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Environment

Clearing the air: Do India’s crop burning bans really work?

In December 2015, the National Green Tribunal instituted a ban on crop residue burning across five states. Utilising satellite data on crop fires and administrative data on fines levied, this article ...

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Yamuna River pollution: Problem of governance, not infrastructure

Despite decades of efforts to clean Delhi’s Yamuna, the river remains severely polluted. In this post, Naina Sharma contends that the situation is reflective of gaps in governance, rather than techn...

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Third Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture: Voluntary Carbon Markets: Challenges and Opportunities in Developing Economies

The Ashok Kotwal Memorial Lecture was instituted in 2022, in memory of our founding Editor-in-Chief, as an annual lecture on key issues in development. For the third edition on 11 December 2024, Profe...

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Going green while being in the red

In the third post of a three-part blog series, I4I Editor-in-Chief Parikshit Ghosh advocates for a holistic approach that harmonises India’s environmental policy, social safety nets, and macroeconom...

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India’s opportunity for sustainable growth

In the second post of a three-part blog series, Tim Dobermann and Nikita Sharma contend that it is important for India to choose a growth trajectory that prioritises raising living standards while min...

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The why and how of environmental protection: Examining the evidence

In the first post of a three-part blog series, I4I Editorial advisor Nalini Gulati summarises a selection of studies on the adverse impact of environmental degradation on human health as well as econo...

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India Sustainable Growth Conference, 2-4 May 2024

Hosted by the International Growth Centre, LSE STICERD’s Economics of Environment and Energy Programme, University of Warwick and Indian Statistical Institute, the India Sustainable Growth Conferenc...

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Safeguarding agricultural households against climate shocks

Extreme climate events are taking place more often and for longer, jeopardising the economic stability of agricultural households. This article shows that coping strategies adopted by households in re...

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Do women leaders improve environmental outcomes? Evidence from crop fires in India

This study looks at how women leadership improves environmental outcomes. Using satellite data from India, it compares incidence of crop fires between constituencies where women narrowly won or lost e...

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Does India’s air pollution impact more than just health?

Air pollution presents a significant risk to human health in India, a fact which is now widely appreciated. Less well-known is a body of evidence suggesting that air pollution harms the day-to-day fun...

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How feasible is it to phase out coal-fired power plants? Evidence from a global attitudes survey

Coal-fired power plants are a highly polluting energy source but people are either unaware or unable to convey their dissatisfaction about living with poor air quality. Using survey data from 51 low- ...

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Effects of climate shocks on sectoral inequality

Over the last three decades, agricultural and industrial sector workers have suffered consumption losses due to temperature rise while those in the services sector saw consumption increases. This arti...

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Designing transfer payments to reduce crop burning in India

Air pollution caused due to crop burning has severe health impacts, particularly in north India. Despite the introduction of a conditional cash transfer programme to adopt environmentally friendly pra...

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Climate change and riverine pollution: The need for high-quality environment data in India

Controlling water pollution and protecting water resources in India requires comprehensive collection and monitoring of data. In this article, Pohit and Mehta describe a project undertaken by NCAER an...

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Keeping development at the forefront of India’s long-term climate strategy

India’s Long Term Low Emissions Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) sets out multiple low-carbon transitions, highlighting that climate action will be intimately tied to developmental processes. In this ...

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Recent Contributors

Digvijay S.

Digvijay S. Negi

Ashoka University

Vaibhav

Vaibhav Chowdhary

Ashoka Center for People Centric Energy Transition

Anandjit

Anandjit Goswami

Ashoka Centre for a People-centric Energy Transiti

Manisha

Manisha Shah

University of California, Los Angeles

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Paul Stainier

University of Pennsylvania

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Alan Barreca

UC Los Angeles

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Allan Hsiao

Stanford University

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Most Popular Environment Posts

Happy Seeder: A solution to agricultural fires in north India

It is believed that much of the pollution in Delhi in November every year originates in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana where farmers burn their fields to dispose of crop residue. This ...

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Carbon dioxide emissions from India’s industries: Data sources and discrepancies

Industries are one of the most significant contributors to energy-related carbon-dioxide (energy-CO2) emissions in India – the share of industries in the total emissions was 25%, second only to powe...

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Has environmental regulation been successful in India?

India has an impressive number of environmental regulations – but have they been a success? This column presents evidence that while initiatives such as catalytic converters for cars have reduced ai...

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