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Addressing water scarcity in Maharashtra: Need for a policy shift

  • Perspectives

Third Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture: Voluntary Carbon Markets: Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Economies

The Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture was instituted in 2022, in memory of our founding Editor-in-Chief, as an annual lecture on key issues in development. For the third edition on 11 December 2024, Profe...

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Does industrial water pollution harm agricultural production?

While toxic foam regularly appears on lakes and rivers in major Indian cities, water pollution has not received as much attention as air pollution. Examining the impact of industrial water pollution o...

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Economic dynamics of natural disasters: Evidence from the Kerala floods

To understand the economic impact of natural disasters, this article uses the 2018 floods in Kerala – a time when it received higher rainfall than the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu...

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Financing scale-up of rooftop solar power via municipal bonds

While India’s solar power generation capacity has increased dramatically in recent years, the rate of deployment of rooftop solar is still insufficient to achieve the national targets. In this post,...

  • Perspectives

Rural Electrification with Off-Grid Community Microgrids: An Impact Evaluation in Uttar Pradesh, India

This project assesses the socioeconomic effects of solar microgrids. The lack of access to electricity is a major obstacle to the socioeconomic development of more than a billion people.

  • IGC Research on India

Pollution Externalities and Health: A Study of Indian Rivers

In many developing countries, environmental quality remains low and policies to improve it have been inconsistently effective. This project conducts a case study of environmental policy, focussing on ...

  • IGC Research on India

Impact of groundwater accessibility on performance of firms

While labour laws and capital have been identified as key constraints to industrial growth, there is scant evidence on whether accessibility of vital natural resources, such as groundwater, also influ...

  • IGC Research on India

Temperature and human capital in India

A large proportion of the population in India has agrarian livelihoods that remain climate-exposed. The number of hot days per year in the country are expected to double by the end of this century. T...

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Clearing the air: The effects of transparency on plant pollution emissions

Of the 20 cities in the world with the worst fine particulate air pollution, 13 are in India. If good information on who pollutes is available, then traditional environmental regulation can bring down...

  • IGC Research on India

Adaptation to persistent drought and groundwater depletion: Evidence from Karnataka

By using a random sample of households from the 2004 KSNDMC study, this project conducts a comparative study of households’ coping capacity to two prolonged, 3-year droughts occurring a decade apart...

  • IGC Research on India

The simple economics of clean air

One of the main reasons why north-western India chokes on smog every November is the burning of residue from the rice crop by farmers. In this article, Somanathan and Gupta contend that public auctio...

  • Perspectives

Indoor air pollution and stunting among Indian children

While the conversation on air quality has been focussed largely on outdoor air pollution, millions of deaths occur due to indoor air pollution as well. Based on 2005–2006 National Family Health Surv...

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Why Asian cities should become focal points for climate change mitigation

In this article, Naini Jayaseelan, former Secretary, Environment, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, contends that mega cities in South and South-East Asia offer huge opportunities for...

  • Perspectives

Electrified transport: Countdown to 2030

The Government of India is aiming to have only electric vehicles operating in the country by 2030. Despite the various policy initiatives that are being undertaken to make progress towards this ambiti...

  • Perspectives

Are India's government-subsidised solar shops thriving or barely surviving?

Government of India’s Akshay Urja programme sought to support the establishment of at least one shop per district for the sale of subsidised solar-powered technologies. Based on a survey of shop own...

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Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

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Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

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Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai

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Ashoka University

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Most Popular Environment Posts

Happy Seeder: A solution to agricultural fires in north India

It is believed that much of the pollution in Delhi in November every year originates in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn their fields to dispose of crop residue. This ...

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Carbon dioxide emissions from India’s industries: Data sources and discrepancies

Industries are one of the most significant contributors to energy-related carbon-dioxide (energy-CO2) emissions in India – the share of industries in the total emissions was 25%, second only to powe...

  • Perspectives

Has environmental regulation been successful in India?

India has an impressive number of environmental regulations – but have they been a success? This column presents evidence that while initiatives such as catalytic converters for cars have reduced ai...

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