India has no shortage of development schemes. We have programmes for housing, food, health, jobs, sanitation, roads, renewable energy, water, farming and climate action. We also have dashboards, rankings, annual reports and targets.
Yet one basic question is still missing from most planning: are we improving people’s lives without damaging the natural systems that support those lives?
This is the question doughnut economics asks.
India must continue to develop. Millions still need secure jobs, decent housing, good schools, affordable healthcare, safe water and social protection. But India is also facing falling groundwater levels, polluted air and rivers, growing waste, loss of wetlands and biodiversity, heat waves, floods, landslides and coastal erosion.
The challenge is therefore not growth versus the environment. The real challenge is to meet human needs while staying within ecological limits.
Doughnut Economics, developed by economist Kate Raworth, uses a simple picture (see the graph below).
The doughnut has two rings. The inner ring is the social foundation. It includes the basics of a dignified life: food, health, education, income, water, sanitation, energy, housing, equality, peace, voice and justice. No one should fall below this floor.
The outer ring is the ecological ceiling. It represents the limits beyond which human activity damages climate, biodiversity, freshwater, land and other life-support systems.
The space between the two rings is the “safe and just space”. Development should bring everyone above the social floor without pushing society beyond ecological limits.
Graph: Doughnut Economics - the safe and just space between the social foundation and ecological ceiling.
This is not an argument against roads, houses, industries or cities. It is an argument for better decisions. Every major plan should face two tests: does it reduce human deprivation, and what does it do to land, water, air, climate and biodiversity?
India has made progress in measuring welfare and the Sustainable Development Goals. But data alone do not change planning.
Too often, departments still work in separate boxes. Housing is discussed apart from flood risk. Agriculture is assessed apart from groundwater and soil health. Tourism is promoted apart from waste and carrying capacity. Urban growth is measured apart from heat, drainage and loss of commons.
Doughnut economics helps connect these issues.
A housing programme may build more houses, but what if they are in flood-prone areas? A road may improve access, but what if it blocks drainage or encourages unsafe construction? Farm output may rise, but what if groundwater falls and soil becomes poorer? Tourism may create jobs, but what if it creates waste, water stress and pressure on fragile coasts?
The point is simple: development cannot be judged only by how much money was spent, how many assets were built or how many beneficiaries were covered. We must also ask whether the programme reduced deprivation and whether it created new ecological risks (see graph below).
Graph: The Doughnut as a planning compass - showing social shortfall and ecological overshoot
India is good at counting kilometres of roads, houses built, toilets completed, school enrolment, ration cards, hospital beds and scheme beneficiaries.
Counting is necessary. But the next generation of planning must also judge results.
Are houses safe from heat, floods and landslides? Are drinking-water schemes sustainable in water-stressed areas? Are toilets linked to safe waste and water systems? Does farming protect soil and water? Do cities protect lakes, wetlands, trees and public spaces? Are jobs safe and dignified? Are women, migrants, tribal communities, fisherfolk, elderly people and persons with disabilities visible in local plans?
This is where a Doughnut Planning Matrix can help.
The idea can be used at the national, state, district and local levels. But local governments are especially important. Panchayats and municipalities deal every day with water, waste, roads, housing, health, livelihoods, land use and local ecosystems.
They can prepare a simple local doughnut profile: where are people still below the social foundation, where is the local environment under stress, and does the local government have the data, participation and budget to act?
Table: A simple Doughnut Planning Matrix for local governments
This is no longer only a theoretical proposal. Maniyur Gram Panchayat in Kozhikode district, Kerala, has approved a move towards doughnut economics-based planning in its 2026-27 budget. The Gram Panchayat is trying to connect social needs with ecological limits through planning, budgeting and monitoring.
Our team is supporting this effort. The work is at an early stage, but the lesson is already important: a global idea can be adapted to a village or town when local people, elected functionaries and technical institutions work together.
Maniyur should be treated as an experiment to learn from, not as a finished model. Its value will depend on whether it produces useful local indicators, better budget choices, public participation and honest monitoring.
First, state economic reviews can add a short doughnut annex showing the main social shortfalls and ecological pressures together.
Second, districts and local governments can prepare simple doughnut profiles. State averages often hide big differences between coastal areas, hill regions, river basins, cities and poor settlements.
Third, local governments can try doughnut budgeting. A project should not be judged only by cost and completion. It should also be checked for its effect on water, land, heat, waste, livelihoods and vulnerable groups.
Fourth, major local projects can undergo simple sustainability and equity audits. One asks whether a project creates new ecological risks. The other asks who benefits and who is left out.
Fifth, universities, colleges and civil society groups can help local governments with surveys, GIS maps, ecological data and public dashboards. Local Self-Governments should not be left alone with a new technical burden.
There is one danger. Doughnut economics can become another fashionable label.
A weak version would simply rename old schemes. A serious version would change how priorities are chosen, budgets are made, and results are checked.
The process must remain democratic. Citizens should help identify local problems and discuss priorities. Data should be public and easy to understand. Trade-offs should be visible.
A road may improve access but increase land conversion. A tourism project may create jobs but also create water stress. A housing scheme may reduce homelessness but increase disaster exposure. Planning must show such conflicts honestly.
Doughnut economics will not make difficult choices disappear. Its value is that it forces us to see the big picture.
The old development question was: how fast can the economy grow?
The welfare question was: how many people can public programmes reach?
The doughnut question is deeper: can everyone live with dignity without pushing nature beyond repair?
India must continue to build, invest and create opportunities. But rivers, forests, soil, coasts, biodiversity, clean air and groundwater are not side issues. They are the foundations of development itself.
A society cannot call itself developed if millions remain without basic needs. But it also cannot call itself developed if progress depends on destroying the ecological systems that future generations will need.
India does not need doughnut economics as an imported fashion. It needs the idea as a practical planning compass: meet human needs, respect ecological limits and make public decisions more accountable.
That is the shift India now needs — from simply expanding development to planning development within limits.
Jos Chathukulam is Director, Centre for Rural Management, Kerala; He is also former Professor, ISEC, Bengaluru.
A M Jose is Professor & Head, Amity School of Economics, Amity University Haryana; He is also former Professor, Kerala Agricultural University and National University of Rwanda.
Views expressed are the authors’ own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth