Sustainability In India Research Articles

Role of Contract Farming in Increasing Agricultural Sustainability in India: A Quantitative Investigation

A rise in the popularity of processed goods, changes in consumer behaviour, and supportive regulatory environments, farm centred on a partnership among peasants as well as agro-processing and/or marketing corporations is becoming more popular in Indian farming. The rationale for the development of such a type of farming is to boost individual financing of the industry while lowering pricing hazards and post-harvest damages, particularly for commodities like largely priced fruit, greens, and high-risk vegetables. Small holdings might receive a wide range of assistance from the private industry, including input supply, product assembling, and sales. Considering this, the current research looks into the degree to which contract farming will free local farmers in Indian agriculture from their current burdens and aid their escape from the cycle of scarcity. It was noted that although contract farming does have the ability to tackle issues with access to markets (both input and output), modern tech, and economic stability, it additionally has the possibility of worsening issues with traditional knowledge deterioration, soil conditions, and prejudice against big farms. Stronger organizational structure is deemed necessary to increase the sustainability and inclusivity of farming activities. The sample size of the study was 183 respondents. The data analysis was performed with the help of t-test and mean.

Exploring the Relationship between Youth Leadership and Sustainability with Mediation Effects from an Indian Perspective using Path Way Analysis

Youth are agents of upcoming changes who through their knowledge, intense observation and perpetual action can face challenges that would help build a sustainable India. The revolutions that stimulate true youth leadership are nourished by being absorbed in the values and practices of a more sustainable way of living. The purpose of the paper is to study the impact of youth leadership on sustainability and the mediation effect of youth association, youth environmentalism, youth activism and youth governance and the relation between youth leadership and sustainable India. The study is descriptive in nature and cross sectional in time dimension. Responses are gathered from NGO’s that engage youth. A theoretical model linking youth association, youth environmentalism, youth activism and youth governance and the relation between youth leadership and sustainable India is empirically tested using path analysis. The results of path analysis have revealed that youth leadership has a positive impact on sustainability. Further, youth association, youth environmentalism, youth activism and youth governance are partial mediators of the relationship between youth leadership and sustainability. This paper contributes to the existing literature by proposing a framework of the interrelationships of the factors affecting good governance and sustainability of India by the involvement of youth.

Accounting emergy-based sustainability of crops production in India and Pakistan over first decade of the 21st century

Agriculture is one of the main assets of Pakistani and Indian economies, employing in both countries about 50% of the total labour force. Thus, improving agricultural sustainability in the Indo-Pak region has important implications for the local population as well as the rest of the world that relies on food imports from these countries. This article investigates the drivers and consequences of changes in crop production sustainability in India and Pakistan from an emergy-based perspective, from 2001 to 2011. However, due to the numerous crops cultivated in these regions, a detailed calculation of unit emergy values (UEVs) for each crop was not possible, therefore the paper presents a balance at country level (based on literature data for the crops' UEVs), rather than a canonical emergy accounting.The emergy perspective was chosen to holistically evaluate and compare the environmental pressures caused by crop production in both countries. Emergy-based indicators were calculated based on the real time series of input renewable and non-renewable sources. The major findings of the work revealed that purchased renewable inputs, such as irrigating water, and purchased non-renewable inputs, such as agricultural labor, are the largest contributors among the total inputs in both countries. Labor accounted for 46.79% and 60.59% of total emergy input for crop production in India and Pakistan respectively. Overall, the production efficiency in India was greater than that in Pakistan. Emergy of crop production in Pakistan witnessed an increase of only 23%, whereas India saw an increase of 42% during the study period. Despite the lack of data on each specific agricultural process, this trend is an evidence of the fact that, if on one side the agricultural activities in the two countries were intensified to supply an increasing population, on the other side, although India performed better than Pakistan, the sustainability of the agricultural practices (from a nature-oriented perspective as assessed with emergy analysis) in both countries did not improve. . Trends of carrying capacity indicated that intensive means of agricultural production are threatening natural resources in both countries. This study empirically demonstrates the need to conserve natural resources, especially water, which have been rapidly declining in these two countries. Since both countries share these resources, this study represents an evidence for the need to cooperate for transboundary natural resource management.

