Blue Sky Thinking: What is Needed
Date : November 17, 2017
Before we despair at ever seeing blue skies above Delhi by fixing its awful air quality, we must remember that such situations have prevailed in other major cities like London and Los Angeles and have been tackled successfully. This did not happen overnight but took several years working to a thought out comprehensive plan. What is needed? First a recognition that this is a problem that can be ...
Urban Renewal in India: Or Not
Date : November 1, 2017
During the British Raj, military cantonments were established across the country. For space availability and strategic reasons, these were originally established at some distance from urban centres. There are presently 62 notified Military Cantonments in India occupying an area of 157,000 acres (such as Delhi, Ambala, Agra etc.) There are also another 44 non-notified cantonments (Mumbai, Bangalore...
F20 Foundations Platform on Climate Change
Date : November 1, 2017
The F20 Foundations Platform is an alliance of over 40 foundations that have joined forces in order to further shape the political discourse on future sustainability measures. At the July 2017 G20 Summit in Hamburg, the Platform called for common and transnational action towards a zero-carbon economy and the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda. Further, the Foundations Platform aims to hi...
The Auto Industry and the Public Good
Date : May 9, 2017
Let me start with two quotes from Peter Drucker: “It is management’s public responsibility to make whatever is genuinely in the public good become the enterprise’s own self-interest.” “The proper social responsibility of business is to tame the dragon – that is, to turn a social problem into economic opportunity and economic benefit, into productive capacity, into human competenc...
The Cleaning of the Cook Stove
Date : April 4, 2017
Recent press reports indicate some very welcome trends in cleaning up the cooking fuel being used. State run oil companies have reported signing up 30 million cooking gas consumers in 2016-17, with 2/3 of them from poorer families. In the last three years, the number of active LPG consumers have gone up by 58 million from 140 million in 2014 to 198 million in 2017. This means that 71% of Indian...
Staying on Track from Paris: Meeting our Climate Goals
Date : February 9, 2017
Now that the Paris Agreement on climate change has been ratified, India must plan on making good on its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Implementing the NDCs will require India to develop innovative policies, legislative and institutional frameworks, mobilize the required resources and find solutions to promote newer, cleaner technologies. Shifting the energy curve from coal-based ener...