India releases five-year plan to value forests, water, minerals and pollination

India's Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation unveiled a five-year roadmap, 2026-2030, for integrating natural capital into national accounting. The strategy identifies about ten focus areas such as forests, water, land, soil, minerals, carbon stock, biodiversity, pollination services, environment-related economic activity and expanded statistical publications. Guided by the UN's System of National Accounts 2025, the accounts will support roughly 40 global indicators across nine Sustainable Development Goals.

New initiatives include monetary accounting for pollination services and updated water accounts to monitor groundwater depletion. The approach rests on improving data quality and communicating relevance, while urging all states to set up Inter-Departmental Groups on Environment Accounting and address a noted skills gap in SEEA expertise.