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Indo Gangetic flood plains are subjected to recurring floods due to large low-lying land areas adjacent to major Himalayan Rivers. Recent floods in the Ganga River during the late withdrawal phase of Indian summer monsoon rains in 2019 had reportedly caused death of ∼200–500 people and damaged major infrastructures in different parts of Bihar state, India. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the spatial extent and temporal pattern of flood inundation areas in Patna district of Bihar using Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. The results obtained using K-means classification show that about 1268 km2 (20% of the studied portion) of the land area were inundated during the peak flooding conditions on 9th October 2019. The peak flooding lasts for more than 20 days, with a maximum water depth of 18 m in the main river. Owing to the continually changing nature of river morphology by recurring floods, we also analyzed the channel morphology and bar characteristics before, during, and after the floods. Geomorphic change assessment indicates that the total bar occupied area was decreased from 661 km2 for pre-flood time to 446 km2 in peak flood time, whereas it retains its original shape in post-flood images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper engages with the water economies of Bodh Gaya, a small but prominent Buddhist town located in Bihar, India. We analysed the water economies using the neo-Polanyian idea of instituted economic processes. The anthropological approach to water economies helps us explain how drinking water has been produced, distributed, appropriated, and consumed in Bodh Gaya over the last seven decades. The paper argues that the centralised grid-based water supply system, which aims to provide universal access to drinking water to the whole town, has failed to develop. Water as a universal public good was never established in Bodh Gaya. Water was produced, distributed, appropriated and consumed in diverse ways by different groups of individuals and communities. Water remained a community-owned resource, a private, semi-public good, and recently, a commodity, but not purely a public good. Instead of relying on the ideals of centralised grid-based water supply networks to make water available for the whole populace, a more decentralised and hybrid service delivery institutions are needed to reach the diverse local population. The decentralised public water provisioning systems must be supported through appropriate regulatory measures and participatory planning initiatives to make it socially just and environmentally benign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the politics of the environment so fundamental to the development process in rural India, this paper analyses the relations between water discourses and drinking water technology. First, the national discourses of water are analysed using key policy and populist documents. Second, the paper presents ethnographic fieldwork studying the politics of drinking water in rural Bihar, where the relative merits of borehole handpumps and open wells are contested. The links between the national discourses and local contestation over appropriate technology are examined. The paper argues both policy and traditionalist perspectives are too technologically deterministic to adequately account for the myriad challenges of delivering rural water supply. The emphasis on technology, rather than service levels, creates the conditions in which capability traps emerge in terms of service provision. This is not only in terms of monitoring regimes but in the very practices of rural actors who use certain water supply technologies under an illusion of safety. With a focus on furthering the policy debate, the paper considers ways forward and suggests that a move from a binary understanding of access to a holistic measure of service levels will reduce the potential for political contestation and capability traps in rural water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across diverse geographies, mini-grids have been employed to provide energy access to off-grid and rural communities. In India, amid the government push to expand grid infrastructure, concerns have been raised about the viability of mini-grid business models that are largely run by private companies. While the role of mini-grids in previously un-electrified areas has been studied extensively, there exists limited empirical evidence regarding their uptake in grid-connected regions. In this paper, we analyze adoption and use of mini-grids among rural communities living in grid-electrified villages. The findings are based on the primary data of 2648 households and 544 non-farm enterprises from 54 villages in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in India. Our results suggest that despite the presence of central-grid infrastructure, users adopt mini-grid in regions which lack reliable power supply. The mini-grid uptake was found to be relatively higher among non-farm enterprises, which, unlike households, have not received adequate policy attention and support. However, mini-grids were being used only for meeting basic lighting and cooling loads in most cases, primarily due to affordability concerns. Based on our findings, we argue that grid-interactive mini-grids could be used to serve rural enterprises as they value reliable power supply. Yet, the current low levels of electricity demand among non-farm rural enterprises suggest that growth in electricity demand and in turn enterprise productivity would require complementary services and infrastructure. • Insights from a survey of 54 villages having both central grid and solar mini-grid. • Mini-grid use among non-farm enterprises is significant, but low among rural households. • Lack of reliable grid-power supply in surveyed villages is a key driver of mini-grid use. • Rural enterprises currently have low electricity demand. • Mini-grid connections primarily used to meet basic lighting and cooling energy demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In which settings can bicycles help to improve girls' education in low-income countries? This paper analyzes the complementarity between all-weather roads and a bicycle program in India aimed at increasing girls' secondary school enrollment. Using a triple-difference strategy, I find that the program benefits girls living 3–10 km away from schools with all-weather road connections, increasing their enrollment by 60 percent and reducing the gender enrollment gap by 51 percent. There are no effects for girls in villages without all-weather roads or girls living more than 10 km from school. The findings emphasize the importance and interdependence of road infrastructure, mode of transport, and distance to school for improving girls' education in