Sustainable development across the globe is the only course to a peaceful future for the coming generations. The current severe rise in temperatures in France and other European countries bear witness to the climate change and its impact that the future holds. Health issues and life style related diseases are on the rise amidst increasing life expectancy. Grave inequalities still engulf the globe in various forms. Biodiversity degradation is also extensive. Discussions and planned initiatives for sustainable development becomes liminal in this context. This book offers for the readers discussions on a multitude of interrelated concerns with contributions on issues ranging from internal security to environment management and emerging scenario surrounding the domain of sustainable development.
The book will be of interest to South Asian studies departments across the globe looking at how India/South Asia are tackling sustainable development and related growth challenges. Sustainable development is an emerging interdisciplinary field with international appeal as many of these problems are trans-boundary in nature - global climate change, greenhouse gas, for example. International organizations and institutes working in this field and in India including United Nations, World Resources Institute, World Wide Fund for nature, and International Institute for Sustainable Development and others will be interested in this volume
This volume is a collection of essays that provide a comprehensive coverage of multiple aspects of the discourse on environment, development and sustainability. It is designed to bring in a host of perspectives highlighting the synergies and the trade-offs in this debate, showcasing research along with policy implications of putting research into use. The global discussion on sustainability paints the broad canvas for this book. This volume aims to probe some contemporary issues that will help in understanding the sustainability narrative in India. The topics span over a host of questions on energy, environment, natural resources and related constituents of development. The discourse further extends to the role of economic modelling, public policy debates, political intervention, stakeholders’ response, community participation and so on. The discussions are often based on empirical support, review of existing literature as well as policy analysis. With an ultimate aim to understand the overall development narrative of the people of India, the discourse takes in its ambit the nuances of resource utilisation, economic growth, COVID-19 impacts, competitiveness and market structures, urbanization, sectoral reforms, environmental hazards, climate change, pollution, natural resource accounting and management to name a few. The book is divided into four sections, namely, The Big Picture: Evolving Perspectives; The Energy Scenario: Dilemmas and Opportunities; Sustainability Cross-Cuts: Developmental Aspects and Externality Empirics: Knowledge and Practice. The first section contains commentaries on the overarching themes of economic growth, development and sustainability. It presents some emerging perspectives on the developmental crisis that has emerged through the environmental lens with additional focus on the need for inclusion of creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources to achieve the ambitious SDG targets. The second section brings out the dilemmas and opportunities in the energy sector, that has been a key player in discussions of sustainability, especially for India where significant technological advances in conventional forms of energy supply coexists with fairly low levels of per capita energy consumption and energy security is a key challenge. The section on sustainability crosscuts attempts to highlight the problems and processes of mainstreaming the sustainability question into conventional thinking through the concepts of a circular economy, green accounting techniques, institutional and governance structures, public policy and inclusive growth, amongst others. The last section presents some empirical studies on environmental externalities, the unaccounted environmental effects of economic production and consumption and finally the behavioural aspects of the stakeholders that are crucial in the larger narrative of sustainable development. This edited volume contains contributions of reputed scholars from various Indian universities, research institutions and professionals from outside academia, who are proven experts in their fields. The link between policy, practice, and well-being of the large vulnerable population of India is the major focus of enquiry that will help researchers, practitioners and policy planners in conducting further research in energy, environment, resource and linked areas of development economics. General readers with an active interest in energy, environment, and economic development are also likely to find this book an interesting read, especially in the times of several environmental challenges facing humankind.
India has moved along an impressive growth path over the last decade, marked with falling share of agriculture, stagnating manufacturing, expanding services segment, growing trade orientation, enhanced FDI inflows etc. The consequent growth implications are obvious as far as the numbers like GDP growth rate and Per Capita GDP trend are concerned, but how sustainable the associated development is with respect to resource management and environmental governance? This book captures the economy-wide impacts of various activities on environment in India. The environmental impacts on water, air, soil quality and human health are captured through case studies from different parts of India. Analyzing separately the concern areas within agriculture (cultivation, aquaculture), manufacturing (industrial pollution, power generation), services (waste management, bio-medical waste, e-waste recycling) and external sector (agricultural trade, FDI inflow, trade in waste products) performance of India, the book attempts to find an answer to that crucial question. The methodology adopted to capture the environmental impacts of various economic activities is derived from the relevant branches like environmental economics, agricultural economics, and water resources economics. The book, focusing on particular sectors, indicates the concern areas and possible ways for enhancing environmental governance.
Developing countries are under pressure to produce more food for their growing populations, conserve natural resources, and reduce poverty. In the short term, however, these goals may compete with one another. This book focuses on the interactions between agricultural growth and environment and between environment and poverty. The chapters analyze and illustrate these interactions with case study evidence from the developing world in general and from specific agroclimatic zones in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The contributors also discuss what these links mean for development policies, agricultural technologies, and social and economic institutions. With a clearer picture of how these goals interact, policymakers and researchers can design strategies for working more effectively to meet them.
Developing economies around the world must balance fast growth with traditional values to achieve the greatest success. Issues related to rural innovation, knowledge management, and emerging technologies are at the forefront of every developing country’s concerns. Promoting Socio-Economic Development through Business Integration builds on available literature in the field of socio-economic development in developing countries, providing further research opportunities in this field. Research scholars, academics, policymakers, government officials, and more will find this book to be a crucial source of knowledge to their respective disciplines.
