, they said.

India lacks the infrastructure to treat tuberculosis.

Business Standard, 03-24-14. National newspaper in India. India

lacks infrastructure to treat TB, carries one-fourth of global burden.

[http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/india-lacks-infrastructureto-treat-tb-carries-one-fourth-of-global-burden-114032400334_1.html] VF
The gravity of the [tuberculosis] situation is magnified by lack of
access in the public sector. There is a complete lack of government
accredited labs to diagnose all forms of DR TB. Then there is a legion
of undiagnosed DR TB patients who are on regular tuberculosis
drugs amplifying their resistance. Bedaquiliine, the first new TB drug
to be approved by the USFDA in forty years is pending registration
in India. It is important to ensure that it is first made available to
institutions who have the expertise, capacity and experience of
diagnosing and treating DR-TB for patients in real need, says Lorraine. "Not
just that, the government has the responsibility of preventing the
indiscriminate sale and prescription of the drug in the private sector
to avoid amplifying drug resistance and accelerating what is already
a public health emergency," adds Lorraine. Moreover there are just three
labs in the country including one at the Hinduja Hospital in the city
that was recently accredited by the government. Till last year, samples from
the city were sent to Chennai and patients had to wait for two months for results. This is true not
just for Mumbai but for the entire country. Decentralising diagnostics is important,
says Lorraine. It could mean expediting detection and starting treatment early. Till then doctors like
Dolorosa are filled with angst and a deep sense of frustration. "It is gloomy and depressing. I have lost two
patients in the last six months, a sixteen year old girl and a six year old boy," says Dr.Dolorosa, doctor at
the MSF clinic. "It is only with better diagnostics and access to new medicines we will be able to make any
headway in providing effective treatment to the patients", she adds. Though India had pioneered TB

control as early as in 1962, with the launch of a national TB control project, it now carries 26 per cent of
the global TB burden, according to World Health Organsiation (WHO). Of the estimated 2.

SATS ABOUT TB
New, deadlier form of TB hits India Malathy Iyer Jan 7, 2012 The Times of New
India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/New-deadlier-form-of-TB-hitsIndia/articleshow/11396410.cms
Tuberculosis, which kills around 1,000 people a day in India, has acquired a deadlier edge. A new
entityominously called Totally Drug-Resistant TB (TDR-TB )has been isolated in the fluid
samples of 12 TB patients in the past three months alone at Hinduja Hospital at Mahim . The
hospital's laboratory has been certified by the World Health Organization (WHO) to test TB
patients for drug resistance.