relationship exist for other categories (INDOOR, WATER, FOREST) and
no relationship in case of AIRPOL. The absence of the EKC in the Indian
framework can be explained by the mixed performance of the States
across environmental groups - e.g., worse EQ for economically advanced
Punjab and better EQ for economically lagging Orissa.
Estimation of multivariate OLS regression models between
individual EQ Scores and HDI Score indicate presence of non-linear
relationships (in most cases, slanting N-shaped and parabolic in case
of FOREST). The results originate from the concentration of several
States in low HDI-Low EQ category (Bihar, UP) and high EQ-mid HDI
category (AP, Rajasthan) on one hand, and presence of the outliers
like Orissa (high EQ-Low HDI) on one hand and Punjab and Haryana
(high HDI-Low EQ) on the other. The result indicates the need to re-
examine the methodology for calculating the HD achievements of the
States. Perhaps, the HD ranking of States like Punjab and Haryana has
been influenced too heavily by their high per capita consumption
expenditure. Broad-basing the HD index by incorporating other social
achievements might reveal interesting results.
A few policy issues need to be highlighted here. First, the
increment in HD indicators and economic growth can effectively increase
the demand for a better environment, and therefore provide a demand
side solution to the problem of environmental sustainability. Second, in
contrary to popular belief, industrial pollution is not the source of all
the problems. In Punjab and Haryana, it seems that the thrust on
agriculture is increasingly becoming a serious concern. Third, given
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the need to arrive at local State-level solutions, there seems to be
enough scope to involve local communities with direct interest in certain
initiatives (e.g. - JFM). Fourth, it is difficult to comment on the choice
Ofoptimal level of income and its composition for a State, which would
be in line with the objective Ofsustainable development. For instance,
we observe a high level of EQ for a poor State like Orissa, which clearly
is a result of unutilised resources. Fifth, as has been observed, improved
governance can play a key role (e.g. - Supreme Court intervention) in
ensuring sustainable development, and there is increasing need for
implementing that in environmentally vulnerable States. Finally, here
we focus only on the economic growth of the Indian States during the
two periods (1990-96 and 1997-2004) and look into its relationship
with EQ. However, income inequality varies across Indian States and it
has often been observed that inequality has increased in the post-
reform period (Deaton and Dreze, 2002). An area of future research
can be to analyse the relationship between income inequality of the
States, their EQ and HD achievements.
Finally, a few limitations of the study are as follows. We have
confined our analysis only to 14 major Indian States, the constraint
being the availability Ofvarious secondary environmental information
for both the time periods under consideration. Given the fact that a
number of Indian States are currently in the process of preparing their
environmental profile, one future area of research would be to extend
the analysis to the remaining States. The analysis can be further
extended by dividing the post-1997 period into more sub-groups, as
permitted by availability of newer data points.