Purpose of the study: Sustainable development is an ideology which revolves around the economic, environment and social spheres. It could be said that sustainability lies in the intersection of these three individual spheres. Considering the assumption that economic sphere being the largest and having more impact on sustainability, this study was confined to this dimension of sustainability. The United Nation has given Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are defined in a list of 169 SDG “targets”. The present paper has been planned with objectives to examine the factors which play a significant role in the sustainable development in under-developing economies. Indian economic conditions in recent times have changed drastically due to global slowdown and some economic reforms made by government, considering the situation this study also identified factors which are important for sustainable development in new economic scenario. Approach/methodology: The study followed the pragmatic methodology and used both qualitative and quantitative approach to achieve its research objectives. This study has two-phase one is a comparative analysis which deals with mapping the position of India in the top five economies regarding sustainable growth and development with specific reference to economic dimension. It is been observed that due to recent development in the global economy and some internal factors related to fundamental economic reforms by the government, India’s economic scenario has changed substantially. Because of the drastic change in the economy, the authors of the study have included the second dimension to this study which deals with the identification of factors relevant in the contemporary Indian situation for sustainable growth. This second phase of the study is based on the primary data. Conclusion: The study has identified eight such factors that are relevant to the contemporary environment and are considered important for achieving the long term goal of the sustainable growth and development of India. These factors are different from long term vision goals given by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. Practical implications: India needs to follow the guidelines provided by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 in the form of SDGs to attain sustainable growth and development. But only following these SDGs may not be appropriate considering the changing economic and political environment in India. Hence this study proposes factors that are relevant in contemporary India and for sustainable development of the country these aspects should be focused along with other SDGs.