This article is in partnership with Rainmatter Foundation.
When she was younger and looked out to sea, Neha Jain saw limitless opportunities for fun and adventure. Today, mirrored in that same coastline, there instead appears a Rs 19,400 crore market opportunity (by 2047) for seaweed cultivation, as per a latest report by CEEW (Council on Energy, Environment and Water). Titled Building a Green Economy for Viksit Bharat, the report is a deep dive into emerging green industries that, if tapped into, could enable India to leapfrog into its next phase of economic transformation. Its findings lie at the intersection of rigorous research across jobs, markets, and investment opportunities. But at the heart of each green opportunity are stories of individuals who dared to dream differently and choose innovation.
Take Neha, for instance.
In 2019, the ex-Google employee decided to test new waters (literally) through her Mumbai-based startup Zerocircle that harnesses the potential of seaweed to create biodegradable, cost-effective plastic alternatives, while positively impacting farming collectives and women-led co-operatives in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
Zerocircle uses seaweed to make plastic-alternative products such as bags. Photograph: (Neha)
While Neha’s answer to India’s plastic problem has been to leverage abundant marine resources and drive material innovation, another entrepreneur, Dr Himansha Singh, co-founder of Craste, has taken to driving transformation in India’s packaging sector by converting agro-waste into premium sustainable packaging, offering an alternative to SUP (single-use plastic) and virgin paperboard.
As Himansha elaborates, “With this venture, we are helping curb carbon emissions while offering a readily available, affordable alternative to timber for wood-dependent industries, thereby saving trees.” She adds that Craste’s deep integration with farmers enables it to source agro-waste directly from fields, preventing stubble burning, increasing farm incomes, and producing eco-friendly, food-safe, and durable materials through a low-chemical, water-efficient process.
Noteworthy is that India’s sustainable packaging industry is not only tackling plastic pollution, but it’s also driving jobs and profit, with the CEEW report suggesting that 5,49,600 FTE (full-time equivalent) jobs can be created in this sector by 2047.
These are just a few of the many Indian entrepreneurs in India who are leveraging bio-resources, experimenting with new materials, products, and business models around sustainable packaging, biofibres, nutraceuticals, biofuels, and bio-fertilisers. When one thinks of India’s green economy, what comes to mind is not just advances in renewable energy, but also a burgeoning bioeconomy — a sector that the Indian government estimates to have grown sixteenfold in the last decade, and a circular economy.
Green value chains in the Indian economy integrate eco-friendly practices across production, processing, and distribution while supporting jobs and innovation. Photograph: (CEEW)
Such stories of green entrepreneurship are perfect examples of how India can gear itself to enter a globally competitive growth paradigm.
But even as we stride towards an India that reimagines its use of materials, waste management, how it accelerates innovation, and leverages natural resources in a way that reinforces the net-zero pledge (at the COP26 summit in 2021, India announced its targets to cut its emissions to net zero by 2070), it is impossible without recognising the vast canvas of green economic opportunities.
Steering the conversation in the direction of the emerging green value chains, Abhishek Jain, Fellow and Director, Green Economy and Impact Innovations, CEEW, says, “The green economy is a much broader opportunity than we think, one that spans capital-intensive industries as well as grassroots actors such as farmer-producer organisations and small enterprises. It’s not just about replacing fossil fuels, but about rethinking the materials we use and the way we design products and services.”
He adds, “These 36 value chains are not an endpoint; many more opportunities are emerging. Unlocking their full potential will require green entrepreneurs, green innovation, and green capital to come together.”
Building a new economic frontier for India
As revealed by the findings of the CEEW report, a green economy can unlock a market value of Rs 97.7 lakh crore (USD 1.1 trillion) in 2047, generate 48 million FTE jobs, and attract Rs 360 lakh crore (USD 4.1 trillion) in investments.
So, what’s needed to make this a reality?
An avant-garde energy inclined towards innovation, backed by an increased appetite for tapping into unexplored segments.
But what if the two could be tied in with modern challenges?
Then, it’s a win-win for the economy. For instance, the bio-packaging industry could be an antidote to India’s issue of stubble burning, by channelling the country’s crop residue waste (out of the annual 500 million tonnes (MMT) of crop residues, 92 MMT are burned, contributing 1.5 percent of national emissions) into packaging.
This is the beauty of emerging green opportunities. They are interspersed across industries.
This view is reinforced by former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, who has called for designing Indian cities around the principles of energy efficiency, circularity, and a bioeconomy. Speaking at the launch of the Green Economy report, he said, “Just as digital public infrastructure enabled India to leapfrog technologically, achieving in seven years what would have taken decades, we must now pole-vault into a green economy.”
