Green Economic Policies: The Way Ahead in Indian Context

Name: G R K Prasad
Designation: Associate Professor
Affiliation: GITAM Hyderabad Business
School, Hyderabad
Email: rkprasad.gutti@gitam.edu
Contact: 9542978515

Abstract

The concept of green economy was first initiated by British Government through the Sustainable
Development Report in 1989 and subsequently became more popular and brought to the
attention of international world during 2008-09 when global economic crisis/recession took
place. Since then ‘green economy’ has been used as economic recovery strategy by the countries
worldwide, focusing on creating green jobs and tackling climate change and creating real
investments. It has become a coin of 21st century for sustainable development as well as for
poverty eradication all over the world. South Korea was the first country to declare itself ‘Low
Carbon Green Growth Country’ in 2008. Later it became an economic approach for India when it
became a party to Rio+20 conventions on Green Economy- Sustainable development and
poverty eradication held during 2011-12.

Research studies have concluded that though there is a remarkable economic growth record by
Indian traditional economy after liberalization, privatization and globalization (LPG) it has also
got clouded by increasing environment risks and growing scarcity of natural resources. LPG has
brought prosperity to the Indian economy on one hand but has increased the gap between rich
and poor. This review paper is based on the descriptive analysis of existing literature on green
economy. The emphasis is on studying the existing framework in terms of legal, regulatory and
institutional provisions to understand ‘where we are’ in terms environmental risks/effects
(different sectors of sustainable development); ‘where we want to be’ in terms of developmental
goals and ‘how we want to reach’ the developmental goals. This paper adds value to the existing
literature on green economy by proposing ways and means to implement green tax,
environmental accounting, green credits as possible initiatives in Indian context that may to be
considered to realize the goals of green economy.

Key words: Green Economy, Green Economic Policies, Green Growth, Green Tax, Green
Credits and Environmental Acounting.