Although the damaging impacts of agricultural electricity subsidy were well recognized, there was hardly any attempt at reform until the early 1990s. With the advent of liberalization, agricultural electricity pricing came under scrutiny for its economic inefficiencies. In response, some state governments have attempted to reform the subsidies by rationalizing electricity tariffs for farmers. While the outcomes vary across states, the reforms have been strongly resisted by the farmers and, consequently, have stalled.
The approach adopted so far has focused narrowly on economic efficiency, while ignoring the social and political dimensions of the problem. However, agricultural electricity subsidies in India are closely linked with food security, poverty alleviation, state finance, water scarcity and, increasingly, climate change. Such a complex issue requires an embedded and inclusive approach, with careful consideration given to social, political, economic and environmental aspects. Drawing on empirical evidence and analyzing socioeconomic-political and environmental dimensions, this paper makes a case for a broader approach to the reform of agricultural electricity subsidies.
Public Sector Banks (PSBs) in India are struggling with high NPAs (Non-Performing Assets) which has been rising steadily since 2009-10. These banks continue to face the dual problem of significant asset quality stress and meagre capitalisation, which has impacted their growth. On 14 August 2015, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely launched a seven pronged plan – Indradhanush – for revamping PSBs of India. These seven elements include: Appointment, Bank Board of Bureau,Capitalisation, De-stressing, Empowerment, Framework of Accountability, and Governance Reforms. This has opened up a debate on whether Indradhanush framework is a much diluted version of PJ committee report and may not be enough to tackle the PSB issues and if these reform measures will help strengthen PSBs and banking sector in India.
In the three years since the Swacch Bharat Mission was launched over 30 lakh urban toilets have been built and a further 30 lakh are planned to be built by the program’s deadline in 2019. The efforts in toilet construction have not been matched by equivalent efforts to create infrastructure and institutional mechanisms to collect, treat and safely dispose of the waste, creating a new public health crisis. Using data from various sources, the brief lays out the inadequacy of wastewater and fecal sludge management in India and argues for a focus on the entire sanitation value chain. Local and state officials need to consider a diversity of local factors when choosing treatment options rather than solely opt for centralized, uniform solutions like sewerage.
Himachal Pradesh (HP), like many other hill states, has been seeking to build a ‘green’ image.1 The Himachal Pradesh Strategy and Action Plan on Climate Change, is an extension of this focus and received considerable political interest when it was drafted. But the HP plan is also a study in how climate policy planning is fashioned by central government directives seeking an adaptation-focused document, and the prospect of external funding that is conditional upon some mitigation focus. This was compounded by a change in the government – more than halfway through the policy process – aligned to the government at the Centre. The resultant document is a broad statement of intent proposing several lists of adaptation objectives and some mitigation measures without committing to the state’s most ambitious mitigation target – achieving carbon neutrality. In fact it is now unclear
if the new government plans to meet that target.2 Crucially, while the HP climate plan is a repository for sustainable development action in the state, much of the climate science research that should have informed the plan in the pre-draft stages, is consigned to a list of recommendations for future action. The HP plan was largely driven by the Department of Environment, Science, and Technology (DEST). The plan, as of January 2014, had not yet been endorsed by the central government’s National Steering Committee.
Planning for India’s energy future requires addressing multiple and simultaneous economic, social and environmental challenges. While there has been conceptual progress towards harnessing their synergies, there are limited methodologies available for operationalising a multiple objective framework for development and climate policy. We propose a ‘multi-criteria decision analysis’ (MCDA) approach to this problem, using illustrative examples from the buildings and cooking sectors. An MCDA approach enables policy processes that are analytically rigorous, participative and transparent, which are required to address India’s complex energy challenges.
Suggested citation: Radhika Khosla, Navroz K. Dubash, Srihari Dukkipatti, Ashok Sreenivas and Brett Cohen (2015) An Approach to Sustainable Development Based Energy and Climate Policy. Policy Brief. Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Available at: https://cprindia.org/research/reports/approach-sustainable-development-based-energy-and-climate-policy
The National Urbnan Health Mission was launched in 2013 to provide universal access to healthcare in urban areas of India. Efforts of stakeholders already present in this field can provide useful lessons that can contribute towards making the mission a success. This report sought to conduct an analytical review of the roles of these stakeholders, the strengths and the weaknesses of existing work and examine the scope of possible coordinated action that may help achieve universalisation of urban healthcare.
Mapping and analysis was conducted at the national level.
The newly elected federal Government of India (GoI) launched the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) in 2015 with the stated purpose of improving the governance and infrastructural deficiencies that plague Indian cities. The Mission categorically states that there is no one definition of a ‘smart city’ and implies infinite liberty for cities to self-define their understanding of ‘smartness’. Towards demystifying the Mission, the researchers utilised government documentation from the 99 cities to answer one question-What constitutes a smart city in India.
Since the turn of the century, India has continued to enlarge its development cooperation allocations and become a globally significant development cooperation partner. This brief analyzes India’s 2019-20 Union Budget for its development assistance allocations and, using IDCR’s development cooperation database, finds seven main trends in India’s development assistance allocations.
Around the landfill sites: A groundtruthing of solid waste management law across landfill sites in coastal areas of Uttara Kannada district, Karnataka, highlights a community-led groundtruthing exercise in relation to the operation of municipal solid waste processing units and landfills along coastal Uttara Kannada in Karnataka. Through the process of groundtruthing, discussions about the impacts faced by the people living near the waste processing units and landfills were carried out. The status of implementation of the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 and compliance with clearance and consent
conditions were studied during this exercise. Issues were identified based on impacts arising out of non-compliance with the law and conditions. Evidence was collected in this regard and presented to the relevant regulatory authorities for action. This document explains the process of groundtruthing, nature of violations, impacts on people and the remedies sought.
Between FY 2006-07 and FY 2010- 11, allocations for the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) more than doubled from 2,000 crore to 5,171 crore. In FY 2015-16, GOI discontinued key schemes run by the Ministry. Consequently, allocations have fallen to 95 crore.
BRGF has been discontinued in FY 2015-16. This brief reviews the performance of the scheme from its launch in FY 2006-07 to FY 2014-15.
BRGF is made up of two components: a) district component covering 272 backward districts across 28 states administered by the MoPR, and b) state component which includes a special plan for Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, administered by the erstwhile Planning Commission.
Allocations for the state component have more than doubled from 2,130 crore in FY
2010-11 to 5,000 crore in FY 2013- 14. In contrast, allocations for the district component decreased by 45% during the same period.
There are two types of grants released under the district component — a Development Fund (DF) grant and a Capacity Building (CB) grant.
Release of funds has slowed down in the last three years. In FY 2014- 15, only 49% of total entitlements under DF and 21% under CB had been released. In fact, 32% districts got no DF releases in FY 2014-15.
Utilisation of funds under BRGF is high. Between FY 2009-10 and FY 2013-14, on average, 85% of total funds released under the scheme were spent.
Eligible districts received more than 5 times the money through MGNREGS than through BRGF district component.
