Current Affairs-Indian Economic Survey-2012-13:India Calls for Additional Finance and Technology for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

India Calls for Additional Finance and Technology for Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

Though multilateral efforts on sustainable development and climate change have led to several positive outcomes, there are still areas of concern where further work is needed to safeguard the interests of developing countries. More importantly, equity, fair burden sharing, and equitable access to global atmospheric resources have to be protected and addressed more adequately. With the 12th Plan’s focus on ‘environmental sustainability’, India is on the right track. However, the challenge for India is to make the key drivers and enablers of growth-be it infrastructure, the transportation sector, housing, or sustainable agriculture-grow sustainably. This leads us to the most vital issue of raising additional resources for meeting the need of economic growth with greater environmental sustainability. India could do much more if new and additional finance and technology were made available through the multilateral processes. There is a case for greater cooperation, action, and innovation, provision of finance and technology for developing countries and institutions and mechanism for capacity building. 

Sustainable development and climate change was introduced as a chapter in the Economic Survey last year for the first time. These topics remained headline news with extreme weather events both at home and abroad. Efforts to arrive at a consensus on what to do at home and abroad gathered momentum, even as they sailed through some rough waters and fickle seas in many respects. 

Along with the national efforts in different sectors, India also recognizes that rural areas are equally prone to stress and pressures from natural resource exploitation. In this context, schemes for rural development and livelihood programmes are very relevant. A vast majority of the works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are linked to land, soil, and water. There are also programmes for non-timber forest produce-based livelihood, promotion of organic and low-chemical agriculture, and increased soil health and fertility to sustain agriculture-based livelihoods. These schemes help mobilize and develop capacities of community institutions to utilize natural resources in a sustainable manner and their potential can be further developed. 

The year 2012 may arguably be considered a high water mark in the field of environment and sustainable development initiative. The global community met at the UN Conference on sustainable development that took place in Rio in June 2012, also marking the 20th Anniversary of the landmark first Earth Summit held in 1992. The Conference reviewed the progress made, identified implementation gaps, and assessed new and emerging challenges, which resulted in a political outcome called the “Future We Want”.