INTRODUCTION: India has a great history in its development.

Over the years the nation has been developing in various aspects such as social, political, economic, human development, etc. some of these development processes are mentioned below. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: The British colonial government of India did not pursue an active policy of agricultural development despite modest efforts to formulate a policy (see The British Raj, 1858-1947, ch. 1). One such effort was the appointment in 1926 of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, which made some recommendations for improving agriculture and promoting the welfare of the rural population. Most of the commission's recommendations were deferred because of the Great Depression of the 1930s. One outcome, however, was the establishment of the Imperial (later Indian) Council of Agricultural Research in 1929. During World War II, disruptions in international trade also led the government to initiate the Grow More Food Campaign. The government adopted its first agricultural policy statement in the wake of famine in Bengal in 1943. The policy objectives included increased production of food grains, use of better methods of production, improved marketing, better prices for the producers, fair wages for agricultural labor, fair distribution of food, increased production of raw materials, and improvements in research and education. This statement was the basis of many of the policies adopted soon after independence, especially in the First Five-Year Plan, when the central government was committed to giving priority to agricultural production to increase the food supply in the country. The prolonged neglect of agriculture in India meant that there was almost no growth in the agricultural sector. From 1891 to 1946, output of all crops grew at 0.4 percent a year; the rate for food grains was only 0.1 percent per year. The land tenure system led to exploitative agrarian relations and stagnation Farmers had little incentive to invest, and despite great strides in foreign agricultural technology, Indian agricultural technology stagnated. Specifically, there were few improvements in seeds, agricultural implements, machines, or chemical fertilizers.

At the time of independence in 1947, agriculture and allied sectors provided well over 70 percent of the country's employment and more than 50 percent of the gross national product. Agricultural development was a key to a number of national goals, such as reducing rural poverty, providing an adequate diet for all citizens, supplying agricultural raw materials for the textile industry and other industries, and expanding exports. In the mid1960s, the goal of self-reliance was added to this list. The central government has played a progressively more important role on the agricultural front by providing overall leadership and coordination, as well as by providing a significant part of the financing for agricultural programs. However, the primary responsibility for the design and implementation of agricultural programs, in accordance with the constitution, remained with the states in the late twentieth century. India's agricultural growth strategy after independence evolved over three distinct phases. In the first phase, roughly covering the period through the Second Five-Year Plan, agricultural growth rested on removing basic socioeconomic constraints through land reform, change in the village power structure, reorganization of the rural poor into cooperatives, and better citizen participation in planning. The initial assumption was that changing the land tenure system by abolishing the zamindar system--a method of revenue collecting and landholding developed during the Mughal and British colonial periods--would stimulate agricultural output The second phase occurred during the Third Five-Year Plan (FY 1961-65). The continuing shortages of food in the 1960s and the consequent crises convinced planners that raising agricultural output, especially food grains, was essential for political stability and independence from foreign food aid. Self-sufficiency in food-grain production and development of an adequate buffer stock through procurement became clearly defined goals in the mid1960s. Keeping in mind the variety of socioeconomic and agroclimatic differences, the government adopted an area-specific approach, and emphasized programs such as the Intensive Area Agricultural Programme and the Intensive Agricultural District Programme. The third phase in India's economic development is identified predominantly as the Green Revolution. This phase relied on better seeds, more water via irrigation, and improved quantity and quality of fertilizer during the Fourth Five-Year Plan (FY 1969-73), the Fifth Five-Year Plan (FY 1974-78), and the Sixth Five-Year Plan (FY 1980-84). The Green Revolution was

successful in meeting the goals of self-sufficiency in food-grain production and adequate buffer stocks by the end of the 1970s. Production was more than 100 million tons in 1978 and 1979. Imports were negligible, and the year-end buffer stocks from 1976-79 averaged more than 17 million tons. After 1980 buffer stocks fell below 10 millions tons only once, in 1988. In the mid-1990s, the major goals of agricultural policy continued to be selfsufficiency in food staples and adequate food supplies at affordable prices for consumers. Expanding cereal production continued to be a major objective because of the population growth rate of almost 2 percent per year. The budgetary share of agriculture, together with irrigation and flood control projects, remained almost constant in the first six plans, varying between 21 percent and 24 percent. The Eighth Five-Year Plan (FY 1992-96), as conceived in the early 1990s, not only aimed at continued self-sufficiency in food production, but also included plans to generate surpluses of some agricultural commodities for export. It also aimed at spreading the Green Revolution to more regions of the country with an emphasis on dryland farming. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: The idea of sustainable development has evolved as an attempt to deal with the environmental problems caused by economic growth in contemporary India. There are varied interpretations of the theory of sustainable development but its main objective is to achieve a process of economic development without an indiscriminate destruction of our environment. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), will be investing around US$ 3.39 billion for the development of renewable energy (RE) sector projects during the 11th Five Year Plan. As per Planning Commission estimates, RE projects worth US$ 15.97 billion, (expected to generate 15,000 mw power), is likely to come up in the Plan. While the government plans to install an additional 78,577 MW of power generation capacity by the end of 11th Five Year Plan, it has set a target of 13,500 MW to come from renewable energy sources. Ten renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of 100 MW are likely to be custom-built in West Bengal by the end of 2009. These ten

projects include the proposal to build a 50 MW wind park project and a solar park with a capacity of 26 MW.

Measures for Rural Development Concerted efforts are being made to improve the living standard of rural masses. Improvement in rural infrastructure is one of the chief indicators of a nations development and the government has started a special programme, Bharat Nirman, for the improvement of Indias rural infrastructure. Bharat Nirman targets providing electricity to the residual 125,000 villages and to 23 million households; connecting the residual 66,802 habitations with all weather roads; constructing 146,185 km of new rural roads network; providing drinking water to 55,067 uncovered habitations, and providing irrigation to an additional 10 million hectares, besides connecting the remaining 66,822 villages with telephones. Out of the total projected investment of US$ 295.62 billion to be incurred by the Centre and the States in the Eleventh Plan, US$ 84.12 billion would be spent entirely towards improvement of rural infrastructure. The government has hiked its allocation for education by 34 per cent and health and family welfare by 22 per cent. Rural development is also attracting major corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives from various corporates. Green fuel Green fuel or Biofuel can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biological material, mostly plants. It is now emerging as an eco-friendly option as compared to fossil fuels. India will replace 10 per cent of its transport fuels with biofuels like ethanol and jatropha in the next 10 years to cut carbon emissions. Gearing for the Future The projected climate changes likely to take happen in the future to have implications on food production, water supply, biodiversity and livelihoods. Therefore, India has a significant stake in scientific advancement as well as an international understanding to promote the cause.

The Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change is presently working on a national programme to address different relevant issues. In this perspective, India's Eleventh Five-Year Plan (200712) puts forth various strategies in the areas of afforestation, sustainable energy use, flood protection, transportation and financial instruments such as capital debenture funds. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Trends in regional disparity in the economic and human development in India over the last two decades and the direction of their causality are examined. While PCI does not show any significant trend in regional disparity, 19 out of 25 human development indicators (HDI's) display a marked decline. The Indian regional data suggests two-way causality between human and economic development. The structure of the estimated equations varies over time when HDI's are the cause and PCI is the effect, but remains the same in the reverse causality case. Moreover, it takes about eight years for HDI's to influence PCI, but PCI affects the HDI's in two years. The paper concludes by arguing that the central institutions like Finance Commission and Planning Commission need not be unduly concerned about regional imbalance in human nor in economic development. Emphasis on economic growth as per the national priority is likely to address the issue of twin disparities in income and human development in the shortest time.