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Across the world, Green Economy concept has been gaining ground and India is no exception. Green Economy is a development strategy which harmonises both economic development and ecological sustainability. Stated objectives of environment-friendly sustainable measures have, so far, largely not been met in developing countries due to overpowering need of basic development priorities, lack of fund flow from the developed world for mitigation and adaptation purposes, etc. India is facing the problem of co-existence of the conventional economic growth strategy and piecemeal efforts to make the economy ready to mitigate and adapt to the climate change issues. The present paper found that the existing production and consumption system can not make the development a really sustained and sustainable one. Adopting the multi-dimensional Green concept is going to have ripple effects on employment, trade, agriculture, domestic industries, business pattern, which, accordingly, require extensive fiscal reforms, vigilance on changing international trade relations and trade patterns, skill development, indigenous research and development for resource efficiency, political stewardship, public awareness, etc. Judicious inclusion of sustainability factor into the ongoing economic decisions for boosting infrastructure and manufacturing can set things rolling for putting the Indian economy on the Green Economy path. The paper is a descriptive analysis based on the available facts and figures, dotted with comparisons with other emerging countries to highlight the present status of India. While acknowledging the importance of development of strategies to adopt the principles of Green Economy in tune with stage of economic development, the paper points out the critical gaps and problems faced by India as well as their possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green finance is a core part of the low carbon green growth, because it connects the financial industry, environmental improvement and economic growth. The objective of this paper is to study the green finance and to validate the concept as feasible in the Indian industries for balancing the ecological depreciation due to the assimilation of carbon gases in atmosphere. Green Finance is a market-based investing or lending program that factors environmental impact into risk assessment, or utilizing environmental incentives to drive business decisions. Therefore, the paper also discusses the recent trends and the future opportunities and challenges in green finance in the emerging India. Green investing recognizes the value of the environment and its natural capital and also seeks to improve the human well-being and social equity while reducing environmental risks and improving the ecological integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between financial development indicators and human development in India using annual data from 1980-2012. Design/methodology/approach -- The Ng-Perron unit root test is used to check for the order of integration of the variables. The long run relationship and short run dynamics are examined by implementing the ARDL bounds testing approach to co-integration. Granger's non-causality test and variance decomposition techniques are also used to examine the impact of financial development indicators on human development. Findings -- The results confirm a long run relationship among the variables. The results of granger non causality indicate that unidirectional causality runs from financial development indicators to human development index (HDI). The variance decomposition analysis shows that among all the financial indicators, broad money supply (M3) has the largest contribution to changes in human development in India. Research limitations/implications -- The present study recommends for appropriate reforms in financial market to attain sustainable human development in India. The findings will be useful for India's policy makers, in order to maintain the parallel expansion of financial development and human development. Originality/value -- This paper is first of its kind to empirically examine the casual relationship between financial development indicators and human capital development proxied by HDI in India by using modern econometric techniques. Paper type Research paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism and travel industry is the world's largest industry which helps in bridging the gap amongst communities, religions and different cultures. People throughout the world along with their customs play a significant role to foster peace. Tourism provides an effective tool for promoting peace which in turn leads to cross-cultural interaction resulting in tolerance, national integration, compassion, goodwill, educational standards, justice and mutual respect for each other. The relationship between peace and tourism is very interesting because both are complimentary to each other; tourism can be essential force for peace and alternatively tourism needs peace for its expansion and prosperity. The tourism could further bring desired level of closeness among the people and may go a long way in creating peaceful environment. Tourism doesn't involve any borders or hatred and offers positive experiences to the tourists. The purpose of the study is to explore the community's participation regarding tourism development across the countries which could play significant role in destination development along with inducing peace perspectives across the nations. The growth of tourism industry can have significant impact on the overall growth of a region, reason being, its capability to generate employment and trade. Tourists are conflict sensitive and response positively to peace. This paper will study the local community participation towards sustainable tourism development in India in general and Jammu in particular for building peace in region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public private partnerships (PPPs) allow the Indian Government to leverage private capital for meeting the widening demand-supply gap in the provision of infrastructure services. The private sector, however, prefers to limit the participation to financially attractive projects only, thereby resulting in patterns of infrastructure creation impeding