Policy Briefs & Reports

This framing paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge and the governance framework on air quality management in India. Air pollution is the second largest risk factor for public health in India, behind only child and maternal malnutrition. Although there has been an inc...

This Brief provides an overview of the new CAQM Act 2021, its strengths and limitations, and the path ahead for enabling airshed level governance in the rest of the country. With many significant questions yet to be deliberated on defining the boundaries of airsheds and designing institutions to ...

On 22.04.2021, India’s Environment Ministry published a Draft Fly Ash Notification, which was open for public comments for 60 days and sought to replace the earlier notifications with respect to fly ash management since 1999. As a response to the draft, we made a submission to the Ministry on the...

Child Protection Services is Government of India’s (GoI’s) flagship programme to provide preventive and statutory care, and rehabilitation services to children in need of care and protection and those in conflict with the law as defined under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children)...

This note is prepared based on our reflections on the announcements made in Budget 2021-22 and participation in the webinar convened by MoP and MNRE, on February 18, 2021, to discuss a roadmap for implementation of these proposals. The note is drafted based on internal discussion at the Centre fo...

These comments are drafted based on internal discussion at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR). It should not be considered an institutional position, as CPR does not take institutional positions on issues. Rather, they reflect the result of internal deliberations, aimed at understanding and ref...

India’s highly centralized federal structure sits uneasily with the nature of the climate problem. While financial and bureaucratic capacities are concentrated in the centre, the locus of climate decisions lies largely in the states because they steer energy choices and respond to climate impacts...

The growth of its readymade garments industry has been a critical factor in Bangladesh’s development success. However, Bangladesh has not been able to replicate this success in other labor-intensive sectors. A key reason for this is the current trade policy stance that allows a virtual free trade...

This study aims to understand the nature and compute the size of the local public sector in the Smart City of Tumakuru, in Karnataka State. It makes use of our flagship methodology Planning, Allocations and Expenditures, Institutions Studies in Accountability (PAISA). It aims to understand: An...

It would appear, based on the experience over the past year, that at a given point in time, CoVID-19 affects a part of the country and not the whole nation. What does this imply for the sharing of resources between more affected areas and less affected areas? What does it imply for where reserves...

This study looks at the first social audit of education undertaken in India, under the aegis of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). It was conducted as a pilot project across ten states of India. Social auditing is a powerful method for increasing open government, whic...

This brief lays out a new approach to Indian climate governance. We suggest India’s institutional structure should be aimed at generating and adopting low-carbon development pathways. Doing so implies going beyond energy and emissions policies to also look at deeper economic structures such as pa...

Chief Ministers’ Slum Development Program – ‘BASERA’, guided by the Punjab Proprietary Rights to Slum Dwellers Act, 2020 (PSD Act) along with the allied Rules, is a milestone step towards inclusive urban development and planning of the Government of Punjab. BASERA lays the foundation for mainstre...

It is on the precarious and ever-shifting terrain of Indian federalism that a modern edifice of climate governance must be built. Where is the firm ground? Are there enduring characteristics of centre-state relations that let us arrive at a relatively stable description of Indian climate governan...

The Rashtriya Kishore Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) is an adolescent health Programme within the ambit of the National Health Mission (NHM). This study focusses on the expenditures and fund flows of RKSK in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh (UP). It uses a combination of quantitative and qualitati...

The report examines interventions addressing violence against women (VAW) and violence against children (VAC) in the State of Maharashtra. It also provides a brief insight into budgetary provisions existing in local governments for protection against VAW and VAC, potential overlaps among existing...

The outbreak of COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns have exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities of marginalised groups living in Indian cities/towns, including workers engaged in the informal sector as well urban poor living in congested and overcrowded informal settlements with inadequate ho...