Explain intra-generational and inter-generational issues of equity from the perspective of inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Equity lies at the heart of the Brundtland definition of sustainable development — meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. It has two dimensions: intra-generational equity (fairness among people alive today) and inter-generational equity (fairness between present and future generations). Inclusive growth requires both.

Intra-generational equity

• Concerns fair distribution of resources, income and opportunity within the current generation — across classes, regions, genders and nations.
• Issues include poverty, unequal access to clean water, energy and health, and the burden of pollution falling on the poor (environmental justice).
• Globally, it underlies the demand for climate justice — developed nations, with higher historical emissions, owing finance and technology to the developing world.

Inter-generational equity

• Concerns the rights of future generations to inherit a healthy environment and adequate natural capital.
• Over-extraction of groundwater, fossil-fuel depletion, biodiversity loss and greenhouse-gas accumulation impose costs on those yet unborn.
• It demands conservation, the precautionary principle and prudent use of exhaustible resources.

Inclusive growth reconciles the two: lifting today's poor (intra) through green, resource-efficient pathways that do not mortgage the future (inter). Instruments like the Sustainable Development Goals, common-but-differentiated responsibilities and India's LiFE mission seek precisely this balance.