Re-examining the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for India via the multiple threshold NARDL procedure

Irrespective of the vast array of empirical evaluations pertaining to the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis, both for India and other countries, previous studies, amid divergent submissions, inadvertently failed to highlight the relevant threshold that ensures significant reductions in environmental decay. Additionally, the implications of environmental-control technology on environmental quality are also lacking mostly in the context of Indian economy. Thus, this study enlists environmental-control technology and other relevant factors over the period 1980–2018 and employs the novel multiple threshold nonlinear ARDL technique, a model rarely applied in previous studies for updated empirical narratives. Accordingly, the empirical evidence rectifies that the variables converged to long-run equilibrium. Furthermore, from the tercile partial deviations, it is established that at the middle threshold (GDP²_W2), pollution shrinks more significantly amid rising income, thereby validating the EKC hypothesis for India. Likewise, environmental-control technologies provided only a short-term insignificant carbon neutrality pathway, whereas they provided long-term insignificant emission increasing effects. This implies that the depth of such technology in India is inadequate to invoke cleaner environments at all times. Likewise, energy consumption and urbanization processes are significant environmental polluters, while trade openness provides insignificant long- and short-term carbon emission effects. Against this background, economic growth within the middle threshold promises a more sustainable environment amid rising national income at all times. Moreover, given its short-term outcomes, strengthening the depth of environmental-control technology is imperative to ensure a long-lasting clean environment in India.