Handbook of Environmental Economics in India

Contents: Preface. I. Overview and evolving theoretical approaches: 1. Overview: Environmental and resource economics in India/Kanchan Chopra and Vikram Dayal. 2. Environmental and resource economics: some recent developments/Partha Dasgupta and Karl-Goran Maler. II. Environmental resources and developmental concerns: land and water: 3. Rights to land and water, and watershed development/Amita Shah. 4. India's groundwater irrigation economy : the challenge of balancing livelihoods and environment/Tushaar Shah. III. Accounting and valuation: 5. Recent developments in natural resource accounting in India/Vikram Dayal. 6. Valuation of ecosystem services: methodologies, illustrations, and use/Purnamita Dasgupta. IV. Energy and industry: 7. High economic growth, equity, and sustainable energy development/Ramprasad Sengupta. 8. Water and air pollution abatement: an assessment of strategies/M.N. Murty. V. International concerns: 9. Trade, environment, and natural resources: a developing country perspective/Meeta Keswani Mehra. 10. Climate change: international negotiations and mitigation policy/Joyashree Roy. 11. Climate change: negotiations and adaptation policy/K.S. Kavikumar. VI. Interdisciplinary issues: 12. Reflections on interdisciplinarity in environmental economics in India/Sharachchandra Lele.

"The need to balance high economic growth, expanding consumption levels, and population growth with environmentally sustainable development is increasingly considered important. Capturing the different trends that have emerged over the last two decades in environmental and resource economics, this handbook presents a mix of theoretical, historical, evolutionary, and theme-based perspectives.

Combining empirical literature with innovative methods, the handbook deals with a diverse range of topics:

• The origins and ongoing theoretical developments in this relatively new field of study in economics.
• Development concerns related to use of environmental resources, particularly land and water.
• Development of a holistic system of environmental and resource valuation and accounting.
• The environment-energy-economy interaction in the Indian context and the use of econometrics in measuring the impact of pollutants and energy consumption on societal welfare.
• International concerns such as the effects of trade liberalization and climate change, from the perspective of a developing country.
• The achievements and travails of environmental economists in India, and the future of interdisciplinary research in this field.
• Comprehensive and lucid, the handbook will be useful for students and researchers of environmental economics, development economists, policymakers, urban planners, NGOs, and development agencies." (jacket)