Energy Audit with Innovative Technology Management for Resourcing the Clean Energy and Sustainability in India

Energy is an essential input to the overall development of the economy. It provides light and fuel to millions of households, industry, agriculture, commerce all service sectors and so on. Since energy is a critical component, development of conventional and non-conventional forms of energy for meeting the growing demand of the society at reasonable price and quality is the responsibility of the government. Energy Audit is an important and vital tool in the management of energy both at industry and nation level. It is required for improvising the efficient management practices in energy production, utilization and distribution with better technology and to thereby conserve for future growth and development. With the growing importance for industrial sectors in the country’s development and increasing energy consumptions, it has become essential and necessity to opt for more optimization methods in the consumption of energy. A saving of 15 to 30% can be done by optimal usage of energy at home. Energy conservation and safety is the topmost priority in today’s world to have a consistent growth, increase in production and to protect our environment. Energy audit and its management is instrumental to cope with the variation in the cost of energy, to identify the appropriate mixes of energy, to improvise the energy conservative equipment and technologies. Along with innovative technology for energy consumptions we also require innovative methods in the management of energy audit to help the country with efficient energy management system, reduce cost and save energy for future requirements. To study and understand the need for Energy audit with innovative technology management in India. To analyze its importance for resourcing clean energy and sustainability in India.

Climate Change and Agricultural Sustainability in India: Issues and Policy Options

From the study it is concluded that after implementation of the scheme, 93% respondents stated that they have been provided irrigation facilities for farming to enhance agriculture productivity. Around 91.8% respondents admitted that due to the provision of irrigation facilities for farming, the production of commercial crops (89.5% respondents) have increased and 91.8% respondents stated that agriculture lands have been covered under cultivation.

International Posturing amidst Domestic Neglect: India's Agricultural Policy Examined

AbstractIndia has actively tried to shape the WTO agricultural negotiations by submitting detailed proposals, building coalitions, and even taking hard stands (veto) at critical junctures. However, this aggressive posturing presents a sharp contrast with India's domestic agricultural space, where the situation highlights policy neglect, manifesting in agrarian distress and farmer suicides. This paper analyzes contradictions between India's internationally espoused negotiating positions and its domestic policy goals. It argues that India's core focus has been to preserve status quo in the domestic food markets, driven by the political need to provide food-based consumption subsidies and manage an assured price and supply protection to its vulnerable consumers. As a result, India's interests are divergent from most of its developing country coalition partners in the G-20 as well as the G-33 groups. Our discussion has significant implications for both the domestic policy, as well as the sustainability of India's strategy in global agricultural trade negotiations.

Environmental Education and its Role in Achieving Environmental Sustainability in India

This article explores the interactions of environment, education and development particularly in the context of India. Basic purpose of environmental education is to give next generation a vision for a better sustainable future full of prosperity. This article tries to give a brief analysis of strategies and policies promoting environment education to achieve the goals of environmental sustainability. The challenges to environment education as a tool to achieve sustainable environment are also studied along with suggesting policy prescription for making environment education effective in overcoming issues related to environmental sustainability.

Unpacking sustainabilities in diverse transition contexts: solar photovoltaic and urban mobility experiments in India and Thailand

It is generally accepted that the concept of sustainability is not straightforward, but is subject to ongoing ambiguities, uncertainties and contestations. Yet literature on sustainability transitions has so far only engaged in limited ways with the resulting tough questions around what sustainability means, to whom and in which contexts. This paper makes a contribution to this debate by unpacking sustainability in India and Thailand in the context of solar photovoltaic and urban mobility experimentation. Building on a database of sustainability experiments and multicriteria mapping techniques applied in two workshops, the paper concludes that sustainability transition scholarship and associated governance strategies must engage with such questions in at least three important ways. First, there is a need for extreme caution in assuming any objective status for the sustainability of innovations, and for greater reflection on the normative implications of case study choices. Second, sustainability transition scholarship and governance must engage more with the unpacking of uncertainties and diverse possible socio-technical configurations even within (apparently) singular technological fields. Third, sustainability transition scholarship must be more explicit and reflective about the specific geographical contexts within which the sustainability of experimentation is addressed.

