Development and ecological sustainability in India: possibilities for the post-2015 framework
This paper is aimed at policy level discussions, as well as an aid to civil society to push for necessary changes to take Indian economy, society, and polity towards the goal of human well-being with ecological sustainability as one fulcrum. It provides a context of the poverty–development–equity–environment linkages in India, comments on India’s implementation of MDG7, and describes the key conceptual and implementation related gaps in achieving this goal. It then discusses a possible post-2015 framework that combines sustainability and human well-being that could be applied globally, including its key principles. The paper then delineates goals and targets relating to sustainability, including key linkages with other goals and targets, outlines key indicators for these goals/targets, and lists some tools to help measure these indicators. Finally, it outlines some of the major challenges facing the achievement of such a framework, and some following steps that may be taken.