Monitiring Sustainability First Edition  (English, Hardcover, Ramachandran Nira)

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 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 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 over time, sub-country levels- views state and district economies, and at the micro level of a hill resort town and a group mountain villages.

About the Author
Dr. Nira Ramachandran is an alumnus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has been trained in her field of specialization both in India and abroad. She has been associated as researcher and teacher with several institutions including the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore as a research Fellow, as Assistant Professor in Bangalore University, as CSIR Fellow in Delhi University, and as the Coordinator of the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie.

In 1996 she was awarded on ICSSR Senior Fellowship, the research output of which culminated in this book. She is the author of several papers on developmental issues including carrying capacity, food security and wild life conservation.