Green technology vs environmental sustainability in india– an overview

Green technology vs environmental sustainability in india– an overview

Study of water reuse opportunities in a large-scale milk processing plant through process integration

The dairy sector in India, being the largest milk producer in the world, consumes substantial amounts of water annually. This industry is, therefore, likely to affect water sustainability in India in the near future. Amul Dairy, is the largest food brand in India and as such consumes large amounts of water annually. The cleaning-in-place (CIP) processes at Amul Diary accounts for nearly 75% of the total water consumption. The raw milk receiving and processing department (RMRD) requires nearly 90% of the total water used in CIP. This work, therefore, investigates the water usage in Amul Dairy and identifies the prospects of water reuse by using optimization techniques for minimizing water usage in the RMRD. This was achieved by treating the wastewater from the RMRD plant by means of a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane in order to allow opportunities for regeneration–reuse/recycling in the CIP process. An overall mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) framework was developed that simultaneously evaluates both water recycle/reuse and regeneration reuse/recycle opportunities. The model applied to the CIP process in the RMRD plant resulted in 33% reduction of freshwater consumption and 85% reduction of wastewater generation.

An Analysis on Agricultural Sustainability in India

Sustainability of agriculture is a matter of concern for various stakeholders. The challenges encountered by Indian agriculture are due to agro-climatic/environmental, social and economic dimensions. The sustainability strength comes due to vibrancy of these dimensions. In order to understand the regional and temporal dynamics of these dimensions, a state-level analysis of sustainability was made for two time-periods. The sustainability index estimation was based on the human development index methodology. Data for two time-periods, i.e. 2001 and 2011 were used to estimate the indices. The results revealed that in general, sustainability did not deteriorate over the reference period, although some states gained and some others lost in terms of change in the level of sustainability.

Corporate social responsibility and sustainability in India

More and more business leaders influence world decisions. Without their Support, environment restoration will take longer. It is vital that companies become leaders in corporate social responsibility. Companies experience a variety of external pressures to improve their sustainable development performance. The World Business Council For Sustainable Development, sums up the pressures on the environmental attributes of a business, ‘The environment is not going to disappear as an issue for business. Companies are and would continue to remain under pressure from customers, investors, employees, legislators and increasingly from banks and insurance companies to be eco-efficient ’. Recently, CSR has been embraced by the business community as another synonym for sustainable development. The elements of CSR align with the three elements of sustainable development. The triple bottom line of sustainability is 3Ps, Profits, Planet and People. Financial sustainability in CSR align with the economics/profits of sustainable development; environmental responsibility in CSR aligns with environment/planet in sustainable development; and community investment, employee relations and human rights in CSR align with the society/equity/people elements of sustainable development. The study on ‘CSR and Sustainability in India ’aims to throw light on the changing scope of CSR and on the emergence of environment as a key business responsibility to protect the planet and its people.

Ricardian Approach to Fiscal Sustainability in India

There are several approaches to assessing the sustainability of a country’s public finances. Ricardian equivalence is one such approach, in which fiscal sustainability is defined in terms of the neutrality of generational welfare through government fiscal policy. The present work is an attempt to discuss and analyse fiscal sustainability in India in the context of Ricardian equivalence. Different forms of empirically testable equations for testing Ricardian equivalence are derived based on studies by Buiter and Tobin (1978), Kormendi (1983) and Kormendi and Meguire (1990). A key aspect of fiscal sustainability is to ensure generational equity as reflected in India’s Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003. Based on availability of data, empirical evidence is against the presence of Ricardian equivalence, indicating that the fiscal policy India pursued during the study period (1974–2011) has been detrimental to generational welfare neutrality. JEL Classification: H30, H20, H50, H62, H63

