With the liberalisation of the economy, India has become one of the fastest growing nations in the world. The rapid economic growth has also had a significant impact on the social front. Social indicators have improved. Literacy levels have risen, while morbidity and mortality rates have declined. However, it is widely felt that the rate of social development needs to escalate and economic growth needs to be backed by sustainable development.

A number of efforts initiated by Government and non-government agencies on this front are working towards sustainable development of communities and the environment.

Rural Development

• In the Union Budget 2007, the Indian Government has increased allocation for the social sector. Besides increasing allocation for Bharat Nirman, which aims at strengthening the country's rural infrastructure by 32 per cent, the Government has hiked its allocation for education by 34 per cent and health and family welfare by 22 per cent.
• During the financial year 2007-08, the Government has earmarked US$ 2.68 billion for the rural roads scheme that envisages linking all villages with all-weather roads.
• In the one-of-its-kind move in affirmative action, the Government has reserved one-third seats in local bodies -- gram or village panchayats, municipalities, city corporations and district bodies -- for women. As a first step in enabling women to participate in the electoral process, this exercise has reaped huge dividends. Of the 28,00,000 elected representatives in India, 970,000 are women. That is greater than the sum of elected women representatives all over the world.

Carbon Credit

• India has registered the largest number of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the world. The country accounted for 283 CDM projects out of the 819 registered by the CDM Executive Board. CDM or carbon credits is a mechanism devised under the Kyoto Protocol to award encashable points or CERs (carbon emission reduction) to eco-friendly projects on the basis of the carbon emissions they control.
• These CERs are bought by the nations that are bound by the emission cut targets under the protocol. The Indian National CDM Authority has accorded host country approval to 753 projects, facilitating investment of more than US$ 16 billion. These projects are in areas of energy efficiency, fuel switching, industrial processes, municipal solid waste and renewable energy and have the potential to generate 421 million CERs by 2012.
• The World Bank has said that with growing concerns for global warming and climate change, the carbon trade market, which is set to row from the present level of US$ 30 billion annually to US$ 100 billion, can prove to be another IT sector for India.