
Blogs
The blogs are part of WRI India’s mission to provide unbiased, expert analysis on the most important environmental issues facing the world today.
In today’s rapid-fire, fragmented information culture, we hope these insights will provide a measure of clarity to decision-makers worldwide.
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by and -Innovative financing will be key to restoring public transport
This blog was originally published in Mint on 14 July.
A little over 100 days since the covid-19 pandemic brought India to a standstill, damaging lives, livelihoods and the economy, a glimmer of hope has finally appeared. After months of lockdown, the economy is showing some signs of recovery.
In the coming months, as we step out of the lockdown, our focus will be on rebuilding livelihoods through an economic...
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by -Photo essay: People-centred street designs as lessons from Raahgiri Day Street stories
Cities throughout India and the world are now in the process of recovering from a never-seen-before complete lockdown that was implemented as a safety measure against the ongoing novel coronavirus induced pandemic. This was necessary to maintain physical distance, leaving empty streets around the world as we sat indoors, wondering what we were missing out on. Cities across the globe are now working towards reimagining streets to accommodate the new normal in a post-COVID...
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by -Could COVID-19 help rethink India’s informal sector issues?
India witnessed a vast exodus of informal sector workers in the last few months. This has opened a can of worms questioning the role of these workers in India’s growth story. Urban India depends largely on the informal rural workforce that migrates to cities in search of livelihood and helps build these ever-expanding cities. While the informal workforce contributes significantly to creating and building our cities, there work continues to be undocumented. The situation exploded particularly badly when, in March India instituted a highly controlling lockdown and subsequently...
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by , and -Applying Demand aggregation across value chains for Green Recovery
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated societal and economic challenges. Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India have been particularly hit by the pandemic, subsequent lockdown and exodus of migrant workers that followed the lockdown. While the economy is slowly opening, a key concern for MSMEs is that they may not be able to operate at full capacities. On the occasion of the 2nd edition of International Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Day, we must find ways to unlock their potential to achieve the...
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by , , and -Feeding into metro rail: New mobility services for last mile commute
Responding to rapid urbanization and growing congestion, several Indian cities have invested in metro rail networks to provide sustainable and affordable mass transit that can cater to large volumes of people. However, a majority of metro systems have not been able to reach their projected ridership. This shortfall has been attributed to a lack of comprehensive first-and last-mile solutions to connect homes, offices, and other activity centers with metro stations. In 2016, 70% of potential Bangalore Metro users cited poor first- and last-mile connectivity as a reason for not using it,...
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by and -Going local for Climate Action
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our times and is proving to be one of the greatest challenges faced by humanity. It is wreaking havoc around the globe and has forced most of human work to shut down. However, these uncertain times have inadvertently helped the environment, with frequent sightings of...
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by and -Energy for Development in Climate Vulnerable Areas
Access to electricity ensures increased economic productivity, healthcare services and better educational prospects and is thus crucial for socio-economic development. While grid expansion and advances in the distributed Renewable Energy (RE) industry have made significant efforts to reach unserved and under-served populations, several livelihoods, healthcare and educational facilities still lack this vital resource.
Caught in a vicious cycle of under-development, a potent tool for the rural and remote populations to break out of cyclical poverty is access to electricity. Low...
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by -Could the pandemic help rethink Bengaluru’s traffic issues?
By investing in cycling infrastructure now, the city with one of the most severe traffic congestions in the world, can recover from the lockdown more sustainably and build more resilience.
The number of COVID-19 cases in Bengaluru could have been at par with other major Indian cities, but quick and decisive actions by the government have helped stem that risk. As the city crawls back to normalcy and people look at safer mobility options, Bengaluru now faces the...
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by -South Asia Confronts a Double Disaster: Cyclone and COVID-19
This blog was originally published on WRI.
The axiom for this anxious moment is: coronavirus makes everything more complicated. That has been the case in Bangladesh and eastern India in the season’s first tropical cyclone, Amphan, where high winds and lashing rain threatened the region’s most vulnerable populations. Decades of preparation, plus a weakening of the storm as it made landfall, appear to have mitigated Amphan’s initial impact: the...