India's New Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Regime in the Airline Industry: Changes and Challenges

By 2022, India is forecast to become the third-largest civil aviation market after the U.S. and China. Since 2010, the market has grown 27% per annum domestically and 7.7% internationally. Yet there has been an imbalance in regulatory evolution. Consequently, regulators have been holding back even faster expansion and sustainability of India’s aviation sector. The Indian Government is finally tackling these challenges and proposing reforms via two policies: the National Civil Aviation Policy 2016 and the Consolidated FDI Policy Circular of 2016. The National Policy proposes deregulation of 22 areas in order to remove constraints and foster growth. The FDI Policy proposes relaxing the FDI rules for important sectors including civil aviation. This paper discusses possible changes in the Indian aviation sector resulting from the FDI policy. This includes to what extent joint venture airlines (such as AirAsia India and Singapore Airlines-backed Vistara) can benefit from the new FDI policy. Are the benefits as expansive and significant as discussed in the media? This paper will also analyze the remaining obstacles preventing Indian airlines from flourishing on the international stage.

Crop Diversification Options Involving Pulses and Sugarcane for Improving Crop Productivity, Nutritional Security and Sustainability in India

Pulses have very good opportunity to find place in different agro-ecosystems. Nowadays, soil organic carbon and crop productivity have become major concerns in sustainable agriculture. Since last six decades in our country, improvement in productivity of most of the field crops has been obtained but much success could not be achieved in increasing area and productivity of pulse crops. From 1980–1981 to 2013–2014, the total cropped area under pulses in India increased from 22.46 to 25.21 m ha with the peak of 26.40 m ha in 2010–2011. Due to stagnant production and an increase in population, the per capita availability of pulses has been declined in the range of 35.4 g to 47.2 g/capita/day during 2009–2014. Significant increment in area and productivity of pulse crops is possible by intercropping of these crops with sugarcane which is grown in more than 5.15 million ha area in India. Thus, in irrigated agro-ecosystem, there is a great scope of increasing area under pulse crops through crop diversification/intensification besides improving their productivity. Adoption of pulse crops with autumn (October)-planted cane in furrow-irrigated raised-bed system where sugarcane is planted in furrows and component crop is planted on raised beds also provides great scope for increasing crop productivity and optimizing input use efficiencies in the system. Crop residues recycling of pulses addresses the key issue of decreasing soil organic carbon created due to indiscriminate/imbalanced use of fertilizers and lower use/unavailability of organic manures. Mechanization of diversified cropping systems will certainly boost the adoption of recommended technologies by the farmers. Various tractor-drawn implements for planting of sugarcane and component pulse crops have been developed. Mechanical harvesters for pulse crops have already been developed and are being used by the farmers. Thus, cost of production could be reduced and profitability may be increased with introduction of these crops in irrigated agro-ecosystem besides improving soil fertility and sustainability for longer period. In present paper, authors presented the opportunities of agronomic interventions for pulse crops in sugarcane-based system to improve the crop productivity, profitability and sustainability.

Role of Solar Power in Sustainable Development of India

Bulk group of rural households, dependency on insufficient and poor quality energy sources are the features of Indian energy consumption pattern. Sustainability is the move towards the growth and development of India. Solar Energy is one of the renowned sectors to support the sustainability of India. Solar energy has giant potential in India due to its position in tropical belt. This paper deals with the new innovative applications of solar energy for sustainable development of India. Solar application in transportation, architecture, car parking, restaurants, lighting, mobile charging etc are described for sustainable development. The paper includes the existing applications of solar energy, the current status of solar energy in India, challenges in the progress of solar energy and concludes with some solutions to promote solar energy.