the progress towards sustainable development. In order to promote sustainable development, the PPP procurement process should focus on incentivising the private sector for sustainable infrastructure development rather than concentrating on ensuring financial sustainability only. This paper discusses the principles-based PPP-specific framework that has been developed to facilitate assessment of PPP projects' progress towards sustainable development. The framework development was based on a holistic approach to sustainability assessment and subsequently validated through questionnaire survey with key stakeholders in the Indian PPP programme. This framework will provide the decision makers with appropriate decision aid for integration of sustainable development principles in the PPP procurement process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial Inclusion is the access of financial services to the masses at an affordable cost. Its purpose is to include everyone in the financial spectrum, particularly the vulnerable sections and to empower them economically and socially, thus ensuring inclusive growth and sustainable development. To study the status of financial inclusion in India, this paper makes an attempt to analyse the initiatives taken to promote financial inclusion viz. Bank Branches and ATMs, No-frill Accounts, Micro Finance, Branchless Banking through Technology and Financial Literacy. The results reveal that penetration and access of financial services has increased across India in recent years. Few measures like Financial Education, Economic Viability, Sustainability of SHGs and No-frill Accounts, Lead Banking Scheme, Product Development and Protection have been suggested to expand the magnitude of financial inclusion in order to achieve inclusive growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Guwahati in north-east India falls under seismic zone V and is located in Assam gap of Himalaya. It has historically witnessed devastating earthquakes up to 8.7 on the Richter scale in 1897 and 1950. Unplanned rapid urbanization has increased its seismic vulnerability of life and property. This paper attempts to develop a ward-level hazard map of the city through systematic vulnerability analyses of the hazard by overlapping the ward map and the earthquake hazard microzonation map. Out of total 31 wards, five wards with highest density of population and taller buildings were taken as the most vulnerable areas and were selected for this study. These buildings have reinforced cement concrete framed structure but with various options of roof. A structured survey was carried out with Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) for existing building stock. Total100 buildings were randomly selected from the sample of residential, commercial, industrial, religious and mixed use buildings from municipal tax record. The buildings were categorized in terms of nine major vulnerability parameters based on Indian references. They were customized and graded as per US FEMA guideline which is more comprehensive in dealing with other building structures such as masonry or lightweight timber structures. Buildings under survey were scored and ranked based on their seismic vulnerability. Though the preliminary scoring passed (score>0.3) all buildings, but further refinement is needed to infer precisely. The result is helpful in formulating local level policy making to prioritize the building stock for appropriate remedial measures. The study also complements the earthquake resistant building codes and guidelinesof India developed for the new building construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the association between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality in Indian cities, as these are the two predominant constituents of inequality in Indian socio-economic scenario. This study uses a bivariate cointegration based error correction model for assessing the causal association between the two inequality parameters, which are derived by using Theil's second measure. Given the sustainable development objective set by the government of India, interaction between these two parameters may prove out to be significant for achievement of this objective. It has been hypothesized that nature of this interaction varies largely based on the nature of the cities, i.e. semi-urban, urban, and metropolitan. The analysis has been done on the full and segregated dataset to visualize how the interaction changes with the nature of the cities. For analysis purpose, data for 139 Indian cities for the period of 2001-2013 have been selected. From the data of income, population, and energy consumption, two parameters of this study have been designed by using Theil's second measure. The analysis starts with checking the cross sectional dependence for both of the parameters. Subsequently, the stationarity of the data has been checked by using first generation unit root tests. Then, by employing the cointegration and error correction framework, the long run causal association has been assessed. For checking the short run causal association, Granger causality method has been applied. The data for this study have been collected form Ministry of Power, Govt. of India, Central Statistical Organization, India, and Census, India. Major findings of this study are, (a) for both the parameters and three segments, cross sections are independent, (b) the parameters are stationary at first difference, (c) there is long run cointegration relationship between them, and (d) the causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional for the case of semi-urban cities, and it is bidirectional for the case of metropolitan and urban cities. For full dataset, causal link between inequality in energy intensity and social inequality is unidirectional. The Theil indices calculated for both the parameters show the trends of rising inequality for all the cities taken together. However, no significant trend was visualized for the individual strata of cities, for both of the parameters under consideration. This study summarizes that the economic growth achieved by India is not sustainable in nature. It can be achieved only by considering an inclusive growth framework, where social development will complement the growth objectives. Therefore, the fossil-fuel based economic growth agenda