Publications

Making Liveable Cities: Challenges and Way Forward for India

Policy brief
| October 25, 2018

More than 40% of India's population is expected to reside in its urban centres by 2050 (UNDESA, 2014). While these rapidly expanding urban centres in India are seen as the engines of economic growth, they also face tremendous pressures on their civic infrastructure systems and issues of environmental degradation, air pollution, and increasing frequency of climate-induced events and disasters. It is, thus, now critical to relook at the ways in which we manage these challenges for enhancing the liveability of cities.

Smart grid, battery storage, and your electricity bill

Article
| October 24, 2018

Integration of smart grid technologies at the household level will ultimately help manage consumption and ensure least operating costs, lowering power bills

Boosting consumer confidence in solar lighting with a million+ solar LEDs

Article
| October 23, 2018

Much before urban India, the country's rural population had endorsed LED-based solar lighting. Initiatives such as LaBL share the credit of boosting consumer confidence in such products.

Resurrection of Nalidixic Acid: Evaluation of Water-Based Nanoformulations as Potential Nanomedicine

Research Paper
| October 9, 2018

Resistance to quinolone antibiotics has been a serious problem ever since nalidixic acid was introduced into clinical medicine. Over time, resistance of pathogenic microbes to nalidixic acid led to the design of novel variants to revive its potential application. In the present work, a series of eight nanoformulations of nalidixic acid-based diacyl and sulfonyl acyl hydrazine derivatives were prepared.

An open outdoor algal growth system of improved productivity for biofuel production

Research Paper
| October 8, 2018

BACKGROUND Microalgae are among the most promising options for renewable fuel production in the future. Translating high laboratory yields to outdoor productivity has been a major challenge. Outdoor sunlight intensity is much greater than the saturation light intensities of algae. An open outdoor growth system design has been developed based on systematic distribution of sunlight to improve the productivity.

The Call Of The Chengu

Article
| October 5, 2018

Hunting is a deep-rooted cultural practice in Nagaland, but several communities are working to put an end to hunting and unsustainable fishing

A Goa village that strives to protect the fast-vanishing 'Khazans'

Article
| October 3, 2018

Paddy fields in khazansKhazan ecosystems are reclaimed wetlands and mangrove areas, where tidal influence is regulated by the construction of embankments and sluice gates. 'Khazans' in Goa have always been nature's defence to its own excesses such as high tides, storms or floods. They are predominantly rice and fish fields.

Towards COP24: From Bangkok to Katowice

Article
| September 26, 2018

For successful implementation of the Paris Agreement, issues frustrating developing and developed nations must be resolved; political trade-offs may provide an answer

'Infusion of capital required to accelerate transition to renewable energy in India'

Article
| September 26, 2018

Experts discuss India's need to reconcile its development imperatives with environmental sustainability, at Climate Week NYC

Transcending the challenges: Provisioning universal access to electricity

Article
| September 17, 2018

Bridging the electricity access gap has necessitated innovation in terms of product design, business models, service delivery systems, tariffs, financial instruments, and capacity building strategies