Imperatives of sustainability and India’s development path

For several years, India has been experiencing rapid economic growth and structural changes that are attracting attention of the academia, policy makers and administrators, both at national and global level. An analysis of the recent trends is important in order to understand and evaluate India’s current developments in the context of the goals of equity and sustainability and their implications for future. Unfortunately, much of the current literature is concerned with the dynamics of economic growth and the possibility in maintaining it over the coming decades. Importantly, there has been a significant boost in the growth rate since the early 1990s and particularly after 2003-04. The major focus of the development strategy of the government has been promoting GDP and foreign trade. Now, there are serious apprehensions that the growth rate in GDP and foreign trade may not be able to withstand the global economic crises and encounter a setback, the GDP growth for the year 2011-12 being placed at below 5 per cent only by the International Monetary Fund.