Sustainability of development

Detail

1. Why sustainability matters

• Sustainability of development means that today's level of development can be kept up, or raised, for future generations. Development should not use up the resources those generations will need.
• Even a developed country wants its level of development at least maintained in the future. Being rich today is not enough.
• Since the second half of the 20th century, scientists have warned that the present types and levels of development are not sustainable.
• NCERT's key line: "We have not inherited the world from our forefathers — we have borrowed it from our children."

• This means the present generation only holds the earth for a while. It must return it to future generations without damage.

• Gandhi (Class 10, Exercise 10): "The Earth has enough resources to meet the needs of all but not enough to satisfy the greed of even one person."

• Lesson: development should meet needs, not greed. Unlimited consumption breaks sustainability.

2. Two kinds of resources

Feature	Renewable resource	Non-renewable resource
Meaning	Nature replenishes (refills) it	A fixed stock that nature cannot refill within human time
Examples	Groundwater, crops, forests	Crude oil, coal, natural gas
How it becomes unsustainable	Overuse: we take out more than nature puts back (for groundwater, more than recharge by rain)	Every unit used is gone for good. The stock will run out one day
Effect of new discoveries	Not relevant	They add to the stock but only postpone the day it runs out

• Trap: "renewable" does not mean "cannot run out". Groundwater is renewable, but it can still be overused.

3. Example 1: Groundwater, a renewable resource that is being overused

NCERT data (Class 10)

• About 300 districts saw water levels fall by more than 4 metres over 20 years.
• Nearly one-third of the country overuses groundwater. If use continues at this rate, 60% of the country will be overusing it within 25 years.
• Hotspots:
• Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh: rich farming areas with heavy use of tube-wells for irrigation.
• Hard-rock plateaus of central and south India: the rock holds little water, so recharge is low.
• Some coastal areas: when too much fresh water is pumped out, seawater enters the aquifer (seawater intrusion).
• Fast-growing cities: demand from homes and industry rises quickly.

How the government measures it: the CGWB Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment

• The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) carries out this assessment jointly with the States and UTs [2].
• Stage of Groundwater Extraction (SoE): the share of the usable yearly groundwater that is actually pumped out.
• Formula: SoE (%) = (Annual groundwater extraction for all uses ÷ Annual extractable groundwater resource) × 100. "All uses" means irrigation, industry and homes [3].

• Worked example (2024 data): extraction 245.64 BCM ÷ extractable resource 406.19 BCM × 100 = 60.47% [2]. (BCM = billion cubic metres.)

• How assessment units are classified by SoE [3]:

SoE	Category
Below 70%	Safe
70–90%	Semi-critical
90–100%	Critical
Above 100%	Over-exploited: more water is pumped out than rain puts back each year

• 2024 assessment [2]:
• Total annual recharge 446.90 BCM. Annual extractable resource 406.19 BCM. Annual extraction 245.64 BCM.
• National SoE 60.47%.
• There were 6,746 assessment units (blocks, mandals or talukas):
  • 4,951 (73.4%) Safe
  • 711 (10.5%) Semi-critical
  • 206 (3.05%) Critical
  • 751 (11.1%) Over-exploited

• Over-exploited units fell from 17.24% (2017) to 11.13% (2024).

• 2025 assessment [3]:

• National SoE 60.63%.

• 730 of 6,762 units (10.80%) are Over-exploited.

• Reading the data next to NCERT: the share of over-exploited units is about 11% (2024–25) [2][3]. (NCERT: "nearly one-third of the country overuses groundwater", which is a wider measure of overuse.) The national average hides a lot: some districts have an SoE far above 100%, even though the national figure is about 60%.

4. Example 2: Crude oil, a non-renewable resource

Class 10 Table 1.7 (how long reserves will last)

Region	Reserves (thousand million barrels)	Years the reserves will last at current extraction
Middle East	836	70
USA	69	10.5
World	1,732	~47

• Reserves-to-production (R/P) ratio: the number of years a stock will last if extraction stays at today's rate.
• Formula: R/P (years) = Proven reserves ÷ Annual production.
• Worked example: World: 1,732 ÷ 47 ≈ 36.9 thousand million barrels produced a year. USA: 69 ÷ 10.5 ≈ 6.6 thousand million barrels a year. The USA pumps hard from a small stock, so its oil runs out much sooner.

• If a new field is found, reserves rise and the R/P ratio goes up. The stock is still finite, so exhaustion is only postponed.

• NCERT inconsistency (watch for this): the table says "Reserves (2017)" but gives the 2024 Statistical Review of World Energy as its source. The text says oil will last "50 years", while the table says ~47.

• Why this matters for India, an import-dependent country:
• India imports 85% of its crude oil requirement. Its top suppliers are Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia [4]. (NCERT scaffold: 85–88%.)
• Domestic crude production fell at a CAGR of −2.67% (2014–2023). Net crude imports rose at a CAGR of 2.39% over the same period [4]. CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is the average yearly growth rate over a period.

