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Air pollution is a growing concern in India, and its adverse health effects are well documented. Climate change is likely to exacerbate this problem by altering weather patterns and increasing the frequency and severity of extreme events. This paper examines the potential impact of climate change on ambient air pollution in India and its implications for policy design. Our analysis reveals that pollution in India is highly sensitive to variation in weather, particularly in the densely populated Indus-Gangetic Plain. Using our estimated relationship between weather and pollution, we predict that changing weather patterns will increase average PM2.5 concentrations by 3.1 µg/m3, leading to a loss of 364 million years of life expectancy. To address this challenge, we propose an emissions fee calibrated to be highest in regions most vulnerable to persistently high levels of pollution and most sensitive to future deterioration in air quality due to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to current knowledge of climate change impacts on Indian agriculture by accounting for spatial features that may influence the climate sensitivity of agriculture. Using panel data over a 20-year period and on 271 districts, this study estimates the impact of climate change on farm level net revenue in India. The key findings reveal that there is a significant positive spatial autocorrelation and that accounting for this can improve the accuracy of climate impact studies. Furthermore, the paper argues that better dissemination of knowledge among farmers through both market forces and local leadership will help popularize effective adaptation strategies to address climate change impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the feasibility and desirability of green growth in India. Currently, its environment is being plundered at all levels, local, national, and global. The stresses that result raise the fundamental question of whether the aspirations of Indians for greater material comfort can ever be fulfilled. The current 5-year plan aims for ‘Faster and More Inclusive Sustainable Growth’ but it is clear that the emphasis of the Plan is mostly on growth and inclusion, rather than sustainability. A modelling exercise reported here suggests that a ‘visionary development’ growth scenario with major social and environmental benefits is possible for India at low cost. However, combining that scenario with a low-carbon growth trajectory consistent with international aspirations to limit climate change would be significantly more expensive. As it is not clear that the Indian people would be willing to bear these extra costs, some combination of accelerated low-carbon innovation, technology transfer from developed countries, and climate finance from outside the country will be needed if green growth is to take root in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of a lineage is intertwined with the history of the landscape it inhabits. Here we showcase how the geo-tectonic and climatic evolution of South Asia and surrounding landmasses have shaped the biogeographical history of Indoplanorbis exustus , a tropical Asian, freshwater snail. We amplified partial COI gene fragments from all over India and combined this with a larger dataset from South and Southeast Asia to carry out phylogenetic reconstruction, species delimitation analysis and population genetic analyses. Two nuclear genes were also amplified from a few individuals per putative species to carry out divergence dating and ancestral area reconstruction analyses. The results suggest that I. exustus dispersed out of Africa into India during the Eocene. Furthermore, molecular data suggest I. exustus is a species complex consisting of multiple putative species. Primary diversification took place in the Northern Indian plains or in Northeast India. The speciation events appear to be primarily allopatric caused by a series of aridification events starting from the late Miocene to early Pleistocene. None of the species appears to have any underlying genetic structure suggestive of high vagility. All the species underwent population fluctuations during the Pleistocene, probably driven by the Quaternary climatic fluctuations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The South Asian region is predicted to be among the most severely affected by the health impacts of climate change and warrants regional health policy leadership to tackle the same. Model World Health Organization (WHO) simulations offer the academic opportunity to build this leadership. This study describes the conceptualization and conduct of the 'Manipal Model World Health Organization' 2018 debate simulation, where a multi-professional group of students at an Indian university deliberated approaches to address the regional health impacts of climate change in South Asia. We contextualized the Model WHO debate model for a multi-professional classroom. Multi-sectoral stakeholders were engaged to draw participants from health and non-health disciplines. Participants were trained in health research literacy, policy politics, bloc politics, writing and public speaking for Model WHO. Mock sessions provided training in navigating parliamentary procedures. The debate event consisted of 22 participants and a four-member panel from diverse academic disciplines who independently assessed the deliberations. All delegations demonstrated competent written and verbal contributions. Content analysis of resolutions reaffirmed international agreements and addressed the Climate Change Health Risk Framework, and objectives of the WHO Secretariat Action Plan. Besides presenting a stratified typology of academic health policy debate simulations in global, regional, and subnational contexts, we also propose a 'theory of change', illustrating how academic policy discourse platforms can nurture critical thinking, research/policy literacy and leadership skills. Such initiatives help build the health policy leadership required for addressing global health challenges such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disasters caused by natural phenomena are ubiquitous world over in terms of their occurrence. Myths and folklore are testament to this. The transition of natural phenomena into 'natural' disasters occurs only when humans are introduced. 