Environment Natural Resources and the Indian Economy

Contents: Introduction. 1. Micro foundations of measuring green GDP/M.N. Murty. 2. Environment globalization, trade and sustainability/Sarmila Banerjee. 3. Green outcomes of rural development programmes in India/P.P. Mitra, N.K. Sahu, Mahipal and Mukesh Kumar. 4. Sodic reclamation and economic sustainability/Sanatan Nayak. 5. An economic analysis of cutting edge technology in rice cultivation/Surajit Haldar, Honnaiah, Sowmyashree B.V. and Abhiram Dash. 6. Understanding organic farming: potential and constraints/Jeeban Jyoti Mohanty. 7. Climate change vulnerability and livelihood sustainability in coastal regions of India/Sibananda Senapati and Vijaya Gupta. 8. Community participation in common property resource management/Suman Devi and Nihar Ranjan Mishra. 9. Joint forest management and sustainable rural livelihoods/Raghunath Sahoo and Mamata Swain. 10. Management of non-timber forest produce/K.A. Mohammed Noushad. 11. Managing surface water resources/Ashok Kumar Maurya. 12. Impact of foreign aid on environmental quality in India/Kalpana Sahoo and Narayan Sethi. Index.

Environmental pollution is one of the major problems faced by the world community, especially in the cities of the developing countries which have experienced unbridled growth of population, urbanization and industrialisation.

Soil, forests, mines, water, air and other natural resources are productive assets of an economy. These natural and environmental resources are the basis of all economic activities. Economic activities, in turn, affect the quantity and quality of natural and environmental resources. Mining, lumbering, manufacturing, fishing and a host of other economic activities change the stock of natural resources which calls for appropriate trade-off between the needs of the present and future generations.

India is the second most populous and seventh largest country in the world. Geographically, it accounts for a meagre 2. 4 percent of the worlds total surface area but supports and sustains a whopping 16. 7 percent of the world population.

Environmental problems in India can be classified into two broad categories: (A) Those arising from conditions of poverty and under-development and (B) Those arising as negative effects of the very process of development.

The present volume contains 12 research papers-authored by experts in the field of environmental economics-which provide deep insights into the linkages between development and environment and suggest remedial measures for environmentally sustainable economic policies. (jacket)