• Chain of effects when world oil prices rise:

  • India's import bill rises → the current account deficit widens. (CAD: the amount by which a country's payments to the world for imports and similar items exceed what it earns from exports and similar items.)
  • Fuel and transport become costlier → inflation rises across the economy.
  • Pressure on the rupee grows → imports become even costlier.

• Geopolitics: countries with low reserves, such as the USA, try to secure oil through military or economic power.

5. Environmental degradation crosses borders

• Environmental degradation does not respect national or state boundaries. Air pollution, falling water tables in shared aquifers and climate change affect everyone.
• So our future is linked together. One country cannot become sustainable on its own.
• Sustainability is a new field of study. It brings together scientists, economists, philosophers and social scientists.

6. Bringing sustainability into the HDI: the Planetary pressures-adjusted HDI (PHDI)

• Introduced in: Human Development Report 2020, "The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene". This was the 30th-anniversary edition of the HDR, released by UNDP on 15 December 2020 [5].

• Anthropocene: the present age, in which human activity is the main force changing the earth's climate and ecosystems.

• What it adjusts for: the ordinary HDI (health, education, standard of living) is adjusted for two things [5]:

• Per-capita CO₂ emissions: carbon dioxide released per person.

• Per-capita material footprint: the total raw materials (such as biomass, fossil fuels, metals and minerals) extracted worldwide to meet one person's consumption.

• Formula: PHDI = HDI × (1 − index of planetary pressures). The planetary-pressures index is the average of the CO₂ index and the material-footprint index.

• If a country puts zero pressure on the planet, then PHDI = HDI. As pressure rises, the PHDI falls further below the HDI.

• Worked example:

• Country A: HDI 0.950, pressure index 0.25 → PHDI = 0.950 × 0.75 = 0.713. It loses about 25%.
• Country B: HDI 0.650, pressure index 0.05 → PHDI = 0.650 × 0.95 = 0.618. It loses only 5%.

• The gap between the two countries shrinks from 0.300 to 0.095.

• Results:

• Very-high-HDI countries fall the most. High consumption means high emissions and heavy material use. Some, such as Norway, drop many places.

• Lower-HDI countries with small footprints lose little.

• Lesson: a lot of today's high human development has been bought with unsustainable pressure on the planet. The PHDI gives "a less rosy but clearer assessment of human progress" [5].

• Cross-reference: the Brundtland definition, the SDGs and climate economics are covered in environment-sustainable-development.

Prelims Hooks

• Renewable ≠ inexhaustible: groundwater is a renewable resource, but it can be overused when extraction is greater than recharge by rain.
• Non-renewable resource: a fixed stock. New discoveries only postpone exhaustion. They do not prevent it.
• Stage of Groundwater Extraction = annual extraction ÷ annual extractable resource × 100. Categories: Safe <70%, Semi-critical 70–90%, Critical 90–100%, Over-exploited >100% [3].
• National SoE: 60.47% (2024) [2] and 60.63% (2025) [3]. Over-exploited units: 751 (11.1%) in 2024 [2] and 730 of 6,762 (10.80%) in 2025 [3].
• The Dynamic Ground Water Resources assessment is done jointly by CGWB and States/UTs, not by NITI Aayog [2].
• R/P ratio = reserves ÷ annual production. NCERT Table 1.7: World ~47 years, Middle East 70, USA 10.5. Note the trap: the NCERT text says 50 years.
• India imports ~85% of its crude oil requirement [4].
• PHDI was introduced in HDR 2020, "The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene" [5]. It adjusts the HDI for per-capita CO₂ emissions and per-capita material footprint, not for inequality. (Inequality is adjusted in the IHDI.)
• PHDI = HDI × (1 − planetary-pressures index). With zero pressure, PHDI = HDI. Very-high-HDI countries such as Norway fall the most.
• The quote "…enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed" is from Gandhi. "Borrowed it from our children" is the line NCERT uses for sustainability.

Mains Points

• Groundwater as a sustainability and governance challenge (GS-III): the national SoE is only about 60% (2025), yet 730 units are over-exploited [3]. Punjab and western UP are hotspots because free or cheap farm power and MSP-driven paddy–wheat cropping encourage heavy pumping. Possible fixes: pricing and metering of power, crop diversification, artificial recharge and community aquifer management. Improvement from 17.24% to 11.13% over-exploited units (2017–2024) shows that policy can work [2].
• Energy security vs sustainability: 85% import dependence [4] and falling domestic output (−2.67% CAGR, 2014–23) [4] leave India exposed to oil-price shocks through the CAD, inflation and the rupee. Moving to renewables, biofuels (ethanol blending) and electric mobility serves both goals: sustainability and macroeconomic stability.
• Why GDP and HDI are incomplete: both ignore the loss of natural capital. The PHDI shows that rich-country development is often bought with planetary overshoot [5]. This supports India's position in climate talks on Common But Differentiated Responsibilities and climate justice, and supports green national accounts in India.
• Development as a shared, inter-generational duty: degradation crosses borders, so sustainability needs cooperation across states and countries (river basins, shared aquifers, climate). Gandhi's need vs greed idea and India's LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) approach both ask for limits on consumption, not just technical fixes.