The question is, what does toilet paper have to do with India's economy?
The demand for tissue paper (in India) is projected to grow at 8.7% per annum (Compound Annual Growth Rate) until 2030, which is higher than both the global and Asian averages.
This is when Indians wash their buttocks instead of wiping them with rough paper.
Have a look at the buttock wiping habits of developed world and its implications on environment:
"The entire developed world uses toilet paper made of 'virgin wood' for the most regular body activity, every single day, multiple times over," says the Economic Survey 2023-2024
Around the world, toilet paper alone consumes 27,000 trees every day, according to Sandra Folzer of the Weavers Way Co-op, a Philadelphia-based cooperative grocery initiative.
This has dire consequences, including the loss of old-growth forests and the release of greenhouse gases.
Perhaps, as the Economic Survey suggests, it's time the West flushed away old habits and wiped clean its approach to sustainability by acknowledging that even the humble toilet paper can roll the world into a greener and sustainable future.
The bottom line is, wash and wipe, don't just wipe.