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In 2009, the Government of India requested states to develop State Action Plans on Climate Change. Based on a detailed analysis of five state climate plans, this article finds that climate plans provide an important institutional platform to mainstream concerns of environmental sustainability into development planning but fail to update ideas of sustainability to include climate resilience. There are shortcomings in approach, process, formulation of outcomes, and implementation efforts. These shortcomings are united by a common thread – a tendency to prematurely view state climate plans as vehicles for generating implementable actions rather than an opportunity to redirect development towards climate resilience. However, if state plans are viewed as the beginning of a complex process of updating sustainable development planning rather than as an end in themselves, they provide a foundation upon which climate concerns can be more effectively mainstreamed in local development planning.

It is easy to force-fund infrastructure by persuading the banks and the RBI to lend money, but this is only likely to result in a fragile banking system. The gains will be greater if the projects are first made viable. Investors will channel resources into infrastructure once a market has been created, regulation put in place, and tariff reform implemented.

THERE is little doubt that the recently concluded nuclear pact between India and the United States is of unprecedented historical significance. It is in some ways an emphatic acknowledgment of India’s transformation from a regional to a global power. The deal is an important step in transforming the rules of the world order to accommodate the aspirations of a rising power. And within the context of Indo-US relations, it represents a bold gamble by the United States to align India’s interests with its own.

To give credit to the US, its establishment has grasped India’s potential even more than India’s ruling classes have. It has recognized that the momentum of IndiaÂ’s economy, the stability of its political institutions, and the complex amalgam of values it brings to the world, will make India a force to reckon with. President Bush has taken a preemptive measure to ensure that IndiaÂ’s priorities are shaped in alignment with the US rather than against it. India, on the other hand, has always been susceptible to a post-colonial clamour for recognition. And what better acknowledgment could India have wished for than having a coming out party hosted by the United States.

But the danger for India is the extent to which this clamour for recognition will now fundamentally alter its conception of its own identity in the world. While the euphoria in India is focused on the accolades it is receiving, the really hard questions about the direction of Indian foreign policy are being avoided. What kind of power does India want to be? Does it want to play the same power game that the current big powers have played? Does it want to focus exclusively on its own interests or work for the interests of the world order? What are its strategic and political aspirations? What really are its nuclear objectives?

The last five years have heralded a new phase in India’s fiscal federalism reflected in several changes in the planning and design of Inter-Governmental Fiscal Transfers (IGFTs). In August 2014, the Planning Commission – an apex body responsible for formulating central plans for national development – was disbanded. It was replaced by the NITI Aayog, which unlike its predecessor moved away from a centralized planning approach to one focused on fostering ‘cooperative federalism’ by bringing states together.

In February 2015, Government of India (GoI) accepted the 14th Finance Commission (FFC) recommendations aimed at strengthening fiscal decentralization. Specifically, in accordance with its constitutional mandate to share the proceeds of centrally levied taxes with states, the FFC enhanced state’s share in the divisible pool taxes by 10 percentage points. Moreover, the FFC provided unconditional transfers including an unprecedented Rs 2.87 crore over five years directly to local bodies, a departure from previous practice of giving sector specific grants. Further, by taking a comprehensive view of all transfers and concerned about the intrusion by GoI in states’ domain, it recommended reforms in the design and implementation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSSs) a primary vehicle through which GoI financed and controlled social policy spending in India.

In the run-up to the United Nations conference on climate change, scheduled to be held in Copenhagen, in December 2009 there is a great deal of discussion and speculation about what legal agreement should emerge from that conference. Given the current state of the negotiations, and the range of legal form options that countries are exploring, the most viable route for Copenhagen to adopt may be a transitional option that builds on the strengths of the Kyoto Protocol, provides a lead-in time for more ambitious engagement from key players, and eventually draws the Parties towards a simple, coherent, implementable and ambitious climate regime.

In recent years, courts have risen in power across the world, and the Indian Supreme Court has rightly been pointed to as an example of this global trend. In many ways the Indian Court has become a court of good governance that sits in judgment over the rest of the Indian government. This Article argues that the Court has expanded its mandate as a result of the shortcomings (real, perceived, or feared) of India’s representative institutions. The Indian Supreme Court’s institutional structure has also aided its rise and helps explain why the Court has gained more influence than most other judiciaries. This Article examines the development of India’s basic structure doctrine and the Court’s broad right to life jurisprudence to explore how the Court has enlarged its role. It argues that the Court justified these two doctrines with not only a wide reading of the Indian Constitution, but also an appeal to broad, almost metaphysical, principles of “civilization ” or good governance. The Article finishes by examining parallel interventions in other parts of the world, which suggest India’s experience is part of and helps explain the larger global phenomenon of, the rise of rule through good governance principles via courts. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

The High-Level Committee set up by the Narendra Modi government to review the major laws relating to environment protection has, in its recommendations, worked towards two sets of objectives: one, to separate business from the messiness of governance, and, two, to redraw the line of demarcation between the judiciary and the executive.

The growing focus on climate policy in India is not matched by an equivalent level of attention to institutions . Effective institutions are also needed for the design, coordination and implementation of policy. This paper examines the functioning of institutions, organised around three periods: pre-2007; 2007 to 2009 and 2010 to mid-2014. Several key themes emerge: First, the formation of climate institutions has often been ad hoc and is inadequately geared to India’s co-benefits based approach to climate policy. Second, there is a lack of continuity in institutions, once established. Third, coordination across government has been uneven and episodic. Fourth, while various efforts at knowledge generation have been attempted, they do not add up to a mechanism for sustained and consistent strategic thinking on climate change. Fifth, the overall capacity within government remains limited. Sixth, capacity shortfalls are exacerbated by closed structures of governance that only partially draw on external expertise.

Suggested citation: Dubash, N.K and Joseph, N.B (2016): “Evolution of Institutions for Climate Policy in India”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol L1 no 3, pp 44-54