India. • Bicycle program for girls in Bihar, India, reduces the gender education gap. • Bicycle program is only effective if high-quality road infrastructure is available and schools are nearby. • Interdependence of mode of transport (bicycles), road infrastructure, and nearby schools for girls' education choice in India. • Triple-difference estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We use field experiments in India to understand how farmers process information. • Most farmers simplify judgments by using only a portion of the information set. • Nearly 40% of farmers rely on first impressions to make subsequent judgments. • More than 36% of farmers use only the most recent piece of information. • Farmers who simplify judgments are less likely to cultivate rice hybrids. Abstract Much empirical research that has shown that an individual's decision to adopt a new technology is the result of learning – both in personal experimentation as well as observing the experimentation of others. Yet even casual observation would suggest significant heterogeneity learning processes, manifesting itself in widely varying patterns of adoption over space and time. In this paper we explore this heterogeneity in the context of early adoption of hybrid rice in rural India. Using specially-designed experiments conducted as part of a primary survey in the field, we are able to identify which of four broad learning heuristics most accurately reflects individuals' information processing strategies. Linking these learning heuristics with observed use of rice hybrids, we demonstrate that pure Bayesian learning is well suited for the tinkering and marginal adjustments that would be required to learn about a technology like hybrid rice, but is also more cognitively taxing, requiring a longer memory and more complex updating processes. Consequently, only about 25 percent of the farmers in our sample can be characterized as pure Bayesian learners. Present-biased learning and relying on first impressions will likely hinder adoption of a technology like hybrid rice, even after controlling for access to credit and a rudimentary proxy for intelligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Access to energy provides numerous opportunities to enhance well-being and alleviate poverty. In rural and energy-poor areas, alternative technology solutions such as solar off-grid products, storage systems and energy-efficient devices can complement the unreliable electric grid to fulfil energy needs. Localized entrepreneurship in rural areas can play a significant role in increasing energy access. However, studies on the dynamics of rural entrepreneurship and low-cost energy access in poor households are scarce. This paper explores the local entrepreneurs' perception of social, economic, and technological factors that impact entrepreneurship dynamics in rural poor communities of India, and to identify strategies to help further improve the existing institutional support. A community-based system dynamics (CBSD) approach was used to engage community members to understand their perspective of entrepreneurial development. The study participants were twelve local rural retailers in the state of Bihar in India who were previously trained and employed in a decentralized solar project, and have since become solar entrepreneurs. Participants were engaged in group model-building sessions to develop a causal loop diagram (CLD). Based on the basic structure identified in CLD, a simulation model was developed and calibrated using data from solar project operations and surveys of solar users and entrepreneurs. Results indicate that training and subsequent experience in the project and business helped reinforce the entrepreneur's skills. Repair service and sales of energy products contributed in building trust and awareness in the community, thereby increasing demand for solar and energy-efficient products. The simulation-based scenario analysis shows the positive impact of better business practices, bulk procurement, and continued repair services on the income of the solar entrepreneurs. Findings from this study can inform subsequent energy entrepreneurial development in rural Bihar. • Role of rural retail entrepreneurship in reducing energy poverty explored • Community based system dynamics modelling with local rural retail entrepreneurs • Causal loop diagram mapping participants' perspective of entrepreneurship dynamics • System dynamics simulation and policy analysis for strengthening institutional support and better business practices [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on data collected from a school-based study in India, this paper adds to the scant literature on the relationship between school quality and agency and attitudes of girls and boys in secondary schools; it also explores the better-researched association between school quality and academic competencies. The study was conducted among girls and boys in Class 10 in 30 government-run secondary schools in the state of Bihar. Findings show that classroom dynamics, particularly non-discriminatory treatment by teachers and their expression of gender egalitarian attitudes positively influenced gender role attitudes and awareness of health matters among girls and boys. It also influenced their academic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal settlements have become a defining feature of the urban economy in developing countries. Comprising one-sixth of global population, the number is expected to double in the next decade. Lack of basic amenities, improper building structures, unhealthy and dangerous environmental conditions, unsafe residency rights, poverty and social deprivations are some of the characteristics of these settlements. With a known presence across the globe, informal settlements continue to be an abode that harbor marginal and poor communities despite being literally pushed aside by governments and nation leaders. They continue to be excluded from urban opportunities, policy planning and decision making. This paper, therefore, studies the evolution and characteristics of one such settlement located on the Delhi-Gurgaon border – Kapashera — that provides a home to tens of thousands of migrant workers from Bihar and other northern states. The spatial characteristics of Kapashera highlight the several gaps in the policies pertaining to the space in particular, and informal settlements in general that need urgent attention of the policy makers especially in the light of recent pandemic. • Kapashera is home to migrant workers from Bihar and other northern states. • There is lack of legal status and limited recognition by the government • Kapshera provide a case for integrating informal settlements into the mainstream urban cities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Workflow of the multidisciplinary approach towards geogenic