We Are Already Living in a ‘New India’ — and It’s Alarmingly Water-Stressed

Photo by Daniel Bachhuber. Source: Creative Commons

From the balcony of an old Portuguese house in Goa that’s been converted into a guesthouse, I see a water tanker outside our gate, spilling water onto the road while filling the underground water tank. Our proprietor says his well has run dry and the municipal water supply has become increasingly erratic. He is now forced to rely on expensive private tankers.

The tanker has been here thrice over the past week. Its driver tells me that Goa’s wells are running out of water, even though it’s only spring and the hot, dry summer is yet to come.

Many have spoken about India’s future water crisis, but the crisis has already begun manifesting itself across the country. A NITI Aayog report stated that 21 Indian cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people. Perhaps more concerning is that Goa, a state with one of India’s lowest populations and highest rainfall rates, is also experiencing a shortfall.

Day zero

The proliferation of private water tankers in many Indian cities has masked the severity of the problem. Also according to the NITI Aayog, Delhi has been losing 3 cm of water from ground and surface water reserves, and is predicted to hit ‘day zero’ — when its water supply runs out — by 2020 at this rate.

Alarmingly, India’s national and state governments have failed to grasp the crisis’s severity. Their apathy stands in stark contrast to the response of policymakers in Cape Town. The South African city had its day zero in 2018, and it was manageable because the city’s residents had curtailed their water usage by almost 60% over three years, achieved through city-wide restrictions and innovative policies.

India’s policymakers, on the other hand, don’t have the appetite for demand-side restrictions or higher tariffs that could spur public investment in water infrastructure. The resulting shortfall in municipal water supply creates a perfect breeding ground for water-tanker mafias. Although the middle-class is willing to pay for private tankers, it is the poor who are affected more because they have to part with a larger share of their income.

Water quality and the disease burden

The other equally-worrying-but-overlooked concern is poor water quality. During a consulting project, I once attended a session on India’s water quality where a hydrology researcher analysed tap and bottled water in Delhi and compared it to tap water in the UK. The results were shocking. Even the bottled water in India from a reputed brand was filled with bacteria and harmful microorganisms that weren’t supposed to be there.

This anecdotal evidence is backed up by the NITI Aayog report as well, which concluded that nearly 70% of India’s water is contaminated. Polluted water sources cause 2 lakh deaths each year and are responsible for 20% of the country’s disease burden.

Although many middle-class and rich households install a modern water filter, this isn’t a foolproof solution against contaminated reservoirs, rivers and tanks. Moreover, the poor can’t afford the same luxury of owning a filter. As cities increase their reliance on private water tankers, water contamination concerns are likely to surge over the coming years.

No ‘quick-fix’ solutions

Water is a state subject under India’s constitution: it falls under the purview of state governments. Although this increases local accountability, it often results in opportunist political parties providing free or underpriced water to voters. Experts have focused on the need for better policies, such as reducing electricity subsidies for farmers (used to deplete groundwater through borewells). Many have advocated for the diversification of crops, away from water-intensive crops like paddy and sugarcane.

These solutions will certainly make a difference since the agriculture sector accounts for 70% of the country’s groundwater depletion. However, they only tackle the symptoms, not the root cause of groundwater depletion, which is the private ownership of groundwater.

Groundwater aquifers are a common public resource, similar to rivers and lakes, but qualify as private property through land ownership. In the absence of tight monitoring and regulations, overconsumption by households or commercial businesses can rapidly deplete common underground aquifers.

Despite the political ramifications, reclassifying groundwater as a common resource and regulating its use is essential to avert the impending crisis.

Climate change and environment protection

A 2017 study found that at the current rate of global warming, two-thirds of the Himalayan glaciers could be lost by 2100. This will hit North India the hardest, given it relies heavily on surface water sources like rivers and springs. These findings make it imperative for India to not only conserve its groundwater resources but focus on broader environmental protection.

India’s water crisis cannot be tackled in silos. On the one hand, climate change and rampant environmental destruction contributes significantly to the country’s water stress. On the other, incentives for economic growth are aligned with speedy environmental clearances and weak regulatory oversight.

The government needs to fix this paradox by incentivising bureaucrats to prioritise long-term environmental protection over short-term growth. Ensuring clean and reliable water supply must move beyond a political slogan, since it’s the only way to sustain economic growth.

