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Urbanization can challenge sustainable development if it produces unequal outcomes. Infrastructure is an important urbanization dimension, providing services to support diverse urban activities. However, it can lock in unequal outcomes due to its durable nature. This paper studies inequalities in infrastructure distributions to derive insights into the structure and characteristics of unequal outcomes associated with urbanization. We analyzed infrastructure inequalities in two emerging economies in the Global South: India and South Africa. We developed and applied an inequality measure to understand the structure of inequality in infrastructure provisioning (based on census data) and infrastructure availability (based on satellite nighttime lights [NTLs] data). Consistent with differences in economic inequality, results show greater inequalities in South Africa than in India and greater urban inequalities than rural inequalities. Nevertheless, inequalities in urban infrastructure provisioning and infrastructure availability increase from finer to coarser spatial scales. NTL-based inequality measurements additionally show that inequalities are more concentrated at coarse spatial scales in India than in South Africa. Finally, results show that urban inequalities in infrastructure provisioning covary with urbanization levels conceptualized as a multidimensional phenomenon, including demographic, economic, and infrastructural dimensions. Similarly, inequalities in urban infrastructure availability increase monotonically with infrastructure development levels and urban population size. Together, these findings underscore infrastructure inequalities as a feature of urbanization and suggest that understanding urban inequalities requires applying an inequality lens to urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India has set aggressive targets to install more than 400 GW of wind and solar electricity generation by 2030, with more than two-thirds of that capacity coming from solar. This paper examines the electricity and carbon mitigation costs to reliably operate India's grid in 2030 for a variety of wind and solar targets (200 GW to 600 GW) and the most promising options for reducing these costs. We find that systems where solar photovoltaic comprises only 25 to 50% of the total renewable target have the lowest carbon mitigation costs in most scenarios. This result invites a reexamination of India's proposed solar-majority targets. We also find that, compared to other regions and contrary to prevailing assumptions, meeting high renewable targets will avoid building very few new fossil fuel (coal and natural gas) power plants because of India's specific weather patterns and need to meet peak electricity demand. However, building 600 GW of renewable capacity, with the majority being wind plants, reduces how often fossil fuel power plants run, and this amount of capacity can hold India's 2030 emissions below 2018 levels for less than the social cost of carbon. With likely wind and solar cost declines and increases in coal energy costs, balanced or wind-majority high renewable energy systems (600 GW or - 45% share by energy) could result in electricity costs similar to a fossil fuel-dominated system. As an alternative strategy for meeting peak electricity demand, battery storage can avert the need for new fossil fuel capacity but is cost effective only at low capital costs (USD 150 per kWh). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a leading effort to improve the welfare of smallholder farmers, several governments have led major reforms in improving market access for these farmers through online agricultural platforms. Leveraging collaboration with the state government of Karnataka, India, this paper provides an empirical assessment on the impact of such a reform--implementation of the Unified Market Platform (UMP)--on market prices and farmers' profitability. UMP was created in 2014 to unify all trades in the agricultural wholesale markets of the state to be carried out within a single platform. By November 2019, 62.8 million metric tons of commodities valued at $21.7 billion (USD) have been traded on UMP. Employing a difference-in-differences method, we demonstrate that the impact of UMP on modal prices varies substantially across commodities. In particular, the implementation of UMP has yielded an average 5.1%, 3.6%, and 3.5% increase in the modal prices of paddy, groundnut, and maize. Furthermore, UMP has generated a greater benefit for farmers who produce higher-quality commodities. Given low profit margins of smallholder farmers (2 to 9%), the range of profit improvement is significant (36 to 159%). In contrast, UMP has no statistically significant impact on the modal prices of cotton, green gram, or tur. Using detailed market data from UMP, we analyze how features related to logistical challenges, bidding efficiency, in-market concentration, and the price discovery process differ between commodities with and without a significant price increase due to UMP. These analyses lead to several policy insights regarding the design of similar agri-platforms in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predicting the temporal and spatial patterns of South Asian monsoon rainfall within a season is of critical importance due to its impact on agriculture, water availability, and flooding. The monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (MISO) is a robust northwardpropagating mode that determines the active and break phases of the monsoon and much of the regional distribution of rainfall. However, dynamical atmospheric forecast models predict this mode poorly. Data-driven methods for MISO prediction have shown more skill, but