Theme:
Green growth is one of the seven top priorities of the Union Budget 2023-24 for ushering green industrial and economic transition, environmentally friendly agriculture and sustainable energy in the country. It will also generate a large number of green jobs. The seven “Saptarishi” priorities-inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, potential, youth power, the financial sector, and green growth, are the major themes of the Union Budget, 2023.
In the budget speech, the Finance Minister emphasized the words “green” and “sustainable” numerous times. She suggested that during Amrit Kaal, green growth might be revolutionary. The fundamental objective of green growth strategies is to make sure that natural resources can sustainably fulfil their maximum economic potential.
What is Green Growth?
In essence, ‘Green Growth’ refers to an economic growth plan that places a significant emphasis on sustainable development while minimizing harmful environmental effects. Out of 180 countries, India was placed 169th in the Environment Performance Index of 2022. Rankings were determined by factors like waste management, air quality, biodiversity & habitat, fisheries, ecosystem services, and climate change. India is the fifth-largest economy in the world, although it performed worse than many other smaller economies on the ranking.
India’s Initiative to Promote Green Growth:
The vision for “LiFE,” or Lifestyle for Environment, set forward by the prime minister aims to inspire a trend towards living sustainably. To lead the world into a green industrial and economic transition, India is vigorously pursuing the “panchamrit” and net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Additionally, India is putting into practice numerous policies and programmes for the effective use of energy across various economic sectors, including green buildings, green equipment, green farming, green mobility, and green fuels. Large-scale green job opportunities are facilitated by these green growth initiatives, which also contribute to diminishing the economy’s carbon intensity.
Green growth policies are an integral part of the structural reforms needed to foster strong, more sustainable, and inclusive growth. They help in several aspects of growth-
- Enhancing productivity by creating incentives for greater efficiency in the use of natural resources, reducing waste and energy consumption, unlocking opportunities for innovation and value creation, and allocating resources to the highest value use.
- Boosting investor confidence through greater predictability in how governments deal with major environmental issues.
- Opening up new markets by stimulating demand for green goods, services, and technologies.
- Contributing to fiscal consolidation by mobilizing revenues through green taxes and the elimination of environmentally harmful subsidies.
- These measures can also help to generate or free up resources for anti-poverty programs in such areas as water supply and sanitation, or other pro-poor investments.
- Reducing risks of negative shocks to growth due to resource bottlenecks, as well as damaging and potentially irreversible environmental impacts.
India’s Green Growth Strategy
Green growth, from green credits to green energy to green mobility to green farming, was among the seven main priorities that the latest budget announced.
Indian green growth and energy transmission are outlined on three pillars:
- Increasing the production of renewable energy
- Reducing the use of fossil fuel in the economy
- Rapidly moving towards a gas-based economy in the country
Measures like ethanol blending, PM KUSUM Yojana, incentives for solar manufacturing, rooftop solar scheme, coal gasification, and battery storage in the Budgets of the past few years underlined the strategy.
Government Initiatives for Green Growth
Some of the other major initiatives driving India’s green growth are:
PM KUSUM
PM-KUSUM (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan) Scheme is aimed at ensuring energy security for farmers in India.
It is honouring India’s commitment to increase the share of installed capacity of electric power from non-fossil-fuel sources to 40% by 2030 as part of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs).
The scheme was launched in 2019 with 3 components:
- Component-A: For Setting up 10,000 MW of Decentralized Grid Connected Renewable Energy Power Plants on barren land.
- Component-B: For Installation of 17.50 Lakh stand-alone solar agriculture pumps.
- Component-C: For Solarisation of 10 Lakh Grid Connected Agriculture Pumps.
Gobardhan Yojana
India has the potential of producing 10 thousand million cubic meters of biogas from Gobar (cow dung) and 1.5 lakhs cubic meters of gas which can contribute up to 8% to the city gas distribution in the country.
Gobardhan Yojana launched in 2018, is an important component of India’s biofuel strategy. In this budget, the government has announced plans to set up 500 new waste-to-wealth plants under the Gobardhan Yojana.
The Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBAR-DHAN) scheme is implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin-Phase 2, by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Jal Shakti ministry.
Conclusion
India has huge potential to lead the world when it comes to technology for Green Energy and it can forward, the cause of global good apart from generating Green Jobs. The budget 2023-24 also identifies 100 projects to improve last-mile connectivity for industries like coal and ports, as well as activities that would not be considered green growth.