Progress on the Environmental Front: The Regulation of Industry and Development in India

Since 1991 India has been encouraging large foreign investment in its economy to compete with its industrialized counterparts in the global marketplace. Although India's current economic reform has led to increased industrial investment and aggressive development, it has also been marked by substantial threats to the environment. India's government now faces the difficult task of juggling investment and economic reform with the desire to avoid environmental degradation. This Article explores the relationship between economic development and environmental protection in India.

In doing so, the Article highlights the difficulties facing any newly industrialized developing country seeking to enter the world market without destroying its environment. The Article concludes that, as sustainable development becomes the prevailing norm worldwide, India may serve as a paradigm of a modernizing economy moving toward that objective.