Policy Briefs/Reports

Guiding Framework for India's Long-Term Strategy (LTS)

01 May 2020
| TERI Web Desk

As a step ahead in India’s climate discourse, what lies next is the development and enabling of a long-term strategy to drive enhanced climate action. As a first step in this direction, TERI has developed a guiding document on framing India’s Long-Term Strategy (LTS). The framework encapsulates the urgent need and benefit of developing an LTS, other than the voluntary commitment under Article 4.19 of the Paris Agreement. With this backdrop, it charts out the most essential pillars that will enable the development and implementation of a strong long-term strategy, the interdependencies in their roles, and key decisions to be taken under each pillar.

Fostering a Sustainable Urban Future

25 Mar 2020
| Ms Adishree Panda
| Ms Bhavya Bogra

With growing urbanisation, sustainable development will continue to increasingly depend on the successful management of urban growth and natural resources. This discussion paper suggests recommendations to incorporate and adapt sustainable solutions in cities in India.

Mineral auctions in India: Winner's curse or owner's pride?

23 Mar 2020
| Mr S Vijay Kumar
| Mr R K Sinha

Emerging role of bike (motorcycle) taxis in urban mobility

02 Mar 2020
| Ms Palak Thakur
| Ms Aakansha Jain
| Mr Aravind Harikumar

Ride sharing and hailing services have given new dimension to urban mobility. Bike taxis serve as an intermediate public transport mode offering first and last mile services in India.

Emissions control in thermal power stations: Issues, challenges, and the way forward

21 Feb 2020
| Mr Raghav Pachouri
| Mr A K Saxena

As per TERI's analysis, of the total environmental pollution in 2016, the power sector reportedly accounted for 51% of sulphur dioxide (SO2), 43% of carbon dioxide (CO2), 20% of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), and 7% of PM2.5 emissions.

Regulatory mechanisms for electric three-wheelers

18 Feb 2020
| Ms Palak Thakur
| Ms Sugandha Pal

Electrification of auto-rickshaws plays an important role in meeting the transport requirement of many large and medium Indian cities and is critical for reducing air pollution and providing clean mobility solutions. The electrification of auto-rickshaws may result in lower operation and maintenance costs as compared to Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles making them economically viable for the owner/driver. Despite many initiatives and programmes of the government, such as the Faster Adoption of Manufacturing Hybrid and Electric Vehicles (FAME) in India, the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) is still not able to pick up the pace.

Mainstreaming urban resilience: Lessons from Indian cities

12 Feb 2020
| Ms Adishree Panda
| Ms Bhavya Bogra
| Ms Raina Singh (NIUA)

Building urban resilience is imperative for safeguarding urban investments and paving the way for a forward-looking, risk-aware, inclusive and integrated approach to sustainable urban development in India.

Meeting the challenges of human-wildlife conflict reconciliation in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

06 Feb 2020
| Mr Siddharth S Edake
| Mr Jitendra Vir Sharma
| Mr Yatish A Lele
| Prerna Singh

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) leads to the bearing of direct as well as indirect economic costs of conflict by the communities. Such losses can seriously dent the incomes of concerned community members and result in increased antagonism towards conservation in general. This research in Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) highlights that communities have to incur major economic losses due to crop depredation and the average annual household monetary losses are highest in Katarniaghat – 10.17% of the average annual household income followed by 7.25% of the average annual household income in Dudhwa and 5.8% of the average annual household income in Kishanpur.

Discussion Paper: Aligning India's Sanitation Policies with the SDGs

31 Jan 2020
| Dr Girija K Bharat
| Mr Nathaniel B Dkhar
| Ms Mary Abraham

Our paper dwells on the policies, programs of the 'sanitation' subsector and explores current government policies in India for the linkages with ‘sanitation’ component of the SDG 6 as well as their implications for the other SDGs.

Crop residue management: Solution to achieve better air quality

30 Jan 2020
| Dr Arindam Datta
| Dr N K Ram
| Mr Sunil Dhingra
| Mr Mrinal A. Emmanuel

Residents of different cities (probably villages too) of India breathe some of the least healthy air of the globe. During 2017, about 76.8% of the population of India were exposed to annual population-weighted mean PM2·5 greater than the limit recommended by the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQ: 40 mg/m3) (Balakrishnan, Dey, Gupta, et al. 2019). Over last five years, the annual population-weighted mean ambient PM2·5 concentrations were significantly higher over the Indo- Gangetic Plain (IGP) region in comparison to other parts of the country. It should also be noted that polluted air is the second highest health risk factor in India (Balakrishnan, Dey, Gupta, et al. 2019).