As we head into another general election with the promise of a ‘New India’, it’s essential that environmental considerations are pushed to the forefront of parties’ manifestos. After all, the climate is changing and the wells are running dry.

This story originally appeared on The Wire, and has been re-published with the editor’s permission.

Three Out-Of-The-Box Policy Ideas to Clean up India’s Toxic Air

Photo by Christian Haugen. Source: Creative Commons

One out of every eight deaths in India in 2017 was caused by air pollution, according to a study. That’s almost twice as many deaths caused by cancer. This is a grim warning to India’s policymakers.

No longer just a middle-class inconvenience in the winter, air pollution has become a year-round health emergency across India. Delhi experienced only two ‘good’ air days over two years, between May 2015 and October 2017. Moreover, the WHO’s air quality database (as of 2018) showed that all 126 Indian cities exceeded the recommended guidelines for particulate emissions.

Despite numerous warnings from scientists and much public criticism, policymakers have been unable to implement any comprehensive solutions to tackle air pollution. Worsening air quality is also an indictment of the faulty bureaucratic approach to environmental regulation.

Inflexible command-and-control policies, such as the Delhi government’s odd-even scheme, have failed. There are no incentives for businesses and citizens to change their emission patterns, and the schemes themselves are shoddily implemented.

The recent National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) targets a 20%-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 emissions but doesn’t offer any concrete solutions or adequate funding (only Rs 300 crore) to achieve it. The NCAP will certainly strengthen air pollution monitoring across India — but doesn’t represent the kind of innovation needed to tackle the major sources of pollution. Here are three ideas.

Introduce a federal cap and trade scheme for industrial pollutants

Air pollution requires a federal solution because state-level regulation can’t deal with the problem’s transboundary impact. A national cap-and-trade scheme for industrial pollutants could be effective in curbing industrial emissions.

The idea is to set a cap on the total industrial emissions at the national level, and lower the permitted target over time. This would create a market for pollutants and encourage companies to invest in abatement technologies to avoid paying stringent penalties.

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat trialled a pilot emissions-trading scheme in 2011. It used a comprehensive emissions management system to provide real-time information on industrial emissions to the government.

This experience should enable environment regulators to implement a cap-and-trade programme in industrial clusters around the country. It could help deal with the problem without damaging economic competitiveness.

In 1990, the US successfully implemented a cap-and-trade scheme to solve an acid rain problem caused by sulphur dioxide emissions from coal power plants. Despite fears of economic losses, firms saved $240 million a year relative to a command and control alternative. The program also reduced emissions from the power sector by 36% while coal-fired electricity output increased by 25%.

The US example demonstrates that cap-and-trade doesn’t have to hurt the economy. And when implemented over industrial clusters, it needn’t impose additional socio-economic costs on underprivileged citizens.

Incentivise a shift in cropping patterns among farmers in North India

Crop burning has resisted technical solutions pushed by the administration. The government wanted to give farmers in Punjab and Haryana “happy seeders” at a subsidised cost. The seeders allow farmers to plant seeds without having to clear older paddy fields. However, farmers deemed the technology too expensive and the plan failed.

It also doesn’t address the root-cause of paddy burning. The Punjab and Haryana governments mandated in 2009 that farmers could only plant the water-intense paddy crops in mid-June. This was to prevent groundwater depletion in the summer and delay paddy cultivation till the monsoons.

However, this left farmers little time to shift to planting winter crops after their October harvest. So as an alternative, they burnt the stubble off the paddy fields.

In this context, instead of exploring silver-bullet solutions like the ‘happy seeder’, the government should incentivise crop diversification. Restricting paddy cultivation in North India could also protect soil fertility and curb groundwater depletion.

It’s notable that in the early 1970s, these parts of Punjab and Haryana neither cultivated nor ate rice. But higher procurement prices and electricity subsidies (to extract groundwater) encouraged them to shift from maize to rice.

Offer citizens incentives to trade ‘dirtier’ vehicles for cleaner ones

The Centre has decided to implement the BS VI fuel norms from 2020 to curb automotive emissions (we’re currently at BS IV). Although this is admirable, it’s unlikely to have a significant impact on transport emissions in the coming decade, chiefly because consumers have little incentive to shift to cleaner but more expensive vehicles.