Kant’s vision of India leveraging existing challenges as catalysts for innovation is in line with the United Nations view of a green economy as one that doesn’t replace sustainable development, but instead creates a new focus on the economy, investment, capital, and infrastructure, employment and skills, and positive social and environmental outcomes by improving production processes and consumption practices to reduce resource consumption, waste generation, and emissions across the full life cycle of processes and products.
DRE livelihood technologies empower women by providing access to clean energy solutions that enhance income opportunities. Photograph: (CEEW)
Imagine it as a new economic paradigm of sorts, a market-positive, job-intensive, and low-carbon development pathway for India, one that fundamentally reimagines what we consume, how we produce, and how we grow.
And here’s the way forward through the lens of different sectors.
Tapping into green value chains to boost India’s economic potential
Currently, 67 per cent of fisherfolk (in the marine fisheries industry) live below the poverty line. But a simple solution could double their earnings to Rs 2 lakh/ha/year. That simple solution comes in colours of red, green, and brown, anchored to rocks and corals. It is seaweed.
The macroalgae are an exceptional resource for bio-plastics; they check the boxes on sustainability, scalability, and resource efficiency, according to Neha’s mentor and marine biologist, Dr CRK Reddy, whose understanding of the plant is backed by over three decades of expertise. “Seaweed comes with a low carbon footprint. It is grown in the sea, so we’re not adding any fertilisers or pesticides. It offers livelihood options and development of coastal communities.” A World Bank report (2023) suggests that the global seaweed markets have a potential growth of up to $11.8 billion by 2030.
After quitting her job at Google, Neha Jain launched Zerocircle, a startup that converts seaweed into low-cost, eco-friendly plastic alternatives for packaging and more. Photograph: (Neha)
Beyond its environmental perks — such as its ability to sequester carbon and tackle growing water pollution and ocean acidification — the CEEW study indicates the sector has a massive ability to generate employment opportunities for communities bordering the coastline; think 900,900 jobs against 1,565 sq km of seaweed cultivation by 2047.
We continue dipping into the potential of India’s waters, as we move from the oceans to the country’s 3.58 million wetlands, where a story of potential and purpose is emerging. In Odisha’s Mangalajodi wetland, part of Odisha’s Chilika lagoon, which is a Ramsar site (globally recognised as crucial for biodiversity), the locals and birds sing a song of hope. The area is visited by the grey-headed swamphen, black-winged stilt, red-wattled lapwing, whiskered tern, little cormorant, glossy ibis, little egret, purple heron, black drongo, barn swallow, white-breasted waterhen, and common sandpiper, among others. It’s a birdwatcher’s paradise, which significantly draws tourist attention, positively impacting the local economy.
Chilika Lagoon is known for coming alive every October with the return of migratory birds. Photograph: (Odisha Tourism)
But across India, opportunity isn’t just living in the skies, but also on the banks of wetlands, which are home to mangroves. A case in point of how wetland management and mangrove restoration can open employment opportunities — management of 54,109 sq km of wetlands and restoration of 1,385 sq km of mangrove cover area could have a market value of Rs 7,500 crore — we train our gaze on Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg, where the Swamini self-help group has been earning through a model hinged on mangrove safaris since 2017. It’s a form of eco-tourism, explains the lead of the group, Shweta Hule, adding that it’s extremely profitable for them.
The self-help group goes by the name ‘Swamini’ and comprises 10 members who take tourists in a boat around Mandavi Creek. Photograph: (Rashmi Sawant)
But it’s not just remote villages that are starting to see the value in this form of sustainable tourism, which promotes local markets, strengthens livelihoods, and creates direct income opportunities. Agripreneur Samir Ranjan Bordoloi discovered its potential too, when he started the Green Commandos Forum that’s on its way to transform Northeast India through natural farming and regenerative agriculture, having already reached 25,000 farmers, and created sustainable livelihoods for 125 farming families.
And what if more such entrepreneurs were to follow suit? This could create over 1,617,800 jobs by 2047.
Unlocking economic opportunities in India’s hinterland
Agra-based Neetu Tandon never fathomed the kind of income potential that could be achieved through a simple food processor. As the founder of Sri Ambika Natural Products, she produces fruit squashes, aloe vera drinks, soaps, and other market-driven products through the power of clean technology.
She has not only built a sustainable business for herself but also conducts regular training sessions for the women in her community, empowering them to become successful micro-entrepreneurs.
The DRE technologies are cornerstones of India’s sustainable development agenda. Photograph: (CEEW)
Neetu is one of 5.7 million people whose livelihoods have been impacted by DRE (Decentralised Renewable Energy) technologies(owing to half a million DRE technologies that have been deployed across the country as of 2023). These small-scale, climate-friendly, and energy-efficient products are cornerstones of India’s sustainable development agenda, bridging key gaps in energy access in weak-grid and off-grid areas, while supporting livelihoods across important rural and peri-urban value chains.
