Madhav Pai

CEO, WRI India

Bio

Madhav is a respected thinker-practitioner who has been working on issues of urbanization, climate change and environment in various countries over the past few decades.

Madhav joined WRI India in 2008 to become part of the Institute’s founding team. He has played a definitive leadership role at WRI India that has helped it reach its present position. He has conciously invested his energies in nurturing talent to build large, high-performance teams at WRI India that can support the design, implementation and scaling up of pioneering solutions to India’s complex challenges.

Madhav graduated from the University of Mumbai as a civil engineer and went on to earn a Master’s degree in Transport Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. His own research and programmatic work has evolved to prefer systems thinking as an approach to negotiate with the myriad complexities of the contemporary city.

Under his leadership as Executive Director of WRI India Ross Center and Director of EMBARQ India, the team has supported implementation of several pioneering projects. Notable successes include the Indore BRT, the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), the Raahgiri campaign for democratizing public streets, and the National Electric Bus Program (NEBP). The team has also informed multiple national, state, and city level policy discussions on urban and regional planning, road safety, urban transport, transit-oriented development, electric mobility and clean air.

Madhav is a published author and has written several research papers for renowned journals as well as various articles and books on urban transport, urban planning, resilience and clean air.

Madhav lives in Mumbai with his wife Chaya and their daughter Ahilya. He is a wildlife enthusiast and is often seen bicycling with Ahilya on the streets of Mumbai.

He is a firm believer in public transport. He enjoys green open spaces. He experienced a sense of loss while growing up seeing Mumbai’s playgrounds disappear and buildings appear in their places. Madhav believes this sense of continual loss eventually led to his deep interest in environmental and developmental issues.

Blogs

G20 Highlights: Climate Finance, Just Transition and Food Security
by Madhav Pai - September 12, 2023
The G20 Leaders’ Summit that recently concluded in New Delhi released its much-anticipated G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, recognizing climate change, energy transition, and food and nutrition security as some of the key points of discussion under its preamble, For the
5 Ways India Can Use Innovation to Meet Its Urbanization Challenge
by Madhav Pai and Jaya Dhindaw - January 27, 2023
Shaping efficient and equitable urban service delivery for sustainable growth

India is projected to overtake China as the most populous country in the world this year. The shifting demographics are bound to see heightened demand for education, healthcare, jobs, and civic amenities, putting existing systems under stress. Current urban services delivery models,
Why We Need to Prioritize Traffic Engineering for Street Safety
by Madhav Pai and Dhawal Ashar - November 02, 2022
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
Opportunity for Electric Two-wheeler (e-2W) in Hyperlocal Economy of India
by Dr. Parveen Kumar, Leona Nunes and Madhav Pai - July 08, 2021
With the pandemic a state of all pervasive geographical immobility has prevailed for a while now. There has also been an increased dependence on delivery of essentials goods. The pandemic has adversely impacted the workforce, testing capacities of the existing systems. During this ongoing crisis, home delivery options have become the “new normal” in domains like healthcare, food, grocery, and
Metro Lines: Game Changing Opportunity for Locating Jobs in Mumbai
by Sree Kumar Kumaraswamy, Madhav Pai and Kaustubh Chuke - March 23, 2021
The Union Budget 2021 laid out an elaborate financial package to develop metro rail lines across cities. While more metro lines are being envisioned with a focus on building back the economy, post-pandemic mass transit infrastructure also needs to
Tackling Transport Emissions
by Madhav Pai - January 06, 2021
This blog was originally published on NIUA.org.

Transport sector is a significant contributor and hence tackling emissions from this sector will go a long way in reducing the overall air-quality problems of the city and the region.

Let’s look at Delhi, a range of emission
Physical Distancing on Mumbai’s Trains Is Nearly Impossible, and Station Design Is a Big Reason Why
by Leona Nunes, Lubaina Rangwala and Madhav Pai - September 17, 2020
This blog was originally published on TheCityFix.

Mumbai’s suburban rail system is the world’s busiest, serving
From My Window: A View of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Mumbai
by Madhav Pai - April 23, 2020
Inequality is shaping how people are experiencing COVID-19 in cities to a startling degree. The vulnerability of the urban poor is striking
Planning for People: Agenda 2022 for an Inclusive and Sustainable Bengaluru
by Jaya Dhindaw and Madhav Pai - July 20, 2018
Recognised as a city offering an abundance of opportunity in India, Bengaluru has witnessed significant increases in business investments and urban migration over the last few decades. Today, it is home to over 10.45 million people, contributes nearly
The Mumbai rail stampede was waiting to happen. Here’s how we can prevent a similar tragedy
by Madhav Pai - October 16, 2017
This piece was originally published on scroll.in.

Friday’s stampede at the Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai was a tragedy waiting to happen. I speak from my own horrifying experiences of being stuck in dense queues at Lower Parel