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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change needs to do more to include the expertise and voices of women, even as numbers and policies improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At COP26, India has committed to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. For economy wide net zero, the power system should be first to attain it. This paper explores the role of different technologies, CO2 capture and storage (CCS), nuclear, solar PV and thermal, battery storage, pumped storage, hydro etc. along with energy efficiency in doing so by different target years, 2050 and 2060 and their economic implications. With more intermittent renewables, the issue of balancing hourly demand-supply of both energy and power becomes critical for ensuring the feasibility of a pathway. Hourly availability of different renewable technologies is considered along with hourly variations in electricity demand. Three scenarios are analysed, Business-as-Usual (BAU) scenario assumes current policies to continue, and two Net Zero (NZ) scenarios to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and 2060. Solar PV, wind onshore and offshore, battery storage are the dominant technologies in achieving net zero emissions. Solar and wind together contribute 85% and 90% of the total generation capacity in 2050 and 2060, respectively. Dispatchable technologies like Coal plant with CCS and nuclear are also important. Results specify Battery with storage hour specifications (1 h, 2 h etc.), so one can plan storage in details. Decarbonisation has significant additional cost and investment requirement over the Business-As-Usual scenario. Respective additional cumulative investment requirements (2030–60) are about 1.6 trillion USD and 1.4 trillion USD in two NZ scenarios. The required policies and measures are also discussed. • Developing net zero emissions scenarios for the Indian power system. • MESSAGE modelling of the power system, balancing energy and load for 288 time slices. • Solar PV, wind, battery storage are key technologies to achieve net zero emissions. • Net zero emissions impose large increase in investments and electricity supply costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women play a crucial role in many activities essential for coping with climate change. Indian women appear to be more vulnerable than men to differential impacts of climate change because they share most of the household managing responsibilities but have limited access to participation in decision making and governance. Most of the policies for climate change adaptation and mitigation do not specifically address the vulnerability of women. The National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC), formulated to shape future discourse of climate change adaptation and development, recognizes the differential impacts of climate change on society, but incorporates merely a few gender specific measures. The paper suggests gender specific measures for each mission of the NAPCC to make the adaptation and development process more inclusive and sustainable in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anal carcinoma is an important but rare condition, managed in specialist centres. Both endoanal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used in the locoregional staging and follow-up of patients with anal cancer, and both may assist in treatment planning and prognosis. Recent guidelines published by the European Society for Medical Oncology have recommended MRI as the technique of choice for assessment of locoregional disease. This paper describes the techniques for both endoanal ultrasound and MRI, and compares the relative merits and disadvantages of each in the local assessment of anal carcinoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – India aspires for high economic growth of around 8-9 percent over next few years. Higher economic growth would lead to higher production and consumption, more energy use and more CO2 emissions. At a time when CO2 emissions reductions are becoming an important point of debate and fast erosion of fossil fuel reserves all over the world, it is necessary to identify technological choices that reduce CO2 emission and dependence on fossil fuels. A few modeling studies have explored India's technology options. The Integrated Energy Policy (IEP) report of the Planning Commission of India presents different scenarios for energy supply. The IEP model is however an energy technology model and does not consider a feed back into the economy due to changes in technological choice. This paper aims to follow the IEP in the kind of scenario's envisaged and attempts to investigate its macro-economic impacts. Design/methodology/approach – The Integrated Research and Action for Development model is an activity analysis model that uses a social accounting matrix to account for inter-sectoral influence and which allows for a two-way interaction between energy sectors (coal, oil, natural gas, and electricity) and other sectors of the economy. This paper tries to have three scenarios that are comparable to IEP in terms of specifications and their resultant energy demand (Mtoe). Findings – The analyses prove that changing technological choice results in gross domestic product gains, and reduction in energy demand and CO2 emission. The results show that the policies considered can have adverse welfare impacts. Originality/value – This paper helps in providing an insight into the macro-economic impacts of the IEP scenarios. The two-way dependence of technological choice and output shows the gains and loses out of moving to more costlier but low emission-based power generation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the quantification of exposures to respirable particulate matter from biomass-fuel combustion in several rural homes in Tamil Nadu, India. Profile of study population; Respirable particulate measurements; Exposure profile; Correlation among 24-hour exposures, personal exposures while cooking and area concentrations.

