Monitoring Sustainability: Indices and Techniques of Analysis

Turning the concept of sustainability into policy raises fundamental questions about how to assess the well-being of present and future generations. The issue becomes more complex as future generations will inherit negative legacies like pollution, and resource depletion, as well as the wealth of knowledge, technology, skills and capital which we bequeath to them. This calls for measures sensitive enough to capture the fragile balance between development and sustainable development. However, the main problem in assessing sustainability lies in the fact that there are no specific norms or values against which the level of sustainable development of a region can be measured. Nevertheless, comparative indices could serve as benchmarks for monitoring the trends within economic and environmental dimensions. The present study is an attempt at developing indicators of sustainability, compressing them into indices and applying these indices to assess the sustainability of development at various levels of the Indian economy. The levels assessed include the country level, both in terms of international comparisons and changes in the country's development path overtime, sub-country levels views state and district economies, and at the micro level of a hill resort town and a group of mountain villages.