Media Construction of Environment and Sustainability in India

Media Construction of Environment and Sustainability in India

Soil Carbon Sequestration in Agroecosystems of India

Soils of agroecosystems of India are degraded, depleted and severely devoid of the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool which is often <1 g kg−1 or barely 10 to 15 Mg C ha−1 to 40 cm depth. Thus, crop yields are low, water and air resources are polluted, and the overall environment is degraded. Indeed, environmental sustainability in India remains a major issue to be addressed. Concentration of SOC is a strong determinant of soil quality. Furthermore, quality of soil also impacts those of plants and animals, and thus, health of human population. Restoration of SOC pool to above the threshold level of 10 to 15 g kg−1 in the root zone is essential to advancing food and nutritional security, achieving climate change adaptation and mitigation, improving water quality and renewability, increasing biodiversity, and alleviating poverty by increasing productivity. Among causes of the severe depletion of SOC pool are extractive farming practices of residue removal, indiscriminate plowing, excessive irrigation by flooding, none or unbalanced application of fertilizers, and use of dung as a household fuel rather than manure. Uncontrolled grazing and shifting cultivation also contribute to soil degradation. The extent and severity of degradation are exacerbated by accelerated erosion by water and wind, salinization, acidification, elemental imbalance, and anerobiosis. Thus, soil degradation trends must be reversed by improving SOC concentration through creation of a positive soil/ecosystem C budget. Among best management practices (BMPs) are afforestation and reforestation of hill slopes and agriculturally marginal lands. Establishment of plantations and agroforestry systems is another option. Some BMPs for cropland, essential to improving SOC pool and advancing food security, are conservation agriculture, integrated nutrient management, and crop diversification especially of the rice-wheat system in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Policy interventions are needed to promote the adoption of BMPs through payments for ecosystems services. Improved governance and strong political will power are essential to revolutionizing the stagnating Indian agriculture.

Vision of Science and Environmental and Energy Sustainability in Asia-A FarReaching Review

Environmental science is moving through a dreaded and drastic crisis. Environmental catastrophes, industrial pollution and industrial disasters have urged the scientific domain to propel towards newer dimensions of sustainability and successful sustainable development. Immense caution, grave concern and the need for ecological balance have ushered in a new era of environmental and energy sustainability. In this short review, the author delves deep into the domain of environmental and energy sustainability in India and its impact of the progress of the nation. The author with deep comprehension and cogent insight delineates the future of sustainability and development with respect to developmental parameters such as provision of drinking water and arsenic groundwater remediation in South Asia. Environmental and energy sustainability are the coinwords of present day and future vision. The author with deep skill wishes to bring to the forefront the future vision of science and its application of energy and environmental sustainability of a nation. Successful sustainable development will never be a mirage when concerted governmental effort is taken with respect to ecology, sustainability and growth of a nation. The author delineates the success of sustainable development in India and China with respect to ecology and environment. Environmental protection is of utmost importance in the path towards a nation’s progress. Vision of scientific endeavour has an umbilical cord with sustainable development of a nation. The author deals with cogent insight the present and future directions of application of sustainability of a nation whether it is Asia or any developed nation.

Environmental and Energy Sustainability in India and Arsenic Groundwater Remediation ? A Vision for the Future

The world is moving steadily at a drastic pace and human civilization is surpassing visionary frontiers. Challenges, barriers and future planning are the ultimate crux of the progress of human civilization. Environmental degradation is at its vicious helm. At such a critical juncture of human history and time, man’s vision should be targeted towards successful energy and environmental sustainability. Mankind’s vision and civilization’s prowess will go a long way in the emancipation of human progress and environmental scientific endeavor. Frontiers of scientific truth and scientific vision are surpassed with every step of scientific endeavor. Environmental engineering science and energy scenario are opening up new vistas of development in the Indian perspective in years to come. India today is one of the fastest growing economies. Challenges, grit and scientific determination are the coinwords of future. The vision for the future of the nation needs to be reshaped and reorganized as the nation propels into twenty first century. Environmental and energy sustainability needs to move at a rapid pace in a developing country like India. The progress of the world order, the unsurpassed barriers of a developing economy and scientific vision needs to be readdressed at every step of human endeavor.