A 2016 study in the US demonstrated that tightening the fuel economy ended up increasing the average vehicle lifetime by over three years . The study’s authors also found that consumers responded strongly to scrappage if they were guided by vehicle price, and they retained their vehicles for longer.

The takeaway for India is that the BS VI fuel standards could result in older, more polluting cars plying India’s roads for another decade. Implementing a scrappage programme with incentives to trade older vehicles in for newer, cleaner ones could curb automotive emissions much sooner.

It has been reported that 700,000 vehicles manufactured before 2001 contribute 15–20% of vehicular pollution. A scrappage scheme could take these vehicles off the road and replace them with vehicles that are BS VI compliant. And under the new standards, commercial and heavy-duty vehicles have better emission control technology and are much less polluting than older models.

Many policymakers believe that air pollution is the price Indians have to pay for economic development. That doesn’t have to be the case. Market-based solutions instead of command-and-control regulation could allow economic growth to coexist with cleaner air.

This story originally appeared on The Wire, and has been re-published with the editors’ permission.

Four recommendations to boost India’s emerging electric vehicle sector

Photo (with modifications) by Tony Hall. Source: Creative Commons

According to a BNEF report, India will only achieve 7% of its electric vehicles target by 2030, based on its current policies

India’s Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari announced in February that the BJP government was abandoning the idea of a national electric vehicle (EV) policy, in the hope that market forces and new technologies would offer a better alternative to government regulation. However, hindered by a combination of policy uncertainty and lack of charging infrastructure, India’s domestic EV industry lags far behind that of China and many developed nations, prompting the need for the BJP to take a more active role in supporting the sector.

In order to ensure that India doesn’t fall further behind in the EV industry, PM Modi’s government must consider and implement these four recommendations, ahead of India’s first global mobility summit, where electrification of the transport sector will be a major focus:

1) The BJP government needs to ditch unrealistic targets and focus on introducing EV production quotas for automakers: 

Former Power Minister Piyush Goyal had in 2016, announced that the government was targeting the sale of only EVs on Indian roads by 2030. Gadkari backed this claim by firmly chastising car makers and urging them to switch to clean vehicles. However in March, the BJP reduced this target to 30% EV sales by 2030. Although these ambitious targets are intended to demonstrate the BJP’s commitment towards electrification, frequent policy changes and a lack of regulatory clarity is undermining the sector. Automakers are choosing to adopt a wait and watch strategy, rather than ramping up investments in EVs and clean alternatives, limiting consumer choice and awareness. India’s first EV manufacturer, Mahindra, produced only 400 units in February, .

According to a 2018 report by the Bloomberg New Energy Finance, India will only achieve 7% EV sales by 2030, based on its current policy trajectory. In order to meet its targets and tackle India’s pressing environmental concerns, the BJP must introduce clean vehicle production quotas for automakers. This policy has been implemented in China and mandates that automakers produce various types of low-emission vehicles to comply with stringent government standards. India’s production quotas must be initially designed to increase the supply of EVs and hybrids in the market, and to improve the fuel efficiency of conventional vehicles.

2) An integrated government body is needed to develop India’s EV ecosystem: 

Six ministries and the Niti Aayog are jointly responsible for formulating and implementing EV-related ‘action plans’. The Ministry of Power is tasked with building charging stations and ensuring grid stability. The Department of Heavy Industry provides incentives to EV buyers under the national government’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme. The Ministry of Urban Development is implementing a scheme to encourage the use of EVs in urban areas, and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is procuring EVs for public transport.

Each ministry has its own set of priorities and often operates in silos, leading to a lack of policy co-ordination. The BJP must create an integrated government department with representations from different ministries. A single body would be best suited to address the lack of accountability and governance deficit which has hampered the development of India’s EV ecosystem.

3) State and local governments must be incentivised to build public charging stations based on their specific requirements: 

Research from countries with the highest EV sales, such as China, Norway and Netherlands, have demonstrated that increased public charging stations are the main factor behind EV adoption, above even monetary incentives. India’s lack of public charging stations is a major barrier in the adoption of EVs. Moreover, as the experience of Ola’s pilot project in Nagpur demonstrates, high recharging costs and long wait times — despite roughly 1 charging station for every 17 cars — has led to drivers of the shared mobility firm abandoning the EV scheme and reverting to diesel vehicles.

