Problems and Prospects of Environment Policy -- Indian Perspective

Contents: Acknowledgements. Introduction. Macro Perspectives: 1. Economy-environment linkages: economic growth, quality of environment and sustainability/Sheetal Verma. 2. The role of economic instruments in prevention and control of industrial pollution in India: scope, design and implementation/U. Sankar. 3. Environment, development and the role of technology/B. Sudhakara Reddy. 4. How are environment, human development and economic growth related in India? A cross-state analysis/Sacchidananda Mukherjee and Debashis Chakraborty. 5. Nutrient mismanagement and degradation of soil: some implications on deceleration of foodgrain production in India/Pradip Kumar Biswas. 6. Climate change response: equity or nothing/C.E. Karunakaran. 7. Linkage between biodiversity and cultural diversity: an exploratory analysis/M.S. Bhatt and A.K.M. Nazrul Islam. 8. Marginalised People and National Environment Policy, 2006/Archana Prasad. 9. Legal Parameters of National Environment Policy, 2006/Furqan Ahmad. 10. Regulatory regime governing biodiversity in India: a critical assessment/Ketan Mukhija and Yugank Goel. 11. Small grants programme make a big difference: micro level evidence across the country/Probhjit Sodhi. Sectoral Perspectives: 12. Sustainable development aspects of the Doha round: implications for developing countries/Naushad Ali Azad. 13. Corporate governance, environmental record and market valuation of companies/Shahid Ashraf. 14. The emerging issue of electronic waste in India/Asheref Illiyan. Micro Perspectives: 15. Industrial effluent and rivers: lessons from Noyyal River Basin in Tamil Nadu in the light of National Environmental Policy, 2006/K. Govindrajalu. 16. Export earning industries vs environmental sustainability: the case of Tirupur Knitwear industries in Tamil Nadu, 1980-2005/Velayutham Saravanan. 17. The causality between environmental degradation and poverty: a case study of Delhi/Deepti Tandon. 18. Economic loss due to displaced monkeys: results from a pilot survey/A.K.M. Nazrul Islam, Salma Sultan and Bazlur Rahman Khan. 19. Socio-economic and environmental aspects of migration: a case study of Cuttack Slum Dwellers/T.A. Baig and M.A. Baig. 20. Pricing of potable drinking water in Delhi: a contingent valuation approach/Farhan Ahmed. 21. Consumption of public water for domestic use: micro level evidence from North Delhi/Sapna Kaul. 22. A black sport on God\'s own country: hazards of sand mining and lessons from the state\'s environmental movements/Suhaib Ismail Mohammed.

India is committed to making a tangible contribution to the global efforts to reduce trade-off between the existing pattern of growth and the quality of environment. Our constitution imparts seminal importance to a clean environment. A number of acts has been enacted and policies have been formulated in response to these constitutional mandates. Institutional structures have been put in place. Budgetary allocation has registered a marked increase. Civil society\'s involvement in protecting the quality of environment has also grown exponentially over the years. Courts have pronounced some landmark judgements as a result of public interest litigations. Green movements have also become more organized and broad based. All these developments have indeed raised the level of awareness about the gravity of the situation and yielded positive results.

Be that as it may, the present state of environmental health in our country is far from satisfactory. The existing legal-cum-policy framework has proved to be exceedingly inadequate and, in many cases, ineffective. Against this background, the National Environmental Policy-2006 (NEP) assumes historical significance. It attempts to highlight the challenges posed by the degradation of the quality of environment at all levels and proposes policy frameworks and guidelines. Regardless of its novel and encouraging features, the NEP has several weaknesses. Despite these, it can still yield dividends, provided effective and appropriate implementation mechanisms are accorded timely and desired attention. Its litmus test lies in its implementation. This obviously calls for informed debates on the various aspect of the NEP. The present book attempts to delineate the agenda for this debate. It is expected to prove a useful addition to the received literature on environment and environment policies an serve as benign guide to the effective implementation of NEP." (jacket)