Main Article Content
Abstract
India’s ambition to become a developed nation—Viksit Bharat—by the centenary of its independence in 2047 coincides with an unprecedentedly tight global climate deadline. This paper argues that green growth is not merely an environmental accessory to the Viksit Bharat vision but a constitutive pillar of it: sustained, high-growth development is impossible on a degraded resource base, and India’s climate commitments, including net-zero by 2070 and the Panchamrit targets announced at COP26, must therefore be read as an industrial and economic strategy rather than a compliance exercise (Government of India, 2022). Drawing on the trajectory of India’s environmental policy architecture—from the National Solar Mission to the National Green Hydrogen Mission and the Life Mission—the paper assesses whether existing instruments can deliver an inclusive green transition by 2047.
The paper finds that India’s green economy could unlock a market value of roughly USD 1 trillion and sustain over 40 million jobs by 2047 if investment, innovation, and institutional capacity are scaled decisively (Council on Energy, Environment and Water [CEEW], 2025). However, several fault lines remain under-addressed: the dominance of coal in the electricity mix, the concentration of green industries and finance, the absence of robust social protection for displaced workers in fossil-fuel and agrarian livelihoods, and weak environmental federalism and enforcement. The paper proposes a rethinking of the roadmap along three axes—alignment of fiscal incentives with Net Zero goals, institutionalisation of just-transition planning at the state level, and a shift from reactive regulation toward anticipatory, technology-inclusive policy design. It concludes that Viksit Bharat, if it is to be real and enduring, must be a green, resilient, and equitable development model rather than a delayed variant of carbon-intensive growth.