Publication Type: Books and book chapters

Re-Powering Rural Dignity: Rural Transformation Through Energy Transition

Abstract


In the electric power discourse, rural India holds an undignified space. Non-payment for electricity consumption by rural households, free power for farmlands, power theft and pilferage, and the high cost of supplying to geographically dispersed rural load centres have been seen as a bane for the electric power system in India. Moreover, the organised demand for subsidised electricity in rural areas is alleged to be the root cause for a rising and unsustainable pattern of electricity-centred competitive populism. On the other hand, owing to these allegations, rural India is often deprived of a reliable electricity supply and the dignity of consumer service to the extent that electricity access has no meaningful impact on productivity and human well-being.

In this backdrop, this chapter argues that the ongoing transition in the electric power systems from fossil fuel to renewable energy is an opportunity to rethink rural energy demand and thus restore rural dignity in the nation’s growth discourse. The chapter suggests ways to harness renewable energy, particularly solar energy, and reliable access to electricity to boost rural productivity in farm and non-farm activities, diversify rural livelihoods, and thus, contribute to building a resilient rural India. It envisions dignified access to modern energy in rural India through the promotion of electric-powered on-farm value additions, expansion of non-farm activities, in ways that are sensitive to intersectional barriers, and the enhancement of rural energy demand and ability to pay for the cost of electricity.

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Heat Action Plans: A Cautionary Note and a Way Forward

Introduction


Heat extremes have given rise to a new tool in public policy: the heat action plan. They define when and how the state should react to extreme heat and feature a script of actions that stretch across the breadth of government machinery. They are ambitious in scope, linking science, early warning systems, emergency aid, infrastructure change and coordinating institutions together.

Reviews of heat plans in democracies across the world suggest that they generally lack legislative or financial backing, which makes them less likely to be implemented. A recent analysis of the implementation of heat plans in India, a country recognised as an early mover in heat planning, showed that the plans focus on important short-term emergency responses to heat (such as on water stations or on the designation of public cooling), while falling short in the implementation of long-term structural changes such as increasing shade coverage, changing building codes, or preparing the grid for future cooling demand.

An important area of future research is to find how common this focus on the short-term is across developing countries, where larger shares of the population are heat-exposed, and state capacity is low. While the contents of heat action plans have been reviewed across regions, far fewer studies examine their implementation. Social scientists and policy researchers must offer closer inspections of their actual effects on historical rhythms of summertime governance.

This essay is part of the white paper, ‘Critical Perspectives on Extreme Heat in India’ by the Salata Institute’s Climate Adaptation in South Asia research cluster.

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How Hot Is Too Hot?

Summary


Extreme heat is an increasingly regular feature of India’s climate, catalysing governments, public health agencies, and civil society to develop heat action plans (HAPs), policies, and emergency response measures to safeguard the public. Yet key questions remain unanswered about the thresholds that define dangerous heat and the evidence supporting interventions to mitigate its health impacts.

A central challenge in crafting any action plan or emergency response is deciding on its trigger point—the conditions above which exposure becomes hazardous and protective measures must be enacted. The most intuitive answer to the question “how hot is too hot?” is when conditions exceed the capabilities of human physiology. But this question cannot be answered without first asking, “too hot for what?” and also, “too hot for whom?” Even from a physiological perspective, these are difficult questions—and they become even more complex when translated into explicit triggers for HAPs, emergency responses, and other interventions.

A key barrier to deciding which interventions should be prioritised is a lack of data on their effectiveness, particularly in the Indian context. Even the establishment of robust evidence supporting the efficacy of an intervention does not guarantee that lives will be saved in the real world, as effectiveness can be compromised if the intervention comes with large economic costs. Identification and evaluation of solutions must therefore be heavily grounded in local context, to ensure feasibility and scalability in the long term.

This essay is part of the white paper, ‘Critical Perspectives on Extreme Heat in India’ by the Salata Institute’s Climate Adaptation in South Asia research cluster.

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What is the Health Agenda for Climate Adaptation?

