ABSTRACT
Reforms the world over are part of human evolution for welfare. At every stage in the history of reforms, ‘sustainability’ of human welfare has been the main criterion, constantly mentioned and deliberated. But in the most recent period mankind has added environmental and ecological concerns as a warning to push the idea of development and sustainable development further. Driven by a severe balance of payments crisis by the end of the 1990s, India embarked on a path of economic liberalization and carried out a series of reforms as part of the structural adjustment programme. These reforms have been successful and India has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies of the world. The objective of this chapter is to look into whether the reforms have succeeded in attaining environmental sustainability, which is one of the major development policy challenges for the country. The chapter looks into the trends in the macro and microlevel economic indicators that measure the well-being of the people and assesses the impact of these economic indicators on the environment. We also looked into the environmental policy regime of the country currently in place for environmental sustainability. At the time India liberalized, the pulse of the economy was different with more emphasis on economic development. Obviously, the significant positive impacts generated by economic reforms should not distract us from the fact that India remains heavily polluted.