needs reconsideration, viewing the social dimensions of the cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: India is facing great challenges in its economic development due to the impact on climate change. Energy is the important driver of economy. At present Indian energy sector is dominated by fossil fuel. Due to international pressure for green house gas reduction in atmosphere there is a need of clean energy supply for energy security and sustainable development. The nuclear energy is a sustainable solution in this context to overcome the environmental problem due to fossil fuel electricity generation. This paper examines the implications of penetration of nuclear energy in Indian power sector. Four scenarios, including base case scenario, have been developed using MARKAL energy modeling software for Indian power sector. The least-cost solution of energy mix has been measured. The result shows that more than 50% of the electricity market will be captured by nuclear energy in the year 2045. This ambitious goal can be expected to be achieved due to Indo-US nuclear deal. The advanced nuclear energy with conservation potential scenario shows that huge amounts of CO2 can be reduced in the year 2045 with respect to the business as usual scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the sustainability implications of post-disaster measures in the context of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami by presenting an analysis of the current situations and changes in some of the affected regions. Sustainability implications of measures are captured by investigating the persistence of the social and economic living conditions in relation to post-disaster measures, and the alignment of the measures with basic environmental aspects. Based on major concepts relevant in disaster science and sustainability research, the study explored sustainability aspects of post-disaster measures implemented after the 2004 tsunami, by conducting selected interviews among the participants of the 2015 international seminar ''11 Years after the Indian Ocean Tsunami 2004'' and a broader online survey. Information was sought about (1) the current state of vulnerability of the local population in the regions affected; (2) the main lessons that have been identified to improve project design and management of recovery and vulnerability reduction; and (3) project sustainability implications with respect to the state of today's vulnerability. Based on the analysis of the information on these three priority areas, selected tasks for future disaster risk management are identified, such as more integrative planning and improved coordination with international organizations and local people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Financial inclusion has become one of the most critical aspects in the context of inclusive growth and sustainable development in developing countries like India. Financial inclusion is a process of ensuring access to suitable financial products and services needed by susceptible groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost in a fair and transparent manner by mainstream financial institutional players. Despite impressive economic growth over the last two decades, many countries in the world are experiencing inequalities leading to adverse consequences for social cohesion which in turn, could dampen growth prospects. Therefore, financial inclusion has emerged as an important topic on the global agenda for sustainable long-term economic growth. The present study is an attempt to assess the role of post offices in financial inclusion and economic development in the Jammu division of Jammu & Kashmir State. Both primary and secondary data were used for conducting the study. For primary data, 1050 questionnaire were distributed among customers of post offices of Jammu division and secondary data were collected using Internet, journals, and post offices. The most important aspect of financial inclusion is financial literacy but it was found that there is lack of awareness among rural masses about various schemes of financial inclusion. The study is limited to the perception of post office customers only and could be carried further on the perception of other stakeholders such as post office officials and business correspondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the development planning approach of intellectual Sukhamoy Chakravarty of India, which aims to integrate economic growth with social justice and ecological sustainability. It outlines Chakravarty's approach to planning theory and the major lessons he learned from his policy-related work in the country's Planning Commission. It discusses his views and perceptions concerning economic progress, agriculture-led growth and the main barriers to Indian growth. Moreover, the article analyzes whether Chakravarty's approach to development planning is still relevant despite changes in various aspects of the nation.

Focuses on the returns to public investments in the less-favored areas of India and China. Factors challenging the rationale for neglecting less-favored areas; Measuring the effects of public investment on rural poverty; Size of the potential trade-offs between investing in high and low-potential areas.

This article examines the concept of sustainable development based on the economic and social situation in Kerala, India. Criteria for sustainability should include not only environmental stability and improvement, but social, political and economic justice, improvement in the quality of life of vulnerable sections of the population at low cost, and an improvement in the overall status of women. Though Kerala has a low throughput, the indicators of social progress have not suffered because of sustained efforts to limit population growth rate and social inequality, and to conserve resources frugally and use them on a shared basis. The test of practicing sustainable development should be based upon a society's ability to maintain and further improve upon the quality of life of its citizens by living within its own resource means. It is thus still debatable whether Kerala has entered a mature stage of self-sustaining development. It can only be hoped that the political leadership and the policy makers concerned will continue to implement policies to take it to the mature stage.