The investment required to build fast charging infrastructure is substantial and will necessitate the coordination of national, state and city governments. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh became the first three states in India to formally to launch an EV policy, with incentives for both manufacturers and customers, intended to increase the production and demand for EVs in their state. The national government must encourage these state initiatives by providing them financial incentives. State governments are best suited to build charging stations in urban areas, since each city has unique requirements based on its population density and road infrastructure, while the national government should build charging stations on highways.

4) The BJP should consider lowering taxes on the imports of EVs for a few years to increase consumer awareness and choice:

A major challenge in achieving the government’s target of 30% sales by 2030, is the limited production of EVs by domestic automakers. The country’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, has pledged to build 35,000 EV units per year by 2021, which would represent about 1% of India’s total car sales. Therefore, imports are likely to be needed to bridge the gap between India’s production capacity and target. Reducing the high tariffs and customs taxes applied on EV and hybrid imports is an essential step towards increasing consumer choice and meeting the government’s targets.

Consumers’ response to existing models has been lacklustre, mainly due to a combination of range anxiety (domestic EVs have a range of around 100 km per charge), budget constraints and limited choices. Although lowering taxes on imports is likely to incur opposition from domestic automakers, failure to clean the transportation sector is likely to exacerbate urban air pollution problems. The BJP needs to carefully balance economic and environmental considerations, and replicate the success of its renewable energy policies in the EV sector. It is important to remember that cost-effective solar panel imports from China played an integral role in enabling India to ramp up its renewable energy capacity, at the cost of domestic panel manufacturers.

By implementing these four recommendations, PM Modi’s government could not only give a much-needed boost to India’s electric vehicle sector but also to its own vision of a greener and cleaner India.

Why Ethiopia holds the key to transforming India’s agriculture sector

Photo by Well-bred Kannan. Source: Creative Commons

Potential solutions for India’s agriculture sector, based on lessons from Ethiopia

On 11 March, a reported 30,000 farmers organised a protest in Mumbai, creating a logjam in India’s financial capital. The farmers arrived from across Maharashtra state and demanded that the state government fulfil their demands, primarily the waiver of past agricultural loans and the right to commercially exploit forest land. Although the state government acceded to some of their demands, there is little evidence of any comprehensive national or state government strategy to address the root causes of India’s agricultural distress.

Christopher Jaffrelot, a political scientist and South Asia expert, has in an insightful article, highlighted the three main challenges for farmers in India’s agriculture sector:

1) A steady decline in the average size of land holdings

2) A stagnation of public investment in irrigation

3) Tightly-controlled price markets for crops

In this post, I’ll focus on potential solutions for India’s agriculture sector, drawing lessons from Ethiopia, a country which has consistently achieved growth rates of over 10% per year from 2005 to 2015. Its growth has been primarily driven through an innovative value-chain based approach in the agriculture sector, and offers many useful lessons for Indian policymakers:

Shift in thinking among policymakers

The first step towards fixing India’s agriculture sector requires a shift in thinking among politicians and bureaucrats. They must recognise that the agricultural sector has significant potential to boost economic growth, rather than simply act as a drain on India’s budget. Many countries have relied on the agriculture sector to fuel their economic growth. Brazil, for instance, has become one of the world’s largest food exporters and has leveraged the agriculture sector to expand its presence in the international trading of commodities.

The wide variety of crops and fruits grown across India make the country a potential hub for the food processing industry, and the sector a valuable source of export revenues. This requires a shift to a value-chain based approach where the entire supply chain of productive crops and commodities is mapped out and the government takes a proactive role to tackle bottlenecks at each stage of the value chain.

Creation of a planning and implementation body for the agricultural sector

The government must consider the creation of an independent body that focuses on facilitating private investment in the sector. The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) in Ethiopia performs this function and reports directly to the Prime Minister’s Office. The Niti Aayog (Policy Commission) could potentially fulfil this role in India, but its mandate needs to be extended beyond policy formulation, to include oversight into the implementation of policies by government departments.

An independent body isn’t saddled with the same political constraints as the agriculture ministry, and is therefore well-equipped to facilitate private investment and introduce reforms in the agriculture sector. As agriculture falls under the joint purview of the national and state governments in India, the proposed body’s role must be to align priorities and assist states in the effective implementation of policies.

