Green Growth Index for India: Drivers, Disparities, and Ramifications

This article introduces a novel green growth index (GGI), offering a new benchmark for assessing the performance of Indian states in sustainable development. Departing from traditional indices like the Human Development Index and Sustainable Development Goal Index, our approach integrates economic, environmental, and social factors, providing a comprehensive perspective on sustainable development. The study emphasizes the critical role of energy use and input utilization efficiency as major drivers of green growth disparities, alongside conventional economic growth. The findings suggest that robust governance institutions are also key contributors to green growth. The research reveals that states with higher gross domestic product generally exhibit better performance on the GGI but also underscores the importance of addressing the uneven development across different pillars of green growth. The insights and methodologies presented here are poised to inform targeted policy interventions and contribute to ongoing efforts in promoting inclusive and sustainable green growth, taking into consideration the complex trade-offs between environmental protection and socioeconomic inequalities. Received: 23 July 2024 | Revised: 28 October 2024 | Accepted: 22 November 2024 Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. Data Availability Statement Data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Author Contribution Statement Navaneeth M S: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization. Ismail Siddiqui: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing. Santosh Kumar Sahu: Validation, Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration.