Blog Posts: development

A slightly modified version of this piece appeared on Times blog on May 11.

Social distancing, isolation and locking down of cities and oneself is the norm in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this, inequality in cities has been laid bare, exposing the startling vulnerability of the urban poor. The current economic slowdown is being...

The global spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) highlights the intensity of global interconnections, and social and economic interdependence between regions. The pandemic has reinforced the critical need for access to safe and assured water supply for all, as described in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, for preventing rapid transmission of the disease.

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The last two decades have seen a rampant rise in environmental challenges being faced by cities and countries globally. In India, too, challenges related to air pollution, waste management, scarcity of water, conservation of natural resources, and loss of biodiversity, amongst others have been increasing. This photo essay uses animations based on satellite images to show the effect these challenges have had on our country.

Urbanisation

In the last two decades, India has urbanised at an unprecedented rate. This image shows the growth of Bangalore between 1990 and 2015....

Intersections are locations where roads merge or cross each other, thus putting multiple modes of traffic from different directions into potential conflict. Although they cover only a fraction of the 2000 kilometre long road network in Mumbai, they account for nearly 40 percent of all high risk zones, or blackspots, in the city. They are also where almost a third of all road traffic fatalities occur. What is even more alarming is that more than half of these fatalities are pedestrians.

Earlier this year, the Mumbai Traffic Police and Vital Strategies, under the Bloomberg...

This blog post originally appeared on WRI.org.

Ten years ago, Sashiram was a job-seeker with a limited education and uncertain employment prospects. Today, he is a solar technician who supervises the installation of solar home systems in multiple locations and is a four-time winner of “Best Employee” at an off-grid energy enterprise in Kundapur, near Manipal, India. People in the villages he serves respect him because he provides a basic need: He electrifies...

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...

The year will see global leaders make some critical decisions for the world economy and the environment, impacting the future of current and future generations. India’s newly elected government represents a unique new opportunity to deliver this. The country’s economy, now valued at $2.1 trillion, needs to follow a trajectory of robust, equitable and sustainable growth that includes all of its 1.25 billion citizens. All eyes have been on India as it announced its Union Budget for 2015-16, an important vehicle for transporting millions of its citizens out of poverty. Being the new...

Climate change has drastic implications on societies, locally and globally. It affects social development factors like poverty, infrastructure, security, and economics. In impoverished communities, the co-relation between climate change and social vulnerability and inequality is particularly evident often resulting in reduced food security and access to safe drinking water, amongst other things. It is clear that the burden of climate change will be borne differently by different people, based on geographies, generations, age classes, income...

With the world’s second largest population, India faces crucial economic and development decisions over the coming decades, with significant implications for people and the environment. The trajectory adopted by India to provide equitable economic development and sustainable livelihood opportunities for its 1.25 billion citizens is critical. Amidst the challenges to achieve its economic, social, environmental and political objectives, 2015 is an opportune time for India, with its new political leadership being focused on growing the economy in increasingly sustainable ways. WRI India aims...