And India’s farms are becoming hubs for innovation.
We train our gaze on chemical-free agriculture, which, according to the CEEW report, can contribute a market value of Rs 8.04 lakh crore against 2,197 lakh MT of chemical-free produce in 2047. There’s a dual vantage to making a transition to organic farming. Not only does it reduce pollution, improve on-farm biodiversity, increase soil microbial activity, and support native flora and fauna, but it also makes for productive channelling of organic waste.
Dananjayan and his organic terrace farm. Photograph: (Dhananjayan)
Take, for instance, Kerala-based award-winning farmer Dananjayan A V. His organic manure produced from kitchen waste ensures a thriving terrace farm. Meanwhile, Kashmir’s Abdul Ahad Lone’s vermicompost across 1,000 beds yields him a daily production of five tonnes, earning him a daily income of Rs 50,000. Last year, his annual turnover was Rs 1.5 crore.
Clearly, transforming kitchen waste into manure is lucrative.
Transforming waste into potential
In tune with converting kitchen waste into manure, we set our sights on municipal solid waste management. Municipal solid waste (kitchen waste, market wastes, horticultural waste) contributes nearly 50 per cent to municipal solid waste generation. In a green economy, waste can be leveraged as value, and if the recovery of organic fractions from 208 million tonnes of municipal solid waste were to be done by 2047, we could be looking at 2,602,000 jobs.
However, for this to happen, the collection of source-segregated waste needs to be strengthened, source segregation needs to be institutionalised by clearly defining responsibilities and enforcement mechanisms across the waste management supply chain, and also, investments in preprocessing facilities to improve operational efficiency, extend machinery life, and ensure consistent, high-quality end products.
But what about the inorganic fraction of our cities’ waste, particularly plastic?
Healing Himalayas Foundation has been conduction clean up drives in the mountains since 2016. Photograph: (Healing Himalayas Foundation)
The current 2,907 registered plastic waste processors in India are no competition for the annual 4–9 million tonnes of plastic waste generated. And scaling plastic waste recycling could create 1,906,200 jobs by 2047, with a market opportunity of Rs 6.66 lakh crore. If this were to reach its intended scope, we’d be looking at cleaner cities that champion a circular economy, reducing the long-term environmental and ecological burden of plastic pollution.
In another example, which positions waste repurposing as a key driver of India’s growth story, we see how used cooking oil can be turned into biodiesel.
India consumes 24 MMT (million metric tonnes) of cooking oil annually, generating 3 MMT of UCO (used cooking oil). Channelling this oil (which could turn rancid due to reusing) into the production of biodiesel could turn into a Rs 35,100 crore market opportunity.
How EV and battery storage are driving growth and opportunity
In 2018, when Varun Goenka, now the co-founder of Charge-up, was making his way in an e-rickshaw through the congested roads of Central Delhi, his EV came to a halt because of a battery issue. The idea to limit range anxiety for EV (electric vehicle) owners culminated in his startup. Varun’s story reflects innovation in a sector once untapped in Indian markets. The manufacturing of electric vehicles could be a boon for the economy, creating a market value of Rs 26.64 lakh crore.
But of course, job opportunities aren’t the only reason India should invest in EVs. As per a study, reaching 30 per cent EV sales in new cars by 2030 within the passenger transport sector could result in a 17 per cent reduction in particulate matter and NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions, and an 18 per cent decrease in CO (carbon monoxide) emissions.
Longer ride times, more ROI and reduced battery maintenance is what drivers have experienced with the lithium-ion batteries. Photograph: (Varun Goenka)
Another opportunity in the technology sector lies in battery manufacturing, which will reduce import dependency and advance domestic technical capabilities. In 2024, India imported lithium-ion cells and batteries worth Rs 24,346 crore, 84 percent of which were from China and Hong Kong. In-house manufacturing will ensure battery technology that’s more suited to Indian climates.
A defining strength of these value chains lies in their ability to engage multiple segments of society simultaneously, creating room for high-skill, technology-driven roles while also enabling broad-based livelihood diversification at scale.
As Dr V Anantha Nageshwaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, reasons, “For a country of India’s size and aspirations, the task is not to choose between growth and sustainability, but to design a green economy that delivers both. A bottom-up green economy provides the right complement to industrial growth, helping millions fulfill their aspirations even as we navigate trade-offs.”
To this end, we’re looking at an economic canvas that’s painted with shades of cleaner energy systems, circular modes of production, and the expansion of bio-based and nature-positive industries. Together, these shifts can position India to unlock new markets, crowd in large-scale investment, and create resilient livelihoods across both rural and urban regions.
Let’s walk towards a roadmap that shows growth can be future-proof and green.
