India's rapid expansion of renewable energy has implications beyond electricity generation, particularly for rural livelihoods, agriculture and local economic activity. This paper examines the pathways through which renewable energy can contribute to rural livelihoods, productive economic activity, financial participation and sustainable rural development in India. An integrative secondary-research design was used, combining official 2024 energy indicators with policy documents, institutional reports and peer-reviewed studies. By December 2024, India's installed renewable-energy capacity reached 209.44 GW, including 97.86 GW of solar and 48.16 GW of wind. During 2024, 28.64 GW of renewable capacity was added, while rural power-supply availability reached 21.9 hours per day. PM-KUSUM had also facilitated the installation of more than 6.1 lakh standalone solar pumps by December 2024. The evidence identifies four major pathways: reducing dependence on conventional energy, enabling productive agricultural and non-farm activities, supporting livelihood diversification, and creating opportunities for formal finance and decentralized institutions. However, these benefits are neither automatic nor evenly distributed and depend on affordability, asset ownership, infrastructure, technical capacity, market access, groundwater conditions and institutional factors. The paper argues for a shift from a capacity-expansion approach towards a Green Rural Development perspective that integrates renewable energy with agriculture, livelihoods, rural finance, local governance, skills and environmental sustainability.