MoSPI unveils five-year 2026-2030 strategy to measure India's natural wealth

Key facts

• The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Strategy for Environmental Economic Accounts in India 2026-2030 on October 7, 2026, succeeding the 2022-2026 strategy released in December 2021.
• The strategy lists around 10 priority areas: forests, water, land, soil, minerals, carbon stock, biodiversity, pollination services, environment-related economic activity and an expanded environment statistics publication.
• India compiles its environmental accounts under the UN's System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), and these accounts can evaluate around 40 global indicators across nine Sustainable Development Goals.
• MoSPI published its first monetary pollination services account earlier this year.
• Water accounts were last published by MoSPI in 2018 and are described as critical for water-stressed regions and for monitoring groundwater depletion.
• All states have been requested to constitute Inter-Departmental Groups (IDGs) on Environment Accounting, and 18 states and Union Territories have done so far.
• The strategy rests on two pillars: improving the quality, timeliness and coverage of the accounts while bridging data gaps, and better communicating their relevance to policymakers, the media and other users.