only predict the portion of the rainfall corresponding to MISO rather than the full rainfall signal. Here, we combine state-of-the-art ensemble precipitation forecasts from a high-resolution atmospheric model with data-driven forecasts of MISO. The ensemble members of the detailed atmospheric model are projected onto a lower-dimensional subspace corresponding to the MISO dynamics and are then weighted according to their distance from the data-drivenMISOforecast in this subspace. We thereby achieve improvements in rainfall forecasts over India, as well as the broader monsoon region, at 10-to 30-d lead times, an interval that is generally considered to be a predictability gap. The temporal correlation of rainfall forecasts is improved by up to 0.28 in this time range. Our results demonstrate the potential of leveraging the predictability of intraseasonal oscillations to improve extended-range forecasts; more generally, they point toward a future of combining dynamical and data-driven forecasts for Earth system prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbes evolve rapidly by modifying their genomes through mutations or through the horizontal acquisition of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) linked with fitness traits such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), virulence, and metabolic functions. We conducted a multicentric study in India and collected different clinical samples for decoding the genome sequences of bacterial pathogens associated with sepsis, urinary tract infections, and respiratory infections to understand the functional potency associated with AMR and its dynamics. Genomic analysis identified several acquired AMR genes (ARGs) that have a pathogen-specific signature. We observed that blaCTX-M-15, blaCMY-42, blaNDM-5, and aadA(2) were prevalent in Escherichia coli, and blaTEM-1B, blaOXA-232, blaNDM-1, rmtB, and rmtC were dominant in Klebsiella pneumoniae. In contrast, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumannii harbored blaVEB, blaVIM-2, aph(3'), strA/B, blaOXA-23, aph(3') variants, and amrA, respectively. Regardless of the type of ARG, the MGEs linked with ARGs were also pathogen-specific. The sequence type of these pathogens was identified as high-risk international clones, with only a few lineages being predominant and region-specific. Whole-cell proteome analysis of extensively drug-resistant K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii, E. coli, and P. aeruginosa strains revealed differential abundances of resistance-associated proteins in the presence and absence of different classes of antibiotics. The pathogen-specific resistance signatures and differential abundance of AMR-associated proteins identified in this study should add value to AMR diagnostics and the choice of appropriate drug combinations for successful antimicrobial therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Targeting structurally influential individuals within social networks can enhance adoption of health interventions within populations. We tested the effectiveness of two algorithms to improve social contagion that do not require knowledge of the whole network structure. We mapped the social interactions of 2,491 women in 50 residential buildings (chawls) in Mumbai, India. The buildings, which are social units, were randomized to (1) targeting 20% of the women at random, (2) targeting friends of such randomly chosen women, (3) targeting pairs of people composed of randomly chosen women and a friend, or (4) no targeting. Both targeting algorithms, friendship nomination and pair targeting, enhanced adoption of a public health intervention related to the use of iron-fortified salt for anemia. In particular, the targeting of pairs of friends, which is relatively easily implementable in field settings, enhanced adoption of novel practices through both social influence and social reinforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive literature documents the contributions of discrimination and social exclusion to health disparities. This study investigates life expectancy differentials along lines of caste, religion, and indigenous identity in India, home to some of the largest populations of marginalized social groups in the world. Using a large, high-quality survey that measured mortality, social group, and economic status, we estimate and decompose life expectancy differences between higher-caste Hindus, comprising other backward classes and high-caste Hindus, and three of India’s most disadvantaged social groups: Adivasis, Dalits, and Muslims. Relative to higher-caste Hindus, Adivasi life expectancy is more than 4 y lower, Dalit life expectancy is more than 3 y lower, and Muslim life expectancy is about 1 y lower. Economic status explains less than half of these gaps. The differences between the life expectancy of higher-caste Hindus and the life expectancies of Adivasis and Dalits are comparable to the Black–White gap in the United States in absolute magnitude. The differences are larger in relative terms because overall life expectancy in India is lower. Our findings extend the literature on fundamental causes of global health disparities. Methodologically, we contribute to the literature on mortality estimation and demographic decomposition using survey data from low- and middle-income contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of mountain building along margins of the Tibetan Plateau provides a key constraint on the processes by which the high topography in Eurasia formed. Although progressive expansion of thickened crust underpins most models, several studies suggest that the northern extent of the plateau was established early, soon after the collision between India and Eurasia at ca. 50 Ma. This inference