Increase public investment in irrigation

Public investment in the agriculture sector has steadily declined since its peak during the green revolution in the mid-1970s. A growing food and fertiliser subsidy burden has shifted government expenditure away from productive capital investment towards recurring subsidy expenditures in the agriculture sector. In India, less than 50% of agricultural land is irrigated, resulting in a low agricultural productivity, relative to the world average for most crops. The lack of irrigation facilities also increase farmer dependence on unpredictable seasonal rainfall.

The reduction of subsidy expenditures through the rollout of the government’s biometric initiative Aadhaar is likely to free up funds for increased capital investment in irrigation facilities. New irrigation infrastructure needs to be supplemented with improved water management systems such as drip irrigation and sprinklers. Higher crop productivity through increased irrigation of farmland can help tackle the challenge of declining land holdings per farmer.

Improved access to markets

State governments must look to bolster farmer incomes by enabling closer linkages between farmers and consumers. States should follow Maharashtra’s example, and amend the Agricultural Produce Marketing Corporation Act to enable farmers to directly sell their produce to consumers, through urban farmer markets in towns and cities. According to an article published by the Times of India, following the partial relaxation of the APMC in June 2016 by the Maharashtra state government, 94 weekly farmer markets have cropped up in different cities across the state, and generate revenues of INR 5 crore (USD 769,000) per week. The ability to directly reach urban consumers will reduce the role of middlemen from the value chain, enabling farmers to claim a higher price for their produce and protect consumers from artificially higher prices imposed by middlemen.

The national government must also reconsider its opposition towards foreign investment in the multi-brand retail sector. The lack of specialised processing and cold storage technologies creates significant wastage across the value chain and deteriorates the quality of fruits and vegetables available in India’s towns and cities. Although the lifting of restrictions in multi-brand retail is politically sensitive for the incumbent BJP government, given its traditional reliance on the support of small-scale traders, the recurring farmer protests across the country are arguably a greater threat to its electoral prospects.

Promotion of contract farming for cooperatives, and medium-sized farms

The national government should introduce a policy on contract farming to enable farms to partner with companies involved in food processing. Ethiopia has successfully facilitated linkages between breweries and cooperatives of barley farmers in the past few years. Formal contracts between farmers and large-scale buyers are likely to reduce market uncertainty for farmers and improve their access to inputs, insurance and technologies, subsequently providing them higher incomes. The government needs to facilitate these linkages by implementing a policy with incentives/mandates for companies to source their raw materials locally.

Approximately 20% of farmers in India are medium to large-scale farmers and can play an important role in agriculture growth and exports. These farmers have different demands from small-scale farmers and need to be trained to use better inputs and modern technologies to increase yields and drive agricultural exports.

Leveraging technology to combat climate variability

Changing weather patterns, temperature increases and erratic rainfall caused by climate change, are likely to intensify the challenges faced by India’s farmers. According to the Economic Survey, climate change could hurt farming incomes by up to 20–25% in the medium term. The government must promote the use of modern technologies and better farm management practices to tackle the threat of climate change.

State governments need to establish a robust communication mechanism with farmers to forewarn them about extreme weather events but also to regularly train them on the optimum utilisation of inputs, pesticides and fertilisers to boost agricultural productivity and protect soil health in the long-term.

Airpocalypse — The need to rethink India’s transport policies to tackle air pollution.

Photo by Peder Steril. Source: Creative Commons

India’s rapid economic growth and growing middle-class are likely to accelerate car ownership over the next decade.

The recent cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Delhi was historic, not for the quality of cricket or result, but for the unique sight of Sri Lanka’s cricketers emerging on the field with pollution masks and gamely playing on despite hazardous conditions in India’s capital city. Any visitor to Sri Lanka wouldn’t be surprised by their actions, since the blue skies over Colombo and the island’s other cities are rarely seen in urban India. Perhaps overlooked in the aftermath was the decision by Sri Lanka’s government to introduce a carbon tax on polluting vehicles in the 2018 budget, a policy the Indian government should consider implementing to tackle air pollution.

India’s rapid economic growth and growing middle-class are likely to accelerate car ownership over the next decade, causing vehicle purchase choices by consumers to have a major impact on urban air quality. A carbon tax on polluting vehicles is an efficient policy since it increases the cost of SUVs and polluting vehicles, and nudges consumers towards cleaner alternatives. It also incentivises car manufacturers to develop electric and hybrid models, and generates tax revenues to enable the government to build infrastructure like charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs).