Introduction


Extreme heat poses the most direct and immediate threat to human health and well-being. Rising temperatures exacerbate infectious disease patterns, reduce agricultural productivity, and strain India’s already burdened health system. Without urgent investments in adaptation, escalating heat and climate impacts will outpace the capacity of India’s health infrastructure and workforce, deepening inequities across regions and populations. To frame a credible health agenda for climate adaptation, we first need to understand the limits of what we know, and why our data systems fail to capture the true scale of climate-related health impacts.

Accurately measuring the health impacts of heat is a central challenge in developing a credible climate health agenda. Building an evidence base will require local, contextually grounded research and improved epidemiological data. Timely and transparent communication of uncertainty must become a central norm in climate health modeling. Beyond scientific uncertainty, India’s ability to measure and respond to heat-health impacts is further constrained by fragmented data systems. Bridging these gaps requires both regulatory reform and a shift in mindset.

To be meaningful, the health agenda for climate adaptation must first center heat, the most pervasive and measurable stressor linking climate change and health. This essay is part of the white paper, ‘Critical Perspectives on Extreme Heat in India’ by the Salata Institute’s Climate Adaptation in South Asia research cluster.

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Air Pollution: Public Health Impacts and Policy Measures

Introduction

Air pollution and its impact on human health represent a slow and ongoing public health emergency. The detrimental effects of air pollution span from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases to adverse pregnancy outcomes and developmental problems in children and contribute to premature mortality across the developed and developing world. Air pollution, including microscopic PM and gaseous pollutants, can harm lung function and affect the cardiovascular system by causing oxidative stress, inflammation, altered heart rhythms, and disruptions in blood pressure. PM2.5 (PM smaller than 2.5 microns) can also penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream, affecting multiple organs and systems (Izzotti et al. 2022). The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classed PM2.5 as a cause of lung cancers, building on evidence showcasing the carcinogenic effects of both vehicular diesel pollution and coal-burning emissions (Balakrishnan et al. 2015).

The 2019 India sub-national burden of disease study estimated that exposure to ambient and household air pollution contributed to 1.67 million deaths and 53.5 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, amounting to 17.8% of total deaths and 11.5% of total DALYs, respectively. The economic loss associated with this exposure was estimated at $36.8 billion or 1.36% of GDP (A. Pandey et al. 2020). More recent results using similar approaches indicate an increase in air pollution’s burden of death to over 2.1 million deaths annually in India (State of Global Air 2024). Death rates from various sources of air pollution have changed substantially since 1990, with death rates from ambient PM2.5 increasing by 115.3% and that from household air pollution (primarily from traditional biomass-burning cookstoves) declining by 64.2%.

While the declines in household air pollution impacts are heartening, the increases in death rates from ambient air pollution are only likely to increase in the coming years, with India rapidly urbanising and industrialising. Many of the world’s most polluted cities in the world are in India, several of them tier-2 and 3 cities (IQ Air 2023). Combined with the growing evidence base on air pollution’s health impacts and the need to capitalise on its demographic dividend, there is a greater urgency than ever to tackle the all-pervasive challenge of air pollution.
 

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Climate Change: Policy, Institutional, and Legal Framework

Abstract

Transforming towards a low-carbon, climate-resilient society will require reimagining existing governance arrangements. This chapter in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India‘ documents how India’s policies, institutions, and legal structures have changed in response to climate change. These developments have been opportunistic in character, with policy changes preceding institutional development. Policies are many and widespread, therefore, but lack strategic coherence. A more deliberate approach would bring with it enhanced governance requirements, including new structures for coordination, deliberation, and strategy-setting. This chapter pays attention to the prospects for climate law in India in this context, discussing different approaches to constructing firmer legal foundations for climate action.

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Air Quality Regulation

Abstract

This chapter in ‘The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Natural Resources Law in India‘ unpacks the key components of air quality regulation in India. It provides an overview of the regulatory and institutional framework that governs some of the major sources of air pollution in the country, focusing primarily on national laws and policies. It identifies four main challenges in regulating air quality: weaknesses in regulatory design; capacity and capability constraints in regulatory institutions; flawed policy-making; and the inadequacy of hard regulation in delivering cleaner air. The chapter concludes by suggesting certain pathways for reform: through legal amendments, institutional strengthening, and development of technical capacity for sound policy-making.

