Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) for India
Student name: Ms Malvi Mehrotra
Guide: Dr Nidhi Pande
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Rudrani Bhattacharya
Abstract: This study is the analysis of Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare(ISEW) for India. It is an
alternative measure to GDP in order to compute welfare of a country. This index addresses
limitations of GDP as a welfare indicator. The index incorporates personal consumption,
defensive and non defensive expenditures, long term environment depletion and capital
formation. The estimated social cost of water & air pollution, soil degradation and
deforestation have been used to incorporate loss of natural capital. It was found that in India,
welfare is following the growth in Gross Fixed Capital Formation to a large extent. Growth in
Gross Fixed Capital Formation has found to be high since 2003. It pushed up the entire
welfare index of India.
