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Ridhima Gupta
Ridhima is an Assistant Professor in the department of Economic Sciences at IISER Bhopal. Her specialisation is environmental economics and agricultural economics. Her current work involves emissions from the livestock sector in India and linkages between electrification and modern fuel use. Ridhima’s past research has been published in Climatic Change, Climate Change Economics and is covered in popular media such as The Huffington Post. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
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The simple economics of clean air
One of the main reasons why north-western India chokes on smog every November is the burning of residue from the rice crop by farmers. In this article, Somanathan and Gupta contend that public auctions to sell machines that weed out crop residue at a subsidised rate could help stop stubble burning. It will cost the agriculture ministry a fraction of its annual budget.
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 column discusses a simple, practical and cost-effective solution to deal with the problem.