For several years, India has been experiencing rapid economic growth and structural changes that are attracting attention of the academia, policy makers and administrators, both at national and global level. An analysis of the recent trends is important in order to understand and evaluate India's current developments in the context of the goals of equity and sustainability and their implications for future. Unfortunately, much of the current literature is concerned with the dynamics of economic growth and the possibility in maintaining it over the coming decades. Importantly, there has been a significant boost in the growth rate since the early 1990s and particularly after 2003-04. The major focus of the development strategy of the government has been promoting GDP and foreign trade. Now, there are serious apprehensions that the growth rate in GDP and foreign trade may not be able to withstand the global economic crises and encounter a setback, the GDP growth for the year 2011-12 being placed at below 5 per cent only by the International Monetary Fund.

Inhaltsangabe1. Editorial Michael von Hauff, Amitabh Kundu 2. Impact of Climate Change on Human Development: Perspectives on Measurement Amitabh Kundu, Lopamudra Ray Saraswati 3. Sustainable Development: An Interrogation Balbir Singh Butola 4. On the political Economy of India' Environmental Policy WolfgangPeter Zingel 5. Law Sustainability Implementation India seen through a Special Lens Helmut Goerlich 6. Social Sustainability, Inequality and Education in India Elena BroschPahlke, Nicola Seitz 7. The Relevance of Water Resources for the Economic Development of Emerging Nations: The Case of India Michael von Hauff 8. Tribal Development: Environmental and Other Constraints Hans Schenk 9. Evolving Feasible Modal Structures for Cost Efficient Pollution Reduction: The Case of Passenger Transport in an Indian Megacity Madhumati Dutta, Joysankar Bhattacharya 10. Governance Mechanisms in Global Value Creation Chains - the Case of India's Natural Stone Industry Christine Hobelsberger, Michael von Hauff, Klaus Fischer 11. Seeking Co Benefits of Carbon Sequestration: Integrating Ecotourism and REDD Plus Mechanisms in Protected Area Management Madu Verma, Ramesh Kumar Jalan, Swapan Mehra, Priyanka Batra, Chandan Khanna, Geetanjali Shahi