Blogs

This post originally appeared on Climate Home

India’s anticipated commitment to climate action will be nothing short of transformational given challenges on the ground. With the world’s third highest carbon emissions [fourth if the EU is counted as one block] to its name, a strong commitment could make a noticeable difference to prevent the rise of global sea levels, extreme weather events, heat waves and other climate impacts.

However, this global...

This blog originally appeared on Insights

India is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for renewable energy. The government has set ambitious renewable energy targets for this year of 175 gigawatts by 2022, an increase of 400 percent over 2014, with 100 GW from solar photovoltaics and another 60 GW from wind. But even as India looks to add these new wind and solar plants, it is working to absorb the renewable power it already generates.

India’s...

India is undergoing rapid urbanisation. About 600 million Indians will live in urban areas within fifteen years. Given that cities practically run on water, India must find a way to route clean, reliable water supplies to its citizens, helping meet their needs for drinking, hygiene and sanitation. The 2015 World Economic Forum identified “water supply crises” as one of the top five global risks, and as many as...

This post originally appeared on Insights

Climate change threatens virtually every community on Earth. Increasingly frequent and severe droughts, floods and heat waves will impact agriculture, food security, infrastructure, GDP, and lives and livelihoods. The World Bank estimates that the world should be prepared to spend $70 billion to $100 billion a year between 2010 and 2050 to...

Women account for 48.5% of the general population of India, but only constitute about 31% of the total work force in the country. You may think that this corresponds with what you know about the status of women in India. But, a deeper look at the trends, would shock you.

Shocking trends

First, as our economy grows, fewer women are joining the workforce. In fact, women’s workforce participation rate fell by almost 12 percentage points in six years (i.e., from...

This blog originally appeared in The Hindu Business Line

It is good news indeed that the Chief Minister intends to re-launch the BRT in an improved form. Hopefully, the city will use lessons from its mistakes to build better

Contrary to popular belief, the Delhi BRT (bus rapid transit) system was not a complete failure. A study by technical experts WRI India, EMBARQ and CST India found that despite its faults, the system provided better mobility to road users. It...

This piece originally appeared in The Indian Express

No responsible city government can afford to ignore the benefits of rapid transport. As cities grow, investments are needed to ensure that the majority of citizens can travel safely and rapidly. Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems are best placed to solve commuter problems in Indian cities. They take about a tenth of the cost and implementation time of metro systems, and can be easily expanded.

Any new public service must withstand...

Over 140,000 people lost their lives on our roads last year, giving India the dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accident victims in the world. As our country continues to motorise exponentially, this problem will only grow– unless we make urgent and far-reaching changes to our road safety approach.

Cyclists and Pedestrians Most at Risk

Any road safety strategy will mean nothing if it neglects to consider the mobility and safety of the most vulnerable road user groups, that is pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. In most major cities in India,...

India has the highest number of traffic-crash deaths in the world. Of the 140,000 fatalities that occur annually, more than 40 percent take place in urban areas. A large percentage of these are pedestrians and bicyclists, who typically comprise more than half of the road users in Indian cities. Often, motorists are booked for recklessness, whereas the actual cause and subsequent solution may lie elsewhere. Yet, the popular discourse around road safety is focused on measures that make vehicular-use safer, such as enforcing traffic rules, the use of helmets and seat belts and avoiding drunk-...

How can Mumbai become a Smart City that the nation is proud of? The recently published Draft Development Plan (DP) for Mumbai was so poorly received by various stakeholders that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis scrapped it on the 21st of April, 2015. It has to be reworked in just four months – an opportunity to bring in much needed change in the planning discourse.

Since the DP followed a traditional process of proposing land uses and development control regulations, it is no surprise that the plan did not deliver on the local needs, sentiments and aspirations of citizens. This...