relies heavily on the age and provenance of Cenozoic sediments preserved in the Qaidam basin. Here, we present evidence in the northern plateau for a considerably younger inception and evolution of the Qaidam basin, based on magnetostratigraphies combined with detrital apatite fission-track ages that date the basin fills to be from ca. 30 to 4.8 Ma. Detrital zircon-provenance analyses coupled with paleocurrents reveal that two-stage growth of the Qilian Shan in the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau began at ca. 30 and at 10 Ma, respectively. Evidence for ca. 30 and 10 to 15 Ma widespread synchronous deformation throughout the Tibetan Plateau and its margins suggests that these two stages of outward growth may have resulted from the removal of mantle lithosphere beneath different portions of the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing habitat fragmentation leads to wild populations becoming small, isolated, and threatened by inbreeding depression. However, small populations may be able to purge recessive deleterious alleles as they become expressed in homozygotes, thus reducing inbreeding depression and increasing population viability. We used whole-genome sequences from 57 tigers to estimate individual inbreeding and mutation load in a small-isolated and two large-connected populations in India. As expected, the small-isolated population had substantially higher average genomic inbreeding (F ROH = 0.57) than the large-connected (F ROH = 0.35 and F ROH = 0.46) populations. The small-isolated population had the lowest loss-of-function mutation load, likely due to purging of highly deleterious recessive mutations. The large populations had lower missense mutation loads than the small-isolated population, but were not identical, possibly due to different demographic histories. While the number of the loss-of-function alleles in the small-isolated population was lower, these alleles were at higher frequencies and homozygosity than in the large populations. Together, our data and analyses provide evidence of 1) high mutation load, 2) purging, and 3) the highest predicted inbreeding depression, despite purging, in the small-isolated population. Frequency distributions of damaging and neutral alleles uncover genomic evidence that purifying selection has removed part of the mutation load across Indian tiger populations. These results provide genomic evidence for purifying selection in both small and large populations, but also suggest that the remaining deleterious alleles may have inbreeding-associated fitness costs. We suggest that genetic rescue from sources selected based on genome-wide differentiation could offset any possible impacts of inbreeding depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most endangered species exist today in small populations, many of which are isolated. Evolution in such populations is largely governed by genetic drift. Empirical evidence for drift affecting striking phenotypes based on substantial genetic data are rare. Approximately 37% of tigers (Panthera tigris) in the Similipal Tiger Reserve (in eastern India) are pseudomelanistic, characterized by wide, merged stripes. Camera trap data across the tiger range revealed the presence of pseudomelanistic tigers only in Similipal. We investigated the genetic basis for pseudomelanism and examined the role of drift in driving this phenotype's frequency. Whole-genome data and pedigree-based association analyses from captive tigers revealed that pseudomelanism cosegregates with a conserved and functionally important coding alteration in Transmembrane Aminopeptidase Q (Taqpep), a gene responsible for similar traits in other felid species. Noninvasive sampling of tigers revealed a high frequency of the Taqpep p.H454Y mutation in Similipal (12 individuals, allele frequency = 0.58) and absence from all other tiger populations (395 individuals). Population genetic analyses confirmed few (minimal number) tigers in Similipal, and its genetic isolation, with poor geneflow. Pairwise FST (0.33) at the mutation site was high but not an outlier. Similipal tigers had low diversity at 81 single nucleotide polymorphisms (mean heterozygosity = 0.28, SD = 0.27). Simulations were consistent with founding events and drift as possible drivers for the observed stark difference of allele frequency. Our results highlight the role of stochastic processes in the evolution of rare phenotypes. We highlight an unusual evolutionary trajectory in a small and isolated population of an endangered species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving persistence in household behavior modification has been a central but elusive goal of environmental conservation attempts that rely on behavioral interventions. We implemented a habit change intervention, designed to achieve persistent change in household water conservation behavior in an affluent residential community in urban India. We found a 15 to 25% reduction in household water consumption in the absence of any volumetric pricing. Most importantly, the effects of our 5-wk intervention persisted for more than a year, after which marginal pricing was introduced. The treatment gap was not bridged even after a year under the marginal price regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are emerging opportunities to assess health indicators at truly small areas with increasing availability of data geocoded to micro geographic units and advanced modeling techniques. The utility of such fine-grained data can be fully leveraged if linked to local governance units that are accountable for implementation of programs and interventions. We used data from the 2011 Indian Census for village-level demographic and amenities features and the 2016 Indian Demographic and