'Saving energy and other resources for the future without sacrificing people's comfort in the present' is the definition of which of the following concepts?

The correct answer is C) Sustainable development. The idea was popularised by the Brundtland Commission's report Our Common Future (1987), which defined it as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. The question's wording, saving resources for the future without sacrificing present comfort, is a plain-language version of that definition.

• A) Economic growth is a quantitative rise in national output, measured by GDP or GNI. It says nothing about who benefits or what happens to resources.
• B) Economic development covers growth plus qualitative change: poverty reduction, better health, education and distribution of income. The question is about resource conservation across generations, which this concept does not define.
• D) Human development is measured through the UNDP's Human Development Index (health, education, income), first published in 1990. It focuses on people's capabilities, not on resource use over time.

Connect this to GS-III (Environment and Economy): the 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals and the 2015 Paris Agreement are built on this idea of balancing economic, social and environmental goals.

Trap: aspirants often reduce sustainable development to environmental conservation alone. It has three pillars, economic, social and environmental, and the definition has to be read as an intergenerational balance.