A five-year MoSPI strategy will track forests, water, minerals, land and biodiversity, revealing the natural systems underpinning India’s growth.
India’s statistics office is trying to do something that could reshape how the country thinks about growth: put a price on the natural systems that underpin the economy. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has set out a five-year plan, running from 2026 to 2030, to build environmental-economic accounts that track assets such as forests, water, minerals, land and biodiversity in a more systematic way. The effort follows the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting and builds on work the ministry has been carrying out since 2018, according to Business Standard and an official government release.
The case for doing so is clear. Conventional national income figures record what the economy produces, but not always what it takes from nature to produce it. That gap matters in a country where growth is increasing pressure on land and water, and where policymakers need a fuller picture of how much wealth is being created and how much is being drawn down from natural capital. The ministry’s strategy is intended to improve the quality, timeliness and coverage of environmental data, while also filling gaps that have limited the use of these accounts in public policy, according to the government documents cited by PIB and analysis published by PolicyEdge.
One of the clearest examples comes from pollination. MoSPI has estimated the value of pollination services at ₹2.66 trillion in 2021-22, up from ₹1.15 trillion in 2012-13. The ministry says that figure amounts to roughly 8% to 10% of crop output, a reminder that a significant share of agricultural value depends on ecosystem services that are usually invisible in standard accounts. By making that contribution measurable, the argument goes, governments can better justify support for pollinators, beekeeping and farm practices that protect biodiversity.
The same logic applies beyond agriculture. Water accounts can help authorities assess groundwater stress and broader patterns of resource use, while mineral accounts can show extraction, depletion and new discoveries more clearly. The wider strategy also covers soil resources, carbon stock, biodiversity and environment-related activities, suggesting that MoSPI wants a framework broad enough to connect ecological change with economic decision-making. As PolicyEdge noted, the roadmap is about statistical development rather than a replacement for GDP, but it could still prove influential if it gives ministries and state governments a more reliable way to weigh the trade-offs between output today and resource security tomorrow.
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