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Begin New Search Political Geography Global Focus Publishing Institution Centre for Policy Research, India

1. Synthesis Report on State of Water: A Look at the Legal and Regulatory Framework Governing Water Services across Jurisdictions

Author:
Maanav Kumar and Parag Mohanty
Publication Date:
03-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
This study looks at the development of legal and regulatory framework governing drinking water and sanitation services in South Africa, England and United States. Around 780 million worldwide do not have access to clean drinking water and almost 2.5 billion people lack access to improved sanitation according to data published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In such a situation, it becomes extremely important to study the legal and regulatory measures used internationally to control, manage and improve these resources. This study, covering South Africa, England and USA, sets out to identify, comprehend and analyze these legal frameworks and structures; examine the control exercised by national, state/provincial as well as municipal governments over water and sanitation-related questions; and the responsive measures being taken by them to preserve the water resources and their quality for future generations. The authors have observed that in presence of varying geographical, historical and social factors, while it would be impossible to compare each model against the other on the basis of merit, it becomes increasingly important for governments to balance the individual’s right to water with the planet’s ecological balance.
Topic:
Environment, Government, Natural Resources, Water, Law, Regulation, Legislation, and Sanitation
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, Asia, and Global Focus

2. Annual Report 2018-19 (SHORT)

Author:
Centre for Policy Research
Publication Date:
01-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Keeping alive CPR’s long tradition of publishing important scholarly, field-defining books, this year too, CPR faculty published books in fields as diverse as international relations, environmental law, electricity regulation, socioeconomic rights and politics. I particularly want to mention two CPR faculty who published their first books to wide acclaim. Zorawar Daulet Singh, a scholar in international relations, made an important contribution through original archival work to understand India’s foreign policy in the Nehru and Indira Gandhi years and through this prism understand contemporary foreign policy challenges. Another important publication was Shibani Ghosh’s edited volume on Indian environmental law. Drawing on contributions from several leading thinkers and lawyers in the field, this book is the first serious, scholarly engagement with the emerging environmental legal framework in India. CPR faculty also made regular contributions in non-academic journals, newspapers and seminars and in the process, enriched the public discourse, infusing much needed evidence and sobriety. This year, CPR faculty published 452 articles in major national and international dailies and popular journals
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. NON-TARIFF MEASURES TO FOOD TRADE IN INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF SELECTED PORTS

Author:
Aparna Sharma
Publication Date:
01-2016
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Speaking at a recent summit, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to India as a bright spot in the global economy. India’s rapid domestic growth and growing integration with global trade, technology and financial flows support his assertion; yet, all this is not translating into peak progress in South Asia, to which New Delhi avowedly assigns high priority. Despite India climbing nine positions in the Ease of Doing Business index (164 to 155 - out of 180 countries), its ranking vis-a-vis facilitating border trade (133) remains unchanged since the last five years. In the absence of timely reforms to bolster food security in South Asia, Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and administrative measures for trade facilitation have emerged as the biggest concern to South Asia’s food trade. 86 percent of South Asia’s food trade remains crippled with non-standard implementation of SPS and TBT measures.
Topic:
International Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

4. Elaborating in the INDC context

Author:
Neha B. Joseph
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
Several countries have embarked on nationwide processes to devise their ‘contributions’ towards a new global climate agreement set to be adopted at Paris in 2015. Sixty-two countries have already communicated their contributions to the UNFCCC, in pledges covering around 62.9% of global emissions in 2012. These contributions, formally known as ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ (INDCs) are expected to be the bedrock of post 2020 climate action and the building blocks of the 2015 climate deal, that is currently being negotiated by Parties. This paper discusses the emergence of this concept and outlines some of the legal and technical aspects of a contribution and their implications on ambition, adequacy and political feasibility. Section 3 analyses pledges in the submitted INDCs, with a special focus on G20 countries. The term ‘INDC’ first emerged in 2013 at the Warsaw negotiations of the Conference of Parties (COP) in a decision inviting Parties “to initiate or intensify domestic preparationsfor their intended nationally determined contributions….. and to communicate them well in advance of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (by the first quarter of 2015 by those Parties ready to do so)” For developed countries, INDCs will replace their Kyoto Protocol commitments; for developing countries, Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) will continue to be in force as implementation tools supporting the mitigation component of their INDCs. Over the past year, countries have been negotiating to iron out differences on issues like differentiation, legal nature, scope, form and review of contributions with varying levels of success on each front.
Topic:
Climate Change, Diplomacy, Environment, International Cooperation, Treaties and Agreements, and Legislation
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, Asia, and Global Focus

5. The Inscription of Technology in Life

Author:
Rajshree Chandra
Publication Date:
05-2015
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
With innovation in the genetic engineering now being rewarded in the form of intellectual property rights, there are new things that are beginning to count as property and as objects of human invention – plant varieties, seeds, germplasm, genetic sequences, DNA and so on. To bring the realm of “biology” within the ambit of intellectual property, to juridify aspects of the biological as products of human invention is to bring new epistemic objects into visibility. While these are revealed through practices of biotechnology, law translates it into a capacity for monopolistic appropriation for biotech innovators. The new correlatives of innovation and intellectual property re-engineer not just the biology of an organism, but the very categories that organized property and intellectual property. What instrumentalities of technology and law co-produce biotic property? I examine these instrumentalities in a two paper series: while the first paper seeks to lay out the work of technology in the creation of new biological artefacts, and consequently new economic spaces and property claims, the second paper would seek to examine the role of law in translating inventive claims as property claims.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Intellectual Property/Copyright, and Law
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Global Focus

6. India’s Sustainable Development Led Approach to Climate Mitigation for Paris

Author:
Navroz K. Dubash
Publication Date:
08-2015
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for Policy Research, India
Abstract:
What should India put forward as the mitigation component of its climate contribution? India has dual interests in climate negotiations: safeguarding adequate energy for development, and promoting an effective international agreement to limit its climate vulnerability. To balance these interests, India should pledge well-developed sector-specific actions that maximize synergies across development and climate outcomes. This approach will avoid lock-in to a high carbon growth path while enhancing development. Sectoral actions could include an additional component conditional on availability of international climate finance. In addition, an updated emissions intensity target would serve as a useful complement to sectorally focused action.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Energy Policy, and Treaties and Agreements
Political Geography:
South Asia, India, and Global Focus