Development and sustainable development: the evolution of the idea

Detail

What "development" means

• Development means a lasting positive change in a society. NCERT calls it multi-dimensional: it is a positive change that cannot be reversed, and it touches three areas at once:
• the economy (incomes, jobs, output)
• society (health, education, equality)

• the environment (land, water, forests, air)

• Where it comes from: development grows out of the human-environment interaction, meaning how people use and change nature.

• This interaction depends on technology, meaning the tools and skills people use.
• It also depends on institutions, meaning the rules, governments, markets and customs that guide how people act.

• So two regions with the same natural resources can develop very differently. The difference comes from their technology and institutions.

• Growth vs development:

	Growth	Development
Nature	Only quantitative (more output)	Qualitative as well as quantitative (better lives)
Direction	Can be positive or negative	Always a positive change
Reversible?	Yes. It can fall in a recession	Not reversible. It is a lasting change
Measure	GNP, per capita income	Health, education, rights and well-being, along with income

How the meaning changed over time

• After World War II (late 1940s–1960s): development meant economic growth
• GNP (Gross National Product) is the total value of goods and services produced by a country's people in one year, including income they earn abroad.
• Per capita income is the national income divided by the population, so it shows the average income of one person.

• The belief was simple: if GNP rises, the benefits will "trickle down" to everyone.

• 1970s: growth did not remove poverty

• Many countries had high growth, but poverty and inequality also rose.
• So two new phrases were added to the idea of development:
  • "Redistribution with growth": share the gains of growth more fairly, for example through land reform and jobs for the poor.
  • "Growth and equity": equity means fairness, so that every group gets a fair share.

• India link: in this period India's planning moved towards specific regions and groups. The target area and hill area development programmes began in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-79).

• 1980s: development meant all-round well-being

• It came to include wide social and material well-being: health, education, equal opportunity, and political and civil rights.
• This led to the human development approach and the HDI (Human Development Index), which is covered in the human-development note.

Where sustainable development came from

• Late 1960s: people in Western countries started to worry about pollution, resources running out and population growth.
• Two key books:

Book	Author	Year	Main warning
The Population Bomb	Paul Ehrlich	1968	Fast population growth would cause famine and environmental damage
The Limits to Growth	Meadows et al., for the Club of Rome	1972	Endless growth in population, industry and resource use cannot last on a planet with limited resources

• Club of Rome: an international group of thinkers set up to study global problems. It ordered the Limits to Growth study.

The Brundtland Report (1987)

• The UN set up the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED).
• It was headed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, Prime Minister of Norway, so it is often called the Brundtland Commission.
• Its report, Our Common Future (1987), gave the most widely used definition:
• Sustainable development is development "that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

• In simple words: use resources today in a way that still leaves enough for our children and grandchildren.

• Three pillars (NCERT Fig. 6.3): sustainable development joins three kinds of sustainability around humankind's common future:

• Ecological sustainability: protect forests, water, soil, biodiversity and the climate.
• Social sustainability: fairness, health and education, and people taking part in decisions.

• Economic sustainability: steady incomes and jobs that do not use up natural capital.

• Development is sustainable only where all three overlap.

Global milestones (beyond NCERT)

Year	Event	Key outcome
1972	UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm (Sweden), 5-16 June	Stockholm Declaration and Action Plan; created UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme), the first UN programme to deal only with the environment [3][4]
1987	WCED report Our Common Future	Gave the standard definition of sustainable development
1992	Earth Summit, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)	Adopted Agenda 21, a global action plan for sustainable development in the 21st century. Also adopted the Rio Declaration (27 principles) and the Forest Principles, and opened the UNFCCC and CBD for signature. 172 governments took part [3][4]
2000	UN Millennium Summit	8 MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) to reduce extreme poverty by 2015 [4]
2002	World Summit, Johannesburg	A new plan of action to put sustainable development into practice [3]
2012	Rio+20	Set up the UN Environment Assembly, the world's top decision-making body on the environment [3]
2015	UN Sustainable Development Summit, September	2030 Agenda with 17 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and 169 targets [4][5]

• Agenda 21 is a non-binding global plan. It asks national and local governments to build environmental care into development. Local Agenda 21 applies the same idea at city and district level. It is linked to resources-development-planning.
• MDGs vs SDGs: the MDGs (8 goals) were mainly for developing countries. The SDGs (17 goals) apply to all countries and give equal weight to the economy, society and the environment.