​The challenge ​of selling Electric Vehicles in India

The current Indian government has outlined an ambitious target to allow only the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country by 2030, in an effort to tackle rising air pollution and curb fuel consumption. However, consumer demand for electric and hybrid vehicles has been sluggish, with only 5,000 EVs sold across India in 2016, in contrast to 3 million internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles sold in the same year. The government has backed the 2030 target with a preferential tax structure for EVs under the newly introduced Goods and services tax. EVs are taxed at a relatively low 12% rate when compared to conventional vehicles, which are taxed between 28- 52% depending on the vehicle size. However, this modest tax incentive is unlikely to overcome structural challenges that have hindered the adoption of EVs:​

Economic: Many research studies have stated that Indians are among the most price-sensitive consumers in the world. Unless EVs are sold at a lower retail price than conventional vehicles, they are unlikely to find many buyers. Consumers preference for polluting diesel vehicles over petrol in the past confirms this assertion. At this stage, India needs a mass market EV that the public can afford, over the glamorous but relatively expensive Tesla. The government should also extend tax incentives to imported EVs and hybrids that are currently only granted for vehicles manufactured in India.

Infrastructural​: India lacks public charging stations, which acts as a major barrier in the adoption of EVs. The investment required to build this infrastructure is significant and will necessitate the coordination of national, state and city governments. At this stage, limited progress has been made without the participation of the private sector. Research from countries with the highest EV sales, such as Norway and Netherlands,​ highlight increased charging stations as the main factor behind EV adoption, above even monetary incentives.

Behavioral: The average time taken to fully charge an electric vehicle is about 4 hours. Having personally braved congested traffic conditions in Indian cities, I’m fairly certain consumers will be reluctant to charge their vehicles at public charging stations.Therefore EVs are likely to be adopted in India through a decentralised private charging infrastructure at residences, offices and shopping malls, which will require significant public outreach over the next few years.

​Alternative solutions to curb urban air pollution​

Beyond those outlined above​, India faces other unique challenges in the adoption of EVs such as an underdeveloped electricity distribution infrastructure and the lack of an indigenous manufacturing base for battery technology. EVs are likely to play an important role in the future, but in India’s current context, there are alternative solutions that the government should pursue to alleviate urban air pollution. These include:​

1) Hybrid vehicles

Hybrids act as a bridge between conventional and electric vehicles, since their engines utilise a mix of ICE and electric properties. Pure hybrids don’t need charging whereas plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) take less time to charge than EVs, which can help overcome consumer anxiety over utilising EVs over long distances (range anxiety). The government has taxed hybrid vehicles at an astounding 42% tax rate under the GST, despite these vehicles being 25–35% more fuel efficient than conventional vehicles. Although hybrids aren’t fully electric, they can displace demand for conventional vehicles in the coming years and reduce India’s fuel consumption.

I recently travelled to Georgia (the country) and was amazed to find that many taxis operating for shared taxi companies were Toyota Prius (hybrids). Upon speaking to local experts, I discovered that in 2015, the Georgian​ government reduced the import tax on EVs and hybrids and increased it for conventional vehicles to tackle air pollution. According to the Georgian government’s statistics, the proportion of hybrids and​ electric cars in the total import of cars in 2014 was 0.7%. In 2016, ​it jumped significantly to 5.7%, an eightfold increase from two years ago. This success was achieved without public outreach or mandatory targets, and demonstrates consumer response to economic incentives. India should learn from Georgia’s experience and lower taxes on hybrid vehicles.

2) Scrappage policy

According to research published by ICCT, an international transport think-tank, the majority of pollutants released by India’s transport sector are caused by older heavy duty vehicles (aged 10 or more years). The government and judiciary have issued orders to get these vehicles off the road, but weak enforcement and the lack of periodic registration of vehicles have undermined these efforts.

The government should introduce a scrappage program with incentives for consumers to trade in their older vehicles for newer ones. A similar end-of-life policy has been successfully implemented in the EU and would make a significant difference to urban air quality. It is an optimum time to introduce a scrappage program since India is adopting BS VI standards in 2019. Under the new standards, conventional vehicles will have better emission control technology and therefore be significantly less polluting than older vehicles.