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Synergistic Impact of Air Pollution and Heat on Health and Economy in India

Abstract

In recent years, developing countries have been grappling with two significant environmental challenges—air pollution and increasing temperature. The impact of these issues on health and the economy has been extensively studied, leading to a growing body of literature highlighting their individual consequences. Understanding the synergistic effect of air pollution and increasing temperature on human well-being is a new topic of research that has received little attention in developing nations.

This chapter, published in the book The Climate-Health-Sustainability Nexus: Understanding the Interconnected Impact on Populations and the Environment (Springer), aims to address this gap in knowledge by thoroughly examining the existing literature to understand the combined influence of these environmental stressors and their implications for global health and the economy. We look into the trends of global exposure to air pollution and temperature and explore the pathophysiological pathways through which air pollution and increasing temperature affect human health. Our findings point to a severe lack of evidence on the synergistic impact of the two on human health in India. In the face of increasing climate vulnerability, the Indian economy is exposed to large degrees of risk through direct and indirect costs. It is crucial that the interplay between air pollution and heat be studied in depth. By dissecting these pathways, policymakers and healthcare professionals can develop more targeted strategies to mitigate the combined impacts of both on public health.

Finally, we focus on the health and economic co- benefits of implementing interventions to reduce air pollution and combat heat waves. By addressing these challenges in tandem, there is an opportunity to achieve greater overall benefits for both human well-being and economic prosperity. Through a deeper understanding of these interconnected challenges, we can strive for a healthier and more sustainable future for all, especially for those most vulnerable to poor environmental quality.

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Uneven and Combined Development and the Politics of Labour in an Eastern Indian Coalfield: Shifts and Changes from Late Colonialism to Neoliberalism

Introduction

Trotsky’s notion of uneven and combined development has been discussed extensively in the literature on extractive industries in the Global South. The debates originated in studies on Latin America but they are equally relevant for any other country of the Global South. In the Indian context, the development of extractive industries such as coal mining rests on, reproduces and constantly re-combines unevenness between India and other countries as well as within the country. This was the case when large-scale industrial mining began in India during the colonial period, primarily for railways, such as the East Indian Railway, and for local industries and export trade (Ghosh 1977). Mining continued to set the trajectory after the country gained Independence in 1947, when the state expanded the extraction of coal to feed its ambitious project of rapid industrialization in the name of ‘development’. Both, the ‘temples of modern India’ – as the first Prime Minister Nehru called the large integrated steel mills – and the large coal mines were concentrated in the subnational states in central and eastern India, such as Odisha, Jharkhand (formerly part of Bihar) and Chhattisgarh formerly part of Madhya Pradesh) (Das 1992; Adduci 2012; Adhikari and Chhotray 2020). As is well known, the expansion of open-cast coal mines entailed a plethora of environmental degradation as well as the large-scale dispossession and displacement of usually marginal agriculture-based communities and the dismantling of their agrarian structure (Nayak 2020; Noy 2020). The changing industrial policies since Independence also re-created and re-combined unevenness in the labour regimes, first by expanding the formalization of the erstwhile almost exclusively casual mining labour forces and later on by re-informalizing them.

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Media, Politics and Environment: Analyzing Experiences from Europe and Asia

Introduction

Environmental protection has not equally established itself as a permanent fixture in the political systems of all countries: to date, governments and entire societies have responded to environmental challenges in a variety of ways, and concrete environmental policy is still a highly national matter. Moreover, the perception of environmental problems varies considerably on a global scale. The reasons normally cited for these differences largely stem from the environmental policy debates themselves, e.g. poverty, ignorance, capital interests, etc. In contrast, this book shows that concrete environmental policy emerges from a complex interplay of mass media and political conflicts: first, the mass media provide the framework for national environmental policy through agenda-setting, framing and scandalization; second, the mass media thereby change values in the political and social discourse, e.g. by altering the perception of global commons and expanding the possibilities of interest articulation; and third, this can lead to political decision-making processes in which legal and other measures for environmental protection are enforced. The book systematically compares industrialized countries such as Germany and Japan with several rapidly emerging countries in South and Southeast Asia.

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