SDG India Index (NITI Aayog)

• SDG India Index: a composite score from 0 to 100 that ranks states and UTs on how far they have progressed towards the SDGs. NITI Aayog has published it since 2018. A higher score means the state or UT is closer to the 2030 targets.
• Why it matters: it gets states to compete with one another on SDG progress (competitive federalism). It also shows which goals each state lags on.
• Fourth edition, 2023-24 (released July 2024):
• India's composite score was 71 in 2023-24. It was 66 in 2020-21 and 57 in 2018 [2].
• Top states: Kerala and Uttarakhand, with 79 each [2].
• Lowest: Bihar, with 57. Bihar was still up from 52 in 2020-21 [2].
• State scores ranged from 57 to 79. All states improved their composite scores [2].

• Uttarakhand was among the fastest-moving states. Its score rose by 19 points between 2018 and 2023-24 [2].

• Check the latest edition, because scores and ranks change between editions.

Strong vs weak sustainability (mains angle)

	Weak sustainability	Strong sustainability
Core idea	Natural capital (forests, minerals) can be replaced by human-made capital (factories, roads, money)	Some natural capital is critical and cannot be replaced
Rule	It is fine if the total capital stock does not fall	Natural capital itself must not fall
Example	Using up coal is acceptable if the earnings go into schools and infrastructure	Aquifers, Himalayan glaciers and the Western Ghats' biodiversity must be protected whatever the money gain
Indian case	Mining-led growth in Jharkhand and Odisha	Eco-sensitive zones, the Forest Conservation Act and Ken-Betwa-type trade-off debates

Prelims Hooks

• Our Common Future (1987) came from the WCED, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland (Norway). Trap: it was not a Club of Rome report.
• The Limits to Growth (1972) was by Meadows et al. for the Club of Rome. The Population Bomb (1968) was by Paul Ehrlich.
• Order of how the meaning of development changed: economic growth (post-WWII) → redistribution with growth / growth and equity (1970s) → social and material well-being and rights (1980s).
• Chronological order: Stockholm 1972 → Brundtland 1987 → Rio 1992 (Agenda 21) → MDGs 2000 → Johannesburg 2002 → Rio+20 2012 → SDGs 2015.
• UNEP was created at Stockholm 1972. UNFCCC and CBD were opened for signature at Rio 1992 [3].
• 8 MDGs with a 2015 deadline. 17 SDGs with 169 targets and a 2030 deadline [4][5].
• SDG India Index 2023-24: India 71, Kerala and Uttarakhand top (79 each), Bihar lowest (57) [2].
• The SDG India Index is prepared by NITI Aayog, not MoSPI. MoSPI prepares the separate National Indicator Framework progress reports.

Mains Points

• Growth is not development: India's 1950s-60s focus on growth left out poor regions and groups.
• This led to target-group and target-area planning: hill areas, drought-prone areas and tribal areas from the Fifth Plan (1974-79).

• It later led to the Aspirational Districts Programme (2018).

• The three pillars in Indian regions: many places have high growth but low ecological sustainability.

• Examples are groundwater depletion in Punjab and Haryana, mining in the Jharkhand-Odisha belt, and fragile hill tourism in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

• The answer is to plan each region according to its own ecology.

• Gaps between states on the SDGs: state scores ranged from 57 (Bihar) to 79 (Kerala and Uttarakhand) in 2023-24 [2].

• This shows that development is uneven across regions.

• The index helps target funds and policy at weak states and goals, through competitive and cooperative federalism.

• Strong vs weak sustainability: India's coal-led energy growth fits weak sustainability.

• Protecting critical natural capital, such as the Himalayan glaciers, the Western Ghats and aquifers, needs a strong-sustainability approach.
• Possible balancing tools include environmental impact assessment (EIA), compensatory afforestation and green accounting.