governance, political economy, institutional development and economic regulation
In the world of venture capital, market share matters more than profits because scaling-up builds investor expectations. By this metric, renewable energy is already the future. India’s renewables share in total generation doubled from 5.6 to 11 percent over the past six years since 2015. A share of 25 percent is targeted by 2030 primarily […]
Read More Renewing our future at GlasgowThe doors are closing As rational beings, we should expect the worst, much before the turn of the century, on account of climate change. Slowing economic growth has reduced the fiscal space to invest in sustainable technology and lowered the appetite of the high-income economies to vacate the carbon space needed for the growth of […]
Read More Glasgow 2021- Reward aggressive carbon mitigationTamil is an ancient language which jostles Sanskrit on antiquity but remains in vibrant, modern use. It is also a cultural identity. Post-Independence, in 1947, the erstwhile Madras Presidency became the Madras State within the Union of India. In 1956, its borders were redrawn to shed the non-Tamil speaking peripheral areas of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, […]
Read More Tamil Nadu needs an economic rebootSenior BJP leader Uma Bharati’s first reaction to the terrible news of the Chamoli glacier break/avalanche disaster on Sunday — “I told you so” – resonates with the reservations of all those who put a higher value on conservation than on the development of natural resources for economic growth. On Sunday, a part of the […]
Read More Playing with God’s worldThe “non-development expenditure” of state governments – the cost of keeping their government apparatus going amounted to Rs 10.5 trillion or 27.5% of their total receipts in 2019-20 (RBI Public Finance Data) versus 20% of receipts for “establishment” expenses in the Union government (Union Budget Documents). Too top heavy by half Putting the two together, […]
Read More Indian States as Regional Ecological ManagersThe average human lives for 70 years, though women outlive men. A child born over the next five years will still be alive in 2100 when the world tips over into the +2.5° heating trap triggering catastrophic forces of nature – sea level rise washing away entire islands and shore lines, floods from unseasonal rain, […]
Read More Towards a net zero IndiaThis book will jolt you awake, quicken your heartbeat and embed niggling worms of anxiety in even the most sanguine of persons. The author is a gifted, American, climate journalist. He grabs your attention in the very first paragraph and keeps it for the next 231 pages of text followed by 66 pages of notes, […]
Read More Lest we err and waste our planet“The Great Smog of India”, Siddharth Singh’s book, is in the genre of everything-the-intelligent-person should know about air pollution in India. It’s attractively written with an easy, breezy style. It instantly sets the reader at ease that she is not about to be inundated with complicated scientific models and graphs about climate change. The author […]
Read More Book Review: North India’s smoggy futureClimate change seems inevitable. Risk takers who go long on property should check out locations in Canada, Siberia and Greenland. These hitherto frozen places are expected to become attractive relocation favourites in a rapidly warming world. Collective action a distant dream The international institutional architecture for concerted effort has been negligent in protecting future generations. […]
Read More Acclimatizing IndiaRetail prices of diesel and petrol are the lowest in Delhi, among India’s key metropolitan cities. It isn’t cheaper to supply them to the national capital than in Chennai, Mumbai or Kolkata. The difference is that Delhi and Goa levy lower value-added-tax on petroleum products (PP) than poorer jurisdictions, even though they are havens for […]
Read More Slash petroleum consumption
Opinion India 