Health Survey in a bias-corrected semisupervised regression framework to predict child anthropometric failures for all villages in India. Of the total geographic variation in predicted child anthropometric failure estimates, 54.2 to 72.3% were attributed to the village level followed by 20.6 to 39.5%to the state level. The mean predicted stunting was 37.9% (SD: 10.1%; IQR: 31.2 to 44.7%), and substantial variation was found across villages ranging from less than 5% for 691 villages to over 70% in 453 villages. Estimates at the village level can potentially shift the paradigm of policy discussion in India by enabling more informed prioritization and precise targeting. The proposed methodology can be adapted and applied to diverse population health indicators, and in other contexts, to reveal spatial heterogeneity at a finer geographic scale and identify local areas with the greatest needs and with direct implications for actions to take place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do firstborn children have a height advantage? Empirical findings have found mostly that, yes, second or higher-order children often lag behind firstborns in height outcomes, especially in developing countries. However, empirical investigations of birth-order effects on child height overlook the potential impact that birth spacing can have. We provide an explanation for the negative birth-order effect on stunting outcomes for young Indian children and show it is driven by short preceding-birth spacing. We find that firstborn children are taller than children of higher birth order: The height-for-age gap for third (or higher)-order children is twice the gap for children second in birth order. However, this pattern is observed when spacing between later-born children and their immediate elder siblings is fewer than 3 y. Interestingly, the firstborn height advantage disappears when later-born children are born at least 3 y after their elder siblings. Thus, our findings indicate that spacing length between children explains differences in height, over birth order. Although India's family planning policy has resulted in a substantial reduction in total fertility, its achievement in spacing subsequent births has been less impressive. In showing that spacing can alleviate or aggravate birth-order effects on attained height, our study fills an evidence gap: Reducing fertility alone may not be sufficient in overcoming negative birth-order effects. To reduce the detrimental effects of birth order on child stunting, policy responses--and therefore research priorities--require a stronger focus on increasing the time period between births. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing the costs from human-wildlife conflict, mostly borne by marginal rural households, is a priority for conservation. We estimate the mean species-specific cost for households suffering damages from one of 15 major species of wildlife in India. Our data are from a survey of 5,196 households living near 11 wildlife reserves in India, and self-reported annual costs include crop and livestock losses and human casualties (injuries and death). By employing conservative estimates from the literature on the value of a statistical life (VSL), we find that costs from human casualties overwhelm crop and livestock damages for all species associated with fatalities. Farmers experiencing a negative interaction with an elephant over the last year incur damages on average that are 600 and 900 times those incurred by farmers with negative interactions with the next most costly herbivores: the pig and the nilgai. Similarly, farmers experiencing a negative interaction with a tiger over the last year incur damage that is on average 3 times that inflicted by a leopard and 100 times that from a wolf. These cost differences are largely driven by differences in the incidence of human death and casualties. Our estimate of costs fluctuates across reserves, mostly due to a variation of human casualties. Understanding the drivers of human casualties and reducing their incidence are crucial to reducing the costs from human-wildlife conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report paleomagnetic data showing that an intraoceanic Trans- Tethyan subduction zone existed south of the Eurasian continent and north of the Indian subcontinent until at least Paleocene time. This system was active between 66 and 62 Ma at a paleolatitude of 8.1 ± 5.6 °N, placing it 600-2,300 km south of the contemporaneous Eurasian margin. The first ophiolite obductions onto the northern Indian margin also occurred at this time, demonstrating that collision was a multistage process involving at least two subduction systems. Collisional events began with collision of India and the Trans-Tethyan subduction zone in Late Cretaceous to Early Paleocene time, followed by the collision of India (plus Trans-Tethyan ophiolites) with Eurasia in mid-Eocene time. These data constrain the total postcollisional convergence across the India-Eurasia convergent zone to 1,350-2,150 km and limit the north-south extent of northwestern Greater India to <900 km. These results have broad implications for how collisional processes may affect plate reconfigurations, global climate, and biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban outdoor air pollution in the developing world, mostly due to particulate matter with diameters smaller than 2.5 µm (PM2.5), has been highlighted in recent years. It leads to millions of premature deaths. Outdoor air pollution has also been viewed mostly as an urban problem. We use satellite-derived demarcations to parse India's population into urban and nonurban regions, which agrees with the census data. We also use the satellite-derived surface PM2.5 levels to calculate the