'Natural' disasters have a social gradient to them, which differs vastly across societies. Epistemologically, disasters have been the forte of technocrats with social workers at best remaining at the fringes. This article is based on an empirical study undertaken with two communities who live in the flood affected Brahmaputra valley. It reveals a gap in the knowledge of the local realities—social, political, geographical resulting in grand and ineffective policy making. The current policies have a large imprint of the colonial with little being done in terms of developing alternate, localised and participatory methods of flood management. It demonstrates how the community's efforts transcend a spectrum of stages moving from prevention and adaption to mitigation. For the Brahmaputra floods, the reality is extremely tenuous. Hence, it is not feasible for one knowledge system to understand the whole reality. Rather it needs to be acknowledged that multiple knowledge systems exist, and social workers need to be stakeholders in this process of knowledge creation and building of resilient communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the fast growth of population in India, consumption of energy is growing at a rapid rate. Today's energy consumption and its utilization at an optimum level is a big challenge in the nation. There are various factors like a demand to mitigate global energy, availability, accessibility, cost, environmental change and storage facility of energy which are important in modern days. Majority of the population is shifting towards the city in comparison to a rural area (town, village and kasbah). According to this fact, the consumption of energy is increasing in cities. The small- and large-scale industries are located nearby the city, because of the easy availability of raw materials, better transportation services and other resources. So, the requirement of energy in a continuous manner is the prime need in these areas. In rural areas, people are using low-grade energy, and thereby there is not so much burden of energy required. It is also observed that there is a maximum loss of electricity due to transmission in India. Oil, gas and electricity are major resources to supply the energy need of the countrymen. However, the fuel situation of the nation with the shortage of fossil fuels creates pressure to drive the nuclear investment for electricity and nearly 25% contribution by 2050. The nation's dependency on oil and gas is a critical issue, so the country is looking forward to various renewable energy resources. To accomplish this target, various government organizations are investing in solar and wind energy-related projects along with remote location pilot projects. The role of policymakers in this direction is to develop future strategies to decrease the gap between demand and supply of electricity for the growth of sustainable development. In the present work, energy production from various resources, supply, new policy implementation and import of energy is discussed in India. The study concludes that coal and petroleum product import is continuously increasing in the country for power generation and increasing the level of greenhouse gases. So, the Indian government is investing in power generation projects based on renewable energies in the country. 'Solar Mission' to achieve a goal of 20 000 MW solar electricity and 60 GW wind power generation by 2022 is already running in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We match climate data to migration data from the 1991 and 2001 Indian Censuses to investigate the impact of climate variability on internal migration. The article makes four contributions to the existing literature on macro-level migration flows. First, use of census data allows us to test and compare the effect on migration of climatic factors prior to migration. Second, we introduce relevant meteorological indicators of climate variability, to measure the frequency, duration, and magnitude of drought and excess precipitation based on the Standardized Precipitation Index. Third, we estimate the total effect (direct and indirect effects) of climate variability on bilateral migration rates. Fourth, we examine three possible channels through which climate variability might induce migration: average income, agriculture, and urbanization. The estimation results show that drought frequency in the origin state increases inter-state migration in India. This effect is stronger in agricultural states, and in such states the magnitude of drought also increases inter-state migration significantly. Drought frequency has the strongest effect on rural–rural inter-state migration. (JEL codes: O15, Q54). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anopheles dirus and Anopheles baimaii are closely related species which feed on primates, particularly humans, and transmit malaria in the tropical forests of mainland Southeast Asia. Here, we report an in-depth phylogeographic picture based on 269 individuals from 21 populations from mainland Southeast Asia. Analysis of 1537 bp of mtDNA sequence revealed that the population history of A. baimaii is far more complex than previously thought. An old expansion (pre-300 kyr BP) was inferred in northern India/Bangladesh with a wave of south-eastwards expansion arriving at the Thai border (ca 135–173 kyr BP) followed by leptokurtic dispersal very recently (ca 16 kyr BP) into peninsular Thailand. The long and complex population history of these anthropophilic species suggests their expansions are not in response to the relatively recent (ca 40 kyr BP) human expansions in mainland Southeast Asia but, rather, fit well with our understanding of Pleistocene climatic change there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]