Blogs

A version of this blog was originally published on July 13, 2022 on Scroll.in

Streets are the largest contiguous public spaces in cities across the world. However, they should not be considered as mere conduits for traffic but must be looked at as spaces where people meet, and businesses thrive.

In India, the lack of pedestrian infrastructure makes the basic act of walking fraught...

“Not to find one's way around a city does not mean much. But to lose one's way in a city, as one loses one's way in a forest, requires some schooling. Street names must speak to the urban wanderer like the snapping of dry twigs, and little streets in the heart of the city must reflect the times of day.”
- Walter Benjamin, Berlin Childhood in the 1900s (1932)

In our digitally connected world, navigating an unfamiliar city is no longer an unsurmountable challenge. However, incorporating wayfinding practices like making basic information easily available in the form of...

This is a second in a series of blogs on community-led tree-based intervention to build climate resilience. Please read the first blog here.

The name Kawaki, is formed from two Malayalam words, kawu (grove) and aki (make) which translates to "make a grove". It is also a community-led urban greening movement implemented in Kochi by the city municipal corporation with the technical support of WRI India under the Cities4Forests program....

This is the first in a series of blogs exploring pathways to accelerate the e-mobility transition of India’s freight sector.

At COP26, India pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% by 2030. The sector of transportation logistics, one of the fastest growing in India and critical to economic growth, will need to transform considerably to achieve this goal. At present, the Indian freight...

This three-part blog series examines one of the many systems Mumbai relies on during the monsoons. The second photo essay, in the series, focuses on the urban settlements along the Mithi river. The "symptoms” observed call for a systemic approach in improving the health and flood resilience of the river. You can read the first blog in the series here.

On his 17 km walk along the Mithi, Abhijit Waghre observed the river’s water level, its flood protection...

This is a first in a series of blogs on community-led tree-based intervention to build climate resilience. Please read the second blog here.

The ever-increasing concrete surfaces in our cities absorb heat from solar irradiance, making the overall atmosphere unbearably hot and escalating energy demands by the residents. This phenomenon is better known as the ‘heat island effect’. Our cities also grapple with steadily rising levels of air...

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently revised its decade-old air quality guideline that now clearly indicates air pollution impacts human health at lower levels than previously understood. Home to ...

The second blog of our three-blog series on the Indian fertilizer industry discusses the requirement of ammonia as an intermediate in the manufacturing process of fertilizers and the role of hydrogen as a feedstock in ammonia synthesis. Read the first and third blog of the series.

The fertilizer industry consumes hydrogen in...

This blog is the first in a four-part series that highlights critical aspects of implementing the Mumbai Climate Action Plan. Focusing on the significance of conserving the 'Ecology' of the city, the authors outline four pathways of incorporating a sustainable landscape approach in developmental planning.

The impact of climate change on urban lives and livelihoods is worsening and this is evident in the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events, and heat days, over the past decade. Extreme weather...

This is the second blog in our three-part blog series, that explores key insights and learnings of the Grand Challenge and electric bus procurement in urban India. Read the first blog in the series here.

The Grand Challenge is a giant stride towards the electrification of India’s public transport, paving the way for accessible, affordable, safe, and clean public transport. Under the Grand Challenge, the state-owned Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL) announced one of the...