19 May, 2025Third 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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Rohini Pande I4I Team 
27 January, 2025
- Videos
Does industrial water pollution harm agricultural production?
While toxic foam regularly appears on lakes and rivers in major Indian cities, water pollution has not received as much attention as air pollution. Examining the impact of industrial water pollution o...
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Nicholas Hagerty Anshuman Tiwari
- 02 January, 2025
- Articles
Economic dynamics of natural disasters: Evidence from the Kerala floods
To understand the economic impact of natural disasters, this article uses the 2018 floods in Kerala – a time when it received higher rainfall than the neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu...
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Robert C M Beyer Gogol Mitra Thakur Abhinav Narayanan
- 13 February, 2023
- Articles
Incentivising states to conserve forests
Central tax revenues will now be shared among states not just on the basis of population, area, and income, but also forest cover. In this article, Jonah Busch, an environmental economist at the Cent...
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Jonah Busch
- 11 May, 2015
- Perspectives
Making the best out of waste
Given rapid urbanisation and the increasing amounts of solid waste generated in India cities, there is a pressing need for effective waste management processes. In this article, Sourabh Bhattacharjee...
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Sourabh Bhattacharjee Ujjwal Kumar Sinha
- 22 April, 2015
- Notes from the Field
Can solar micro-grids deliver basic electricity access in Indian villages?
About one-third of India´s population remains without access to basic electricity services. This column discusses preliminary lessons from an experiment in rural Uttar Pradesh that seeks to set up s...
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Michaёl Aklin Patrick Bayer S.P. Harish Johannes Urpelainen
- 17 April, 2015
- Articles
Harnessing India's wind power potential
While India’s wind power sector has progressed significantly in the past decade, only about 22% of its potential has been harnessed so far. In this article, Deepthi Swamy - who was part of a team t...
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Deepthi Swamy
- 09 March, 2015
- Notes from the Field
Solar power for street vendors? Lessons from an experiment in Bihar
Rapid urbanisation in developing countries is aggravating the issue of insufficient access to energy for basic needs such as lighting. This column discusses lessons from an experiment in Bihar wherei...
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David Szakonyi Johannes Urpelainen
- 06 February, 2015
- Articles
Creating the climate for India's low-carbon growth story
The ‘Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth’ recently laid out a detailed roadmap for India to take on climate change mitigation proactively. In this note, Varad Pande – a m...
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Varad Pande
- 28 July, 2014
- Notes from the Field
Pricey diesel
India was recently ranked 174th out of 178 countries, on air pollution. A key contributing factor is diesel vehicles. This column shows that diesel subsidies benefit the rich more than the poor, and ...
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E. Somanathan
- 31 March, 2014
- Articles
Can a clean energy agenda take off in Delhi?
Energy transition in cities, through energy conservation measures and increased reliance on renewable energy, has become a key focus of climate change policies. This column outlines the clean energy ...
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Marie Helene Zerah
- 19 March, 2014
- Articles
Deforestation in the Himalayas: Myths and reality
It is widely believed that the extent of deforestation in developing countries is large and growing over time, and that this has significant adverse effects on local livelihoods. This column presents...
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Jean-Marie Baland Dilip Mookherjee
- 10 March, 2014
- Articles
Proposing a solution for Indo-US 'solar wars'
India’s national solar programme mandates the use of domestically manufactured components in solar power installations in the country. The US has filed a WTO case against India, alleging that the p...
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Saptak Ghosh
- 28 February, 2014
- Articles
Four changes to trade rules to facilitate climate change action
Global climate cooperation has collapsed but the need for action has not disappeared. This column argues that only radical technological progress can reconcile climate-change goals with development. ...
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Aaditya Mattoo Arvind Subramanian
- 24 January, 2014
- Articles
Running out of water, walking away from farming
Groundwater tables are falling in India. What will happen when water actually runs out? This column analyses the impact of water scarcity on farmers in Gujarat. It finds that farmers are failing to or...
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Ram Fishman
- 18 December, 2013
- Articles
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Tweets by Ideas4IndiaMost 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 ...
- Ridhima Gupta E. Somanathan
- 12 November, 2016
- Articles
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...
- Manisha Jain
- 02 May, 2022
- Perspectives
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...
- Michael Greenstone Rema Hanna
- 16 May, 2012
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