Environmental Sustainability and Inclusive Development: Challenges and Opportunities for India

Abstract

Environmental sustainability and inclusive development are frequently treated as separate policy domains in India, yet the evidence increasingly shows that they rise or fall together: environmental degradation imposes its heaviest costs on the poor, and exclusionary growth undermines the social buy-in that environmental protection requires. This review examines the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of these two agendas, drawing on recent national data — including the India State of Forest Report 2023, the NITI Aayog SDG India Index 2023-24, and current renewable-energy and poverty statistics. India's green cover has crossed 25 per cent of its geographical area for the first time, non-fossil power capacity has passed 51 per cent of installed capacity, and multidimensional poverty has fallen from 29.17 per cent to 11.28 per cent over the past decade — evidence of genuine convergence in places. At the same time, air pollution, groundwater depletion, climate-linked disaster risk, and uneven access to clean energy and green livelihoods continue to fall disproportionately on rural, informal, and low-income communities. The review identifies five structural challenges — pollution and health inequity, water and land stress, climate vulnerability, the informal green-livelihoods gap, and governance fragmentation — and five corresponding opportunities, and closes with a research and policy agenda for aligning environmental sustainability with inclusive growth as India advances toward its 2030 and 2047 development milestones.