Policy approaches on E-waste in the emerging economies: A review of the existing governance with special reference to India and South Africa

The stream of E-waste has observed a considerable intensification in the recent decade rendering its management a major challenge to the contemporary world. Considering the complexities associated with this toxic stream of waste, this paper is an attempt to review the existing E-waste governance in the emerging economies, taking into consideration the evidence and experiences of a number of representative countries. Emerging economies are instrumental in the growth and sustenance of the global economy today. However, certain issues such as the governance of E-waste is yet to be studied adequately in these countries and still remains an unexplored area of research. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations along with South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico are considered as representatives of the emerging countries. A systematic literature search has been carried out in Scopus and Web of Science to aid our study. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to situate the research scenario in India and South Africa in particular. We observe that the European Union’s landmark WEEE Directive and RoHS Directive have considerable influence on the policies of most of the emerging economies considered for our study purpose. We argue that it is imperative to have a local specific, systematic, organize and stepwise approach towards formulating and implementing the E-waste policies in the respective countries. The fact that, a few representatives from the well-known emerging economies are underrepresented in the E-waste research necessitates adequate attention from the scientific community and policymakers. Overall, it could be concluded that, barring a handful of representative countries, E-waste governance in the emerging economies are yet to be addressed comprehensively both by themselves and the global North.status: publishe

Electronic Waste Management in India: A Stakeholder’s Perspective

E-waste or Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) illustrate discarded appliances that utilize electricity for their functioning. Today, the Indian market is engrossed with massive volumes of electrical and electronic goods and gadgets, having tremendously high domestic demand. Consequently, the amount of E-waste being generated in the country is flourishing at an alarming rate, although the management practices and policy initiatives of the same are still in an elementary stage. The current methods of storage, processing, recycling and disposal of E-waste in India have immense potential to harm human health and the environment. Furthermore, the policy level initiatives related to E-waste in India are reasonably recent and inadequate to address the issue. The paper tries to evaluate the current status of E-waste management practices in India. The domination of informal sector in the E-waste recycling business with all its socio-economic, health and environmental implications are dealt with in detail and the dawdling progress of formal recycling units in the country is assessed upon. The paper tries to identify the range of diverse stakeholders in the E-waste management system in India. These stakeholders are significant right from the production of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE) to the final disposal of E-waste. The paper concludes that identifying the range of stakeholders in the E-waste management system and constructing a sustainable E-waste management system involving these stakeholders are the needs of the hour

Correlation between crustal anisotropy and seismogenic stress field beneath Shillong–Mikir Plateau and its vicinity in North East India

A systematic study towards understanding the correlation between polarization direction of crustal anisotropy with seismogenic stress field at different locations of the Shillong-Mikir Plateau and its vicinity in North East India is attempted. We used data from a 17-station broadband seismic network. In our earlier work , crustal anisotropic parameters were determined using ANISOMAT + for the 17 seismic stations. In this study, we have estimated stress field around the stations using focal mechanism solutions (FMS). Some 215 FMS are obtained by waveform inversion. These solutions are used for stress tensor inversion to estimate stress field around each location. It is observed that polarization direction of crustal anisotropy is consistent with that of the maximum horizontal stress (Ơmax) as well as the minimum horizontal stress (Ơmin). In addition to this, two orthogonal fast polarizations in some locations are also noted. The bivariate nature of correlations helps us to understand that the major mechanisms of seismic crustal anisotropy are not only due to the regional stress, but active faults and other geological conditions play a significant role in contemporary orientation of seismic crustal anisotropy and seismogenic stress field.peer-reviewe