Publications
Green Accounting for Indian States Project: Monographs
The Value of Timber, Carbon, Fuelwood, and Non-Timber Forest Products in India's Forests
This monograph demonstrates that forest resources accounting is feasible in India at a disaggregate level using a 'top-down' approach. The results give a view of how different regions are doing when their performance is measured by the sustainability yardstick. For instance the study clearly shows that the country's north-eastern region is far more important part of the national economy than is apparent from conventional national accounting.
Estimating the Value of Agricultural Cropland and Pastureland in India
In this monograph, the national accounts have been adjusted for land degradation associated with agriculture. The cost of soil nutrients replacement, sedimentation of waterways and rehabilitation of degraded land have been specifically considered. The study suggests that the 'true' economic contribution of agriculture in many states may be significantly smaller than generally assumed.
The Value of Biodiversity in India's Forests
This monograph evaluates the unaccounted economic value of India's biodiversity, in particular, eco-tourism, bio-prospecting, and the 'willingness to pay' for preserving flagship species in the wild. We found that these values are significant, both as 'per-hectare' accumulations to GSDP (state) and GDP (national) accounts for those states which have been losing forest cover.
Estimating the Value of Educational Capital Formation in India
Human capital is one of the most important assets of a country and a key determinant of its economic performance. We argue that the cost of education should be viewed as investment as it generates streams of future income. This monograph attempts to estimate the monetary value of this human capital accumulation as a proportion of GDP at the national and state levels. Our findings suggest that human capital accumulation is not only very large but in some states, many times larger than physical fixed capital formation.
Accounting for the Ecological Services of India's Forests
This monograph attempts to value three crucially important ecological functions of our shrinking forest ecosystems: prevention of soil erosion, augmentation of groundwater by improving recharging capacity, and reduction in flood damage through rainwater absorption. The results suggest that shrinking forest cover, especially in mountainous states, comes at a significant cost to the national economy.
Accounting for Freshwater Quality in India
This monograph attempts to adjust national and state accounts for the degradation in water quality over a ten-year period. We have specifically considered the quality changes in groundwater and surface water. By adopting a replacement cost approach, the monetary value of the decline in water quality for each use has been estimated. This decline in quality has been treated in the same way as depreciation of man-made capital and has been adjusted against the state domestic products for each of India's states.
Journal Articles
Natural resource accounting for Indian states — Illustrating the
case of forest resources
This paper applies a SEEA-based methodology to reflect the true value of forest resources in India's national and state accounts. It establishes that a 'topdown' approach using available national databases is both feasible and desirable from a policy perspective. This paper, addresses four components of value creation in forests: timber production, carbon storage, fuelwood usage, and the harvesting of non-timber forest products. The results of the analysis suggests that prevailing measures of national income in India underestimate the contribution of forests to income.