Banning single-use plastic. Policies announced in haste are an opportunity gone to waste. It was in the course of his Independence Day speech this year that the Prime Minister made a statement that held out much hope for those concerned about the degradation of the environment. “Can we free India from single-use plastic? The time for implementing such an idea has come. May teams be mobilised to work in this direction. Let a significant step be made on October 2nd,” the PM said, leading to widespread speculation that India would take its first decisive step towards being plastic-free on Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.