Author: cprindia

About the Book
As science is increasingly making clear, the problem of climate change poses an existential challenge for humanity. For India, this challenge is compounded by immediate concerns of eradicating poverty and accelerating development, and complicated by its relatively limited role thus far in causing the problem. India in a Warming World explores this complex context for India’s engagement with climate change. But, in addition, it argues that India, like other countries, can no longer ignore the problem, because a pathway to development innocent of climate change is no longer available. Bringing together leading researchers, activists, and policymakers, this volume lays out the emergent debate on climate change in India. Collectively, the chapters deepen clarity on why India should engage with climate change and how it can best do so.

Read the open-access PDF version of India in a Warming World on the Oxford University Press website.

To view the table of contents and learn more about the authors, visit the book homepage on the CPR website.

About the Speakers
Chandra Bhushan is a noted environmentalist, and has distinguished himself as a researcher, writer and campaigner for environmentally sound and socially inclusive development. Bhushan has wide-ranging research and public policy interests. He has researched, written and campaigned for issues ranging from climate change and energy transformation to rights of mining-affected people and industrial pollution. He was conferred with the Ozone Award by the UN Environment in 2017. He is presently the CEO of the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology (iFOREST), an independent non-profit environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi.

Naina Lal Kidwai is Chairperson, Advent Private Equity India Advisory board, a non-executive Director on the boards of LafargeHolcim, Max Financial Services, CIPLA, Nayara Energy and Larsen and Toubro, and a former President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). She retired in 2015 as Chairperson, HSBC India and Executive Director on the board of HSBC Asia Pacific. She is a member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Economic Council on Planetary Health, and serves as a Commissioner on the Global Commission on Economy & Climate. She has previously been a member of the International Advisory Council of the United Nations Environment Program, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Climate Change. An MBA from Harvard Business School, Naina is the recipient of several awards and honours, including the Padma Shri for her contribution to trade and industry.

Nitin Sethi is an independent writer and journalist. He has written on and investigated the intersections of environment, energy, climate change, development and the political economy over the last two decades. A winner of several international and national fellowships and awards, he has worked previously at The Hindu, Business Standard, Times of India, Scroll.in and the Down To Earth magazine.

About the Editor

Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at CPR, and leads the CPR Initiative on Climate, Energy and Environment. He works on climate change policy and governance, the political economy of energy and air pollution, and the regulatory state in the developing world. Widely published in these areas, Navroz serves on Government of India advisory committees on climate change, energy and air pollution, and on the editorial boards of several international journals. He is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the national policies and institutions chapter in the upcoming 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In 2015, he was conferred the 12th T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on climate change policy.

Before the global financial meltdown of 2008, India’s economy was thriving and its GDP growth was cruising at an impressive 8.8 per cent. The economic boom impacted a large section of Indians, even if unequally. With sustained high growth over an extended period, India could have achieved what economists call a ‘take-off’ (rapid and self-sustained GDP growth). The global financial meltdown disrupted this momentum in 2008.

In the decade that followed, each time the country’s economy came close to returning to that growth trajectory, political events knocked it off course. In 2019, India’s GDP is growing at the rate of 7 per cent, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world, but little on the ground suggests that Indians are actually better off. Economic discontent and insecurity are on the rise, farmers are restive, and land-owning classes are demanding quotas in government jobs. The middle class is palpably disaffected, the informal economy is struggling and big businesses are no longer expanding aggressively. India is not the star it was in 2008 and in effect, the ‘India growth story’ has devolved into ‘growth without a story’.

The Lost Decade tells the story of the slide and examines the political context in which the Indian economy failed to recover lost momentum.

Puja Mehra is an Economic Journalist. Rathin Roy is Director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy. Nitin Desai is the Former Chief Economic Advisor at the Ministry of Finance. Rohit Chandra is a Fellow at CPR.

A review of the book by Rohit Chandra, published in Open, the Magazine can be read here.

The question and answer session that followed can be accessed here.