arsenic quantification in clay plug sediments. [Display omitted] • Holocene fluvial geomorphology and permeability anisotropy control As-occurrence. • Sediment bulk volume of abandoned meandering-river bends (clay plugs) is calculated. • Remote sensing, side-scan sonar and sediment core analyses yielded total As-load. • Microbial metabolism effectively controls As and Fe fluxes in a high-TOC setting. Shallow aquifers in many Holocene alluvial basins around the world have in the last three decades been identified as arsenic pollution hotspots, in which the spatial variation of natural (or: geogenic) arsenic concentration is conditioned by the meandering-river geomorphology and the fluvial lithofacies distribution. Despite the large amount of publications on the specifics of the pollution, still many uncertainties remain as to the provenance and processes that lead to arsenic enrichment in aquifers. In this paper, arsenic in abandoned and sediment-filled meandering-river bends (or: clay-plugs) is highlighted as a primary source of aquifer pollution. The combination of high organic-carbon deposition rates and the presence of chemically-bound natural arsenic in sediment of this specific geomorphological setting creates the potential for microbially-steered reductive dissolution of arsenic in an anoxic environment, and subsequent migration of the desorbed arsenic to, and stratigraphic entrapment in, adjacent sandy point-bar aquifers. To assess the magnitude of the arsenic source in clay-plug, bulk sediment volume calculations were made of twenty clay plugs on the Middle Ganges Plain of Bihar (India), by combining clay-plug surface area analysis of Sentinel-2 satellite data, side-scan sonar depth profiling of oxbow lakes and the Ganges River, and sedimentological data from five cored shallow wells. ICP-MS based elemental analysis of 36 core sub-samples, complemented with published concentration data in a similar geomorphological setting in West Bengal, India, yielded an average arsenic content of 28.75 mg/kg sediment in the 12-m-thick clay plugs, which amounts to a total arsenic volume of 0.07 – 3.13 . 106 kg per clay plug. A scenario is presented for the release of arsenic from the clay-plug sediment by microbial metabolism, followed by migration of the desorbed arsenic to the bordering point-bar sands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates 'difference' in terms of caste to deepen feminist discourse about the Bodhgaya Land Movement (BGLM) of Bihar, India. Urban, educated, elite activists initially read the BGLM as a successful women's movement because it resulted in landless and marginal peasant women obtaining titles to land. Activists and scholars then saw it as having had only limited success when some of the women passed the land to men in their families. The recollections of Bhuiyan Dalit elders who participated in the BGLM provide a more capacious reading of the movement. Stories of their early history as kamia (bonded laborers), the increased caste violence that accompanied the state's attempts at land reform and redistribution, and their activism in the 1980s show that the movement not only intervened in the patriarchy, caste hierarchy, and other power inequities in the region, but produced a new subjectivity amongst formerly subjugated, disenfranchised people. Accounting for caste difference in women's experiences of the land movement uncovers a complex process of Dalit becoming and belonging. Their narratives push feminist scholars to broaden historical readings of the movement to understand how women who have been involved in social activism may be empowered and gain agency despite an intransigent patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Diffuse rainfall dominates groundwater recharge. • Groundwater baseflow is important for river ecology. • Evidence for localised groundwater recharge from canals and rivers. • Adequate flushing sustains low groundwater salinity. • Local redox conditions control groundwater As, Fe, Mn, NO 3 and U. The alluvial aquifer system of the Indo-Gangetic Basin (IGB) is one of the world's most important freshwater resources, sustaining humans and river ecosystems. Understanding groundwater recharge processes and connections to meteoric and surface water is necessary for effective water resource management for human and wider ecological requirements. Parts of the mid-Gangetic Basin, across eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are characterised by stable long-term groundwater levels, high annual rainfall, and limited historical groundwater use compared to parts of Northwest India for example. In this paper we use a combination of environmental tracers and hydrograph observations to characterise sources of recharge and groundwater-surface water interaction using a transect approach across the catchment of the River Gandak, a major barrage-regulated tributary of the River Ganga. Stable isotope results show that the dominant source of groundwater recharge, in the shallow (0–40 m bgl) Holocene and underlying Pleistocene aquifer system (>40 m bgl), is local rainfall. The shallow Holocene aquifer is also supplemented by local recharge from river and canal seepage and irrigation return flow in the upper and mid parts of the catchment. These observations are corroborated by evidence from detailed groundwater hydrographs and salinity observations, indicating localised canal, river and lake connectivity to groundwater. In the middle and lower catchment, river discharge is dominated by groundwater baseflow during the peak dry season when barrage gates are closed, which contributes to ecological flows for endangered river dolphins and gharial crocodiles. Groundwater residence time tracers indicate active modern recharge in the shallow alluvial aquifer system across the catchment. In the shallow Holocene aquifer elevated arsenic (As), iron (Fe), and manganese (Mn) exceeded WHO drinking water guidelines in a minority of sites, and uranium (U) and fluoride (F) concentrations approach but do not exceed the WHO guideline values. These observations varied across the catchment with higher As, Fe and Mn in the upper and mid catchments and higher U in the lower catchment. Groundwater salinity was typically between 500 and 1000 μS/cm, and isolated higher salinity was due to recharge from flood-plain wetlands and lakes impacted by evaporation. At present, the Gandak catchment has relatively high rainfall and low abstraction, which maintains stable groundwater levels and thus baseflow to the river in the dry season. Potential future threats to groundwater resources, and therefore river ecology due to the sensitivity to changes in baseflow in the catchment, would likely be driven by reductions in local monsoon rainfall, changes in water management practices and increased groundwater use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]