Economic Development and Environmental Degradation: A Study of Indian Situations

The relationship between economic development and environmental degradation is of global concern. For this reason, in the last few years, several studies have tried to capture this problem in an empirical relationship form. Growing evidences of the empirical exercises suggest that as economy develops, natural environmental quality initially decreases before showing an increasing trend. This phenomenon is popularly known as the Environmental Kuznets’ Curve (EKC). Based on the above background, the present work is designed to study the relationship between economic development and environmental degradation for Indian economy. Accordingly, the objectives of the present study is; (i) to look into the level and pattern of economic development and environmental quality in India and the diversities prevailing across the major states of India; (ii) to relate economic development and environmental degradation and draw valid inferences; (iii) to look into the role of major causal factors with special emphasis on the environmental policy affecting the environmental quality; (iv) to draw inferences on some appropriate policy measures for checking environmental degradation.

Dr. Geetilaxmi Mohapatra holds Ph.D. degree in Environmental Economics. She is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at BITS, Pilani, India. She has five years of experience in teaching and research in applied economics. She has authored number of research papers in national and international journals.