Designing housing policies and programmes requires a careful estimation of household affordability and demand for housing. The efficiency of housing subsidies would depend on price elasticities of housing demand. Different households have different perceptions of housing demand based on their economic and demographic factors. We estimate the demand function of housing for urban India using step econometric analysis. The first step estimates the hedonic price index for states and in the second step the demand for housing is estimated as a function of economic and household characteristics. The problem of multicollinearity is observed with the data. Ridge regressions are used to correct for multicollinearity and to obtain efficient estimates. The results indicate that the housing demand is inelastic with respect to income and price. The income elasticity is 0.75 while price elasticity is slightly less than — 1. A further analysis to estimate income and price elasticities for different income classes as well as states has also been carried out. We comment on the efficiency of housing subsidies based on our results. The paper concludes with some policy questions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Housing policy formulation should be informed by a careful understanding of the behaviour of the urban housing market, as reflected by housing demand behaviour. Such basic information is important, not only for improved project design but also for the development of better sector-wide policies. The overall analysis in this paper stresses the importance of prices and income on the demand for housing in Mumbai metropolitan region. Estimates of housing demand function are given. In our analysis, we account for rent control in Mumbai which distorts rents. The results indicate that housing demand is elastic with respect to income and price. The income and price elasticities are around 1 and -1 respectively. We also estimate income and price elasticities for different income classes. The paper concludes with policy prescriptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing housing policies and programmes requires a careful estimation of household affordability and demand for housing. The efficiency of housing subsidies would depend on price elasticities of housing demand. Different households have different perceptions of housing demand based on their economic and demographic factors. We estimate the demand function of housing for urban India using step econometric analysis. The first step estimates the hedonic price index for states and in the second step the demand for housing is estimated as a function of economic and household characteristics. The problem of multicollinearity is observed with the data. Ridge regressions are used to correct for multicollinearity and to obtain efficient estimates. The results indicate that the housing demand is inelastic with respect to income and price. The income elasticity is 0.75 while price elasticity is slightly less than - 1. A further analysis to estimate income and price elasticities for different income classes as well as states has also been carried out. We comment on the efficiency of housing subsidies based on our results. The paper concludes with some policy questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a housing market model, the supply of housing, particularly new houses, is usually treated in a very cursory fashion, with new housing being regarded as homogeneously good and building cost function defined as a function of capital and labor costs. This paper formally recognizes heterogeneity in a housing model and introduces engineering design parameters in building cost function. Using structural engineering concepts, an engineering cost function is derived in terms of design parameters. A multiobjective compromise optimization algorithm is suggested to choose from various building cost functions. An empirical application of this method is demonstrated by solving the production function of a modular room 3.5 m × 3.5 m in area and 3.14 m in height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a modeling framework to analyze some important issues associated with operation planning of a power system. Major activities involved in operations planning of large integrated power systems are considered simultaneously to ensure optimal utilization of generation and transmission capacity. The model also examines optimal transmission expansion plans vis-à-vis fuel supply issues. A mixed integer programming model is developed for this purpose and the Indian power system considered. Specific emphasis is on spatial transmission expansion plan for the existing Indian inter-state transmission grid and new transmission links, coordinated operation of the isolated regional grids and system benefits accruing from transmission expansion, enhanced fuel production and supply rescheduling to ensure efficient operation of various generating stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector in India claims 30% of the available investments. Moreover, oil import bills have the largest share among the total import bills. Thus, macro economic development and energy sector are highly interdependent. Where energy demand is forecasted without these linkages one cannot be sure if investments and imports required for energy sector will be available. The Simulation of MAcroeconomic scenarios (SIMA) model generates macroeconomically consistent energy scenarios from two interlinked submodels i.e. economic and energy submodels. The energy sector is a part of the non-agricultural sector but it is linked to both the agricultural and the non-agricultural sectors. These three sectors compete with each other for the available capital. In a two-step procedure, various energy economy relations are econometrically estimated and then these are solved simultaneously by feeding in the exogenous parameters (population, oil prices, etc.). The scenarios created correspond to 1991-2010. They are the Dynamics As Usual and the High Oil Price scenarios with capital required for phasing in the electricity sector. Energyrelated emission levels for pollutants such as CO2, NOx and SO2 emissions are also calculated for each scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews the progress made since the signing of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. We argue for increasing the efforts to introduce a collective decision making process. Developing arguments mainly from a Southern perspective, the article discusses the risk factors that need to be assessed for collective decision making, the implications of such processes and policy instruments such as Joint Implementation to implement the decision making framework. The criteria for inter-regional allocation of emission abatement and the potential cooperation between North and South in the context of climate change are also discussed. The article highlights the need to reduce the risk of climate change by early action. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]