Archives: Working Papers

The conversation about a climate change law in India is fast growing. Just in the past few months, a series of documents such as reports and op-eds proposing an Indian climate law, and a private member’s bill (listed for introduction to parliament) and a draft law on climate change have begun to make the rounds. This rush for a climate law has in many instances led to a direct jump to solutions and even, as mentioned above, the drafting stage of the legislative process. However, given climate change laws are novel phenomena, it is worth first examining broad conceptual questions about the approach that would work best for the Indian context and then learning from a diverse international experience before locking into solutions, models, and texts. The first essay in this series contended with the first question, namely the principles and larger objectives of a climate change law. This second essay studies the features of various climate change laws of the world to assess what structures and mechanisms should be considered best practices and might be apt for the Indian context.

The following breakdown of features is based on a comparative study of 12 climate change laws around the world, namely, those of Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, South Korea, and the UK. The set has been selected to be representative of developed and developing countries; mature and young legal systems; rich and poor countries; high, middle, and low per-capita income economies; and highly and moderately threatened geographical entities. These factors of course shape the eventual construct of the law and participate in no small measure in determining the distribution of climate-law features. The particular categorisation of features in this paper has been crafted as it has been for two main reasons: (a) the categories allow for the isolation of mechanisms that most significantly influence the attainment of climate goals; (b) they enable the comparison and grouping of choices based on national, political, and economic contexts.

This draft discussion paper makes a case for debating the large conceptual questions surrounding climate change legislation before hastily arriving at solutions or jumping to the drafting procedure. It explores the chief questions of principle that would influence the form and structure of an Indian climate law. The questions considered are the following: (1) Should India pass a framework climate law or trigger a series of upgrades to existing laws? (2) Should an Indian climate law guarantee a ‘right to climate’ or aim to maximise utility/green growth? (3) Should the law articulate an ‘outcome duty’/ emissions cap or design ‘procedural duties’ to mainstream the climate issue in existing governance structures? The purpose of this exercise is to weigh the comparative advantage of these broad conceptual questions to determine what kind of legislative intervention would work best for India before exploring the content and features of a law that could achieve those goals – the latter of which will be done in a subsequent paper.

Jammu and Kashmir is a contentious and emotional issue that has beenwith us since Independence. It has two aspects.The first is internal, concerning relations between the people of J&K and the Indian State. The other is external and entails Pakistan’s aggressive role in the matter that India took to the UN Security Council on January 1,1948.The people of J&K are obviously an interested party but not a third party.

After years of trial and tribulation, a peace process is under way with the people of J&K as well as with Pakistan. At this juncture it is necessary to be clear about the background, sequence of errents, issues in contention and related matters.With the passage of time, there is danger of basic facts being ignored or forgotten. Myth has tended to obscure reality.

Any enduring settlement must rest on facts, not sentiment and emotion, though these cannot be altogether ignored. Pakistan and some sections of the international community have their own perceptions about the Kashmir Question. For influential elements in the West, this was driven by cold war considerations and Pakistan’s role as a”frontline state” from the early 1950s, which in some ways remains a continuing reality. Inconvenient facts were expendable. However, perceptions matter and it is therefore important that misperceptions and imagined truths do not cloud debate and projected solutions, howsoever reasonable.

India stands on firm ground, though mired in some of its own follies. It has been singularly inept in presenting its case from the very start, only to have the discourse and attendant vocabulary hijacked by others to its own discomfiture.

Yet it is in India’s highest interest to end this sorry chapter and bring the J&K question to a just and honourable resolution that accommodates legitimate points of view. It must therefore be generous and prepared to make concessions. However, it will find it difficult to convince its interlocutors at home and abroad about the merits and reasonableness of its stance unless the cobwebs are swept away.

Some will say that rehearsing the past will tead to recrimination and thereby vitiate the climate of goodwill and trust that alone can move the peace process forward. On the other hand, talks will go nowhere unless there is clarity about what precisely one is discussing and there is a common point of departure.

This J&K Primer is intended to educate ordinary people everywhere about the basics of the Jammu and Kashmir question and to put various events and issues in contexl. It does not purport to be an elaborate political history of J&K or a scholarly critique of the issue.Nor does it seek to indulge in barren polemics; rather, it aims to present a series of snapshots that tell the central story of J&K post-1947. Pakistani and UN references have been cited in preference to Indian or other sources in order more convincingly to sweep away the humbug that underlies much contention.

The degree of ignorance about J&K in both India and Pakistan, and around the world, is quite astonishing. Literature about the beginnings of the conflict in 1947 is not easily available in India today and much discourse and even policy making appears to rest on mere say-so and self-serwing narratives. There is as much to unlearn as to learn. India’s motto is Satyameve Jayate. This Primer is immodestly designed to lend Truth a helping hand.

