Publications

Decarbonisation of Indian industry: Transitioning to a cleaner economy

Policy brief
| October 3, 2019

The paper looks at the need for Indian industry to transition to resource efficient, sustainable and low-carbon production, especially in hard-to-abate sectors

Mahatma Gandhi and the Environment

Article
| October 1, 2019

As India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr John S Moolakkattu revisits Gandhi's thinking and views on environment. In his book, Mahatma Gandhi and the Environment, he says that Gandhi's environmentalism fitted in with his overall vision for India and the world that sought to extract from nature what is absolutely necessary for human sustenance. His ideas on environment are intimately linked with his ideas relating to the polity, economy, health, and development.

Plastic waste pollution: A minute to make, but years to break

Article
| September 27, 2019

Over the past decades, global plastic production and consumption have witnessed a meteoric rise. While the harmful effects of plastic utilization are many, we seem incapable of weaning ourselves away from it. Single-use plastic items have caused a lot of damage to the environment and there's an urgent need to collectively curb its usage, monitor its disposal, and, if possible, avoid using it altogether.

Balloons are ticking bombs

Article
| September 26, 2019

"Balloons are deadlier than bombs," says Maneka Sanjay Gandhi. Your celebration means the death of thousands of birds and animals annually. It is time you stopped wasting important resources like helium for meaningless rituals.

The role of business in restoring India's degraded land

Article
| September 20, 2019

Degraded land is an underperforming asset and poses significant risks to a wide spectrum of industries. There are, however, opportunities and benefits for businesses by adopting sustainable land management (SLM) in their value chains.

Changing role of chief sustainability officers

Article
| September 19, 2019

Sustainability in businesses has moved from a compliance based approach to an impact measurement and mitigation approach

Exploration and Mining in India: Time for a deeper look

Policy brief
| September 9, 2019

Exploration needs to be strongly incentivised using the private sector's risk taking ability if we are to find all the minerals we need for our development

A Study on the Evolution of the Regulatory Framework on CSR Linking to Various Amendments in the Campanies ACT 2013

Research Paper
| August 30, 2019

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained increased significance in recent years. The growing focus on CSR has changed the attitude of businesses all over the world, and India is not an exception. The concept of CSR is n speaking, social responsibility of companies is a well-established phenomenon in India, and the country has one of the world's richest traditions of CSR. In its oldest forms, CSR in India included the concept of corporate philanthropy and the Gandhian Trusteeship model (Ghosh S, 1989).

​Electrochemical sulfur production from treating petroleum produced water.

Research Paper
| August 27, 2019

An electrochemical cell was used to remove sulfides from synthetic petroleum produced water (PPW). The cell was run for over 2 months in continuous mode. Sulfides were converted to sulfur at anode with an average conversion rate of 65%. Due to the use of a cation exchange membrane to separate cathodic and anodic chambers, along with sulfide removal conductivity and TDS reduction also took place. Conductivity and TDS reduced by 49.27% and 44.79% respectively on anode and was followed by caustic generation at cathode.

Right to livelihood and social impact assessment in land acquisition

Article
| August 27, 2019

The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, aims to address the long standing popular discontent over perceived arbitrariness of State action in land acquisition matters by creating an elaborate scheme of engagement with affected communities by incorporating the provision of social impact assessment.