Trends of leading pollutant in a highly polluted global city: processes involved

The impact of air pollution mitigation policies needs to be studied by evaluating long-term trends of lead pollutant to determine air quality index, the particulate matter (PM). A decade of SAFAR (System of Air quality and weather Forecasting And Research) observations revealed that the trend of particulate matter (PM) with size < 2.5 µm (PM2.5) and size < 10 µm (PM10), respectively, in a highly polluted global city, Delhi, shows a reduction of − 3.12 ± 0.52 µg/m3/year (− 4.68 ± 0.84 µg/m3/year) or overall, 28.8% (25.2%) reduction between 2011 and 2022 due to the implementation of eco-friendly technologies and strict industrial regulation despite doubling of number of vehicles. Seasonal negative trends during post-monsoon of PM2.5 (− 4.64 ± 2.68 µg/m3/year) and PM10 (− 8.64 ± 2.68 µg/m3/year) are significantly higher than that in other seasons. PM2.5 and PM10 show a relatively higher negative trend during winter (− 2.94 ± 1.08 µg/m3/year) and pre-monsoon (− 4.86 ± 2.07 µg/m3/year), respectively. The influence of dust storms, fire counts, and annual rainy days on PM trends is discussed. The contribution of meteorology to the trend is estimated using the WRF-Chem simulation of PM2.5 for October when maximum stubble burning occurs in Haryana and Punjab regions and gets transported to Delhi by upwind flow. The model is run for the post-monsoon month (October) with the meteorological initial conditions of 2018, 2015, and 2011 while keeping the emissions of 2018 with identical model configuration and found that meteorology contributes 9.8%, while the observed decline in PM2.5 is 28.8% during 2011–2022. The study identifies the governmental control measures at various levels and green initiatives as the significant contributors to air quality improvement during 2011–2022

Urban Migration, Skilling, and Employment in the New Service Economy

The Skill India policy (2015) aimed to address India’s skill deficit and to connect unemployed youth to the job market. However, the research reported in this chapter revealed that most skill training programmes offer mainly short-term courses that produce insufficiently skilled workers and provide access mainly to low-wage, low-end and insecure service sector employment. While many training organisations aim to place rural youth in urban jobs as a means of poverty alleviation or economic mobility, the study showed that available service sector jobs did not provide sufficient income to sustain migrant workers in the city. The policy brief proposes several interventions, such as better designed courses leading to more sustainable employment, or a period of hand-holding after job placement enable youth to find a foothold in urban life and employment

Evaluating the impact of agrometeorological advisory services on crop yields using propensity score matching method in Karnataka's rainfed regions

The impact of Agrometeorological Advisory Services (AAS) on agricultural productivity in four districts in the northern part of the state of Karnataka in India is assessed in this paper. We particularly focus on the role of District Agrometeorological Units (DAMUs) prior to their discontinuation in 2024. The study examines the correlation between access to AAS and crop yields for four major Kharif crops, viz., pigeon pea, pearl millet, maize, and jowar, using the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method

Parametric Analysis of Silica Gel for Thermal Energy Storage in Space Heating Applications

High energy density and minimal energy losses render thermochemical energy storage (TCES) systems a promising long-term solution for space heating applications. While inorganic salt hydrates are considered effective thermochemical materials, challenges such as cycling stability, agglomeration, and deliquescence during the charging and discharging processes limit their efficacy. Porous matrices, like silica gel (SiO2), present a viable alternative to address these issues. In this study, a two-dimensional numerical model for SiO2 is developed for an open TCES system and validated against in-house experimental data. A parametric analysis was conducted to examine the effects of varying inlet airflow rates and air temperature on the system's discharging performance. The numerical results exhibit the maximum temperature rise of ~ 33°C and peak discharging efficiency of ~49% for the lowest airflow rate of 0.00639 kg/s. Additionally, the highest discharging efficiency of 60.38% was observed at the highest inlet air temperature of 27°C. These findings offer valuable insights for optimizing material composition to enhance the stability and sustainability of energy storage systems

Sustainable coastal zone management in India

Coastal zone facilitates the exchange of mass and energy between the geosphere, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere, thus creating a unique and productive ecosystem. Coastal regions provide food, protect the shoreline from erosion and natural hazards, host ports for trade and commerce, and facilitate tourism. These goods and services support livelihood for the coastal communities and thus the economy of a country. Therefore, the health of a coastal ecosystem is vital for the well-being of society and needs to be monitored. The advent of satellite remote sensing in the 1970s afforded a unique opportunity to observe the Earth in a multi-frequency and repetitive manner and has been providing since then data on coastal habitats, coastal processes and hazards, and water quality. During the last five decades, the remote sensing data have greatly enhanced our understanding of the spatial characteristics and rate of change of coastal ecosystems. The long duration of data has also allowed us to detect a signal of climate change. The information on coastal and marine ecosystems, such as mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrass, has helped to identify boundaries of the marine protected areas to conserve these vital systems. High-resolution satellite data provide coastal topographic details, critical for identifying areas vulnerable to coastal hazards. The high-resolution temporal data on chlorophyllaand suspended sediments have helped to understand changes in productivity and sediment transport, respectively. One of the most important uses of satellite data has been the identification of the high tide line along the entire Indian coastline, which has helped to identify the construction setback line, a vital input for regulating developmental activities and ensuring sustainable coastal management practices. Satellite-based inputs, today, have been mainstay in ensuring the health of coastal systems, providing resilience from coastal hazards and facilitating coastal zone management

Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Development, Volume 2: Year 2021-2022

The book contains policy-related publications based on research conducted by the National Institute of Advanced Studies. These publications address and support sustainable development goals, such as energy and the environment, education, inequality, human development, and peace research, among others. This volume fosters comprehensive research focused on these global targets and endeavors to address some of society's greatest grand challenges. The book will be extremely beneficial for researchers, academicians, practitioners, and policymakers working in the areas of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Strengthening Initiatives for a Robust Rare Earth Industry Ecosystem in India: Significance and Way Forward

The rare earth (RE) supply chains are going to face bottlenecks and possible disruptions owing to the volatile geopolitical environment in some of the critical and nodal countries and regions. Therefore, it is important to render resilience to the global rare earth supply chain network by augmenting an alternate supply source, primarily through the end-of-life (EoL) product recycling. Establishing a comprehensive manufacturing ecosystem capable of sourcing raw materials uninterruptedly would help manufacture the finished products at globally competitive prices. This could unveil India’s potential to build a well-planned white goods production ecosystem while creating strategic capability through partnerships and building capacity by generating large-scale job opportunities. Various case studies emphasize the need for strategy-focused and demand-driven bottom-up assessments to firm up the national requirements so that a holistic national plan can be formulated around the core philosophy of resource adequacy and resource security