3) Make in India — Electric and hydrogen vehicles

Electric and potentially hydrogen vehicles are likely to play an important role in the future and the government should look to facilitate the development of these technologies to make India a manufacturing hub. Hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer many advantages over electric vehicles since their refuelling times are significantly lower (3–5 minutes). They are also likely to be cleaner than EVs,​ since most of India’s electricity is generated from coal power plants.

The government should consider ​introducing​ a technologically-neutral carbon tax which penalises or rewards​ businesses for their emissions. The revenues collected should be utilised for the construction of charging stations, increasing public transport options and facilitating research on hydrogen vehicles. The government’s transport strategy is ambitious but shouldn’t sacrifice present air quality for potential​ future benefits.

As John Maynard Keynes, a famous economist presciently warned, “In the long-run, we’re all dead.”

“India First”: What India can learn from Bhutan about reforming its democracy.

Photo by Dave Gill. Source: Creative Commons

A potential solution lies in examining Bhutan’s creation of the Bhutan Democratic Dialogue.

The early-November air pollution crisis over large parts of Northern India, including the capital city Delhi, has starkly highlighted the deficiencies in India’s economic growth — which has taken place at the cost of environmental protection. Although the severe air pollution was caused by the localised burning of crop residues by farmers in agricultural states surrounding Delhi, poor urban air quality is a year-round feature in most Indian cities, and has a significant impact on public health. According to a study released in October by The Lancet Commission on pollution and health, 524,680 people in India had died prematurely in 2015 due to air pollution.

The response to the air pollution crisis has also glaringly exposed deficiencies in India’s governance model, with a blame game over the deteriorating air quality in Delhi ensuing between political parties that govern in different states and at a national level. Although some partisan bickering is expected in any democracy, this confrontation inhibited an effective response to a public health emergency, and demonstrates India’s underdeveloped democratic norms.

A potential solution for this partisan division lies in examining Bhutan’s creation of the Bhutan Democratic Dialogue (BDD), a multiparty platform for dialogue between political parties. Created in April 2015, the BDD aims to bridge partisan and ideological faultlines in order to improve governance, and consequently socio-economic outcomes for its citizens. In creating such a forum, Bhutan’s monarchy and policymakers recognised the need to foster constructive dialogue between political parties, and to develop common positions over national priorities. According to Sonam Jatso, the BDD’s Chairman, “Democracy is not a perfect system; it could get really messy. It’s sometimes discouraging when we look at the ugly conduct of some democracies in different parts of the world.”

In March 2012, SS Ahluwalia, then a Rajya Sabha (Upper House) MP, lamented the lack of a national agenda among national political parties in India and the failure to agree even 10 common priorities between the BJP and Congress. He highlighted deep divisions over ideology, policies and thinking between the two parties, which were manifesting themselves in a fractured society. This need for inter-party cooperation and common positions on national priority issues was the main driver behind the creation of the BDD in Bhutan.

The naysayers may argue that Parliament’s role is to fulfill this function in a democracy. In theory, yes, Parliament provides a platform for different political parties to articulate their policy ideas and co-operate over legislations. However, in practice, India’s Parliament has steadily disintegrated into another forum for partisan bickering following the live telecast of parliament sessions, with political parties frequently concerned over one-upmanship, rather than a constructive dialogue on national priorities.

The aim of a new democracy dialogue should be to provide a platform for parties to negotiate common positions in areas such as urban air pollution, health and education, employment creation and agricultural transformation in a non-partisan and private setting. These are all important national priorities that require long-term planning and an alignment of policies at the state and national level. In India, these areas are often overlooked by policymakers intent on pursuing economic growth and providing short-term welfare measures to boost their electoral prospects.

The BDD in Bhutan functions under the guidance of a council which comprises of representatives of political parties and the Election Commission. In order to address India’s more bitter partisanship, any democracy dialogue will only be effective if it is chaired by an independent council with an equal representation of ruling, opposition and regional parties that govern at a state level. A democracy dialogue can provide a platform for policymakers to share their experiences of effective policies that have been implemented in different states. It would also provide a degree of policy continuity between successive national governments.

Indian policymakers would do well to put India’s national interests ahead of their party interests, by drawing upon the BDD’s mission of ‘Bhutanese First’. It is perhaps time to start putting ‘India first’, ahead of the BJP or Congress.