Escandita Tewari
Research Associate, Adaptation and Resilience
Escandita Tewari is a Research Associate in the Adaptation & Resilience vertical at Sustainable Futures Collaborative. Her current research focuses on heat governance in India, particularly examining the policies that shape heat resilience. She is interested in the dynamics of public demand during heatwaves and the landscape of climate finance. Previously, Escandita served as a Summer Analyst at NITI Aayog's Public Finance & Policy Analysis Division, contributing to projects assessing India's climate finance landscape. She also interned in the founder's office of Alt Carbon, a climate-tech startup based in Darjeeling, where her work involved strategic partnerships, public policy, and climate finance initiatives in the Global South. Additionally, Escandita supported parliamentary work as part of the office of Dr. Fauzia Khan, Member of Parliament, during the Monsoon Session, assisting with key parliamentary interventions in the Rajya Sabha. Escandita holds a Bachelor's degree from the flagship Integrated Program in Management (IPM) at the National Academy of Legal Studies & Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad, where she was part of the program’s founding batch. She was also selected as a Don Lavoie Fellow at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University, where she studied political economy.
Publications
Opinions
Adaptation and Resilience
Why action on extreme heat in Indian cities is falling short
Aditya Valiathan Pillai, Tamanna Dalal, Ishan Kukreti et al
Carbon Brief | 19 March 2025
Adapting to increasing extreme heat will be central to urban living for decades to come. A late start to these efforts will increase pressure on the state in the future and risks exposing citizens to harms from warming that could be avoided.
Reports
Adaptation and Resilience
Is India Ready for a Warming World? How Heat Resilience Measures Are Being Implemented for 11% of India’s Urban Population in Some of Its Most At-Risk Cities
Aditya Valiathan Pillai, Tamanna Dalal, et al.
19 March 2025
This report assesses India’s readiness for the extreme heat of a +1.5 degree world. It examines the implementation of extreme heat policies in 9 major Indian cities — Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mumbai, and Surat — which are among the most at risk from future heat (as per our climate models), collectively covering over 11% of India’s urban population. This is the first systematic multi-city analysis of heat action implementation in India.