India’s “Great Transformation” seems to be finally underway. During the last four years it has experienced growth rates of almost eight percent, and many analysts believe that this growth is sustainable. India has averaged a growth rate of six percent for almost two decades. While this seems less impressive in comparison to China, it is a considerable achievement in light of India’s own recent history. There is some dispute over the data, but it is generally agreed that the number of people living below poverty line fell to about twenty six percent and are expected to further fall by a percentage point each year. India’s human development achievements have been less impressive: it lagged behind China considerably in both health and education indicators. Although the state of public health remains a cause for concern, India may finally be on the verge of a transformation in primary education. India always had a significant tertiary education sector, but its primary education enrollments are now up to ninety three percent. Although the quality of education remains a concern, India is finally waking up to the need to create human resources. But in many other respects, India’s economy is extremely dynamic: the rise of India’s service sector, particularly, Information Technology, has been spectacular. While India has not yet made its presence felt in mass scale manufacturing of consumer goods, there are signs of progress in this sector too, particularly automobiles. India’s private sector capital output ratios are extremely impressive. India’s economy has become considerably globalized. While the total share of FDI remains low, foreign institutional investment is rising pushing the stock market to dizzying heights; peak tariff rates are down from 155 percent in 1991 to less than 15 percent, and there is more openness to trade. Its foreign exchange reserves, though not spectacular, stand at a comfortable one hundred and fifty billion dollars. But India is firmly committed to globalizing its economy. India’s saving rate has also been creeping up to thirty percent. But perhaps the most important change is aspirational: India finally has come to believe that it can compete with the best in the world, and its identity is increasingly going to be premised upon that aspiration.

Over the past few months, the CPR has been engaged in studies about some of the aspects of the Special Economic Zones (SEZs). This set of four CPR Occasional Papers addresses different facets of what continues to be a contentious subject.

This paper undertakes a more in-depth investigation into the location of SEZs, based on data available from the Ministry of Commerce. It builds upon early work in Mukhopadhyay (2008) which noted that not only are SEZs located mostly in a few states, even within these states, they are concentrated in a few districts, most of which had an above average rate of industrialisation.

1 August 2009
The paper describes the estimation exercise, i.e. the Urban Infrastructure Per Capita Investment Cost estimation and projection of urban finance requirements for the period 2006-2031 referred to as the 2006-2031 Urban Infrastructure Finance Estimation Exercise (2006-2031 UIFEE). The 2006 – 2031 UIFEE is special as it the first one in more than a decade of its nature, covering all urban infrastructure sectors. These new estimates covering the period 2006-2031 will add on to the Rakesh Mohan Committee estimates that projected investment requirements till 2006. This estimation exercise is unique as compared to the earlier estimation exercises for a host of reasons including the level of granularity of the projections and its reliance on real project data, which has been appraised by a variety of expert institutions. The demand driven nature of the projects also ensure that the projects are essential to the requirements of the citizens. The outputs on financing requirements are very closely driven by the service standards and the 2006- 2031 UIFEE, has benefited from the recent effort of the Government of India of creating Standard Service Level Benchmarks for many of the urban services estimated. The grand aggregate for all services estimated for India for the period of 2006-2031 has emerged to be 71620 billion rupees at 2009 prices and for the period of 2009- 2031 the requirement would be 71250 billion rupees at 2009 prices, given the JNNURM investments that have already been chandelled into the sector so far. Given that the Government of India total revenue receipts in 2008- 09 is Rs. 5621.73 billion represents less than 8 percent of the capital expenditure requirements for the period 2009- 2031 ie. 71250 billion rupees. This revelation, though not a surprise in itself raises fundamental policy questions on how the Government needs to address urban infrastructure provision. It is hoped that this analysis will get the serious attention of policy makers and that it will raise and help address the key policy and institutional questions that need to be addressed urgently in the urban infrastructure and service delivery sectors today.

This paper discusses domestic politics around climate change in India as an entry point to understanding India’s role in global climate negotiations. I suggest there is broad agreement within India on three issues: India is being unfairly labelled a “major emitter”; India has a considerable ongoing development burden; and India is already moving in the right direction on climate mitigation. However, on each of these issues there is a healthy under-current of domestic debate. Moreover, broad agreement in perspective does not translate to strategic unanimity. Instead, I suggest there are three divergent positions within India: growth-first stonewallers, progressive realists, and progressive internationalists. For a renewed Indian climate politics, the two progressive groups will have to join forces. However, this will require far stronger signals of good faith from the international community and industrialized countries in particular. The paper concludes with a discussion of what India and Annex 1 could do to shift the debate.

 

This paper documents the Andhra Pradesh experience of institutionalising social audits into the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and uses it to analyse the social audit process. It draws on empirical work aimed at measuring the effectiveness of social audits conducted in Andhra Pradesh between March and December 2007.