India's Growth Model Blends Inclusion With Sustainability, Says UNDP

India has demonstrated that economic growth and social inclusion can advance together and it is helping translate its success stories into global lessons for a more equitable world, a top official of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) told PTI.

The India growth story is not only about economic progress but also about using technology and participatory governance to ensure that development objectives are achieved and no one is left behind, UNDP's Acting Administrator Haoliang Xu said.

In an interview to PTI, Xu said India's commitment to climate adaptation, renewable energy and inclusive digital finance offers a blueprint for balancing growth with sustainability.

India continues to shape "development pathways" that are both economically sound and climate-responsible, he said.

The UN Under-Secretary-General and UNDP Acting Administrator was in India on a three-day visit to strengthen and identify new areas of cooperation, including in areas of digital transformation and climate action.

Xu, talking about pressing global challenges, said the UNDP's latest Human Development Index showed that global progress in human development has slowed to a 35-year low and that it has been almost stagnant for the past two years.

At the same time, he lauded India's development model to address various challenges, including climate change and poverty.

"The country's commitment to just transitions, climate adaptation, renewable energy and inclusive digital finance offers a blueprint for balancing growth with sustainability," he said.

"We can work together to align development objectives, development financing from all sources, and effective, accountable and inclusive institutional capacity even more closely," Xu said in the e-mail interview.

The UNDP chief said India has shown that rapid growth can be matched with deliberate investments in people, especially those historically left behind.

"As a leading voice of the Global South, India is helping translate local success stories into global lessons through South-South Cooperation, sharing not only its tools and technology but also the frameworks that make them work," he said.

Xu specifically referred to India's flagship programmes such as MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and Ayushman Bharat, and said they combined livelihood security with social protection.

Clean Energy Advances   

According to the World Energy Outlook 2025 report released by the International Energy Agency (IEA), India reached 50 per cent of grid-connected power capacity from non-fossil sources in 2025, due to a surge in solar and wind investment that is helping the country achieve energy transition.

The programme highlighted in the UNFCCC case study is India's National Innovations in Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) project, a flagship network project launched by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in 2011. It ties into the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), part of India’s climate action plan and is seen as a potential low-cost adaptation model for other countries. These examples support Xu's contention that India's development path combines economic advancement with climate responsibility, providing other developing nations with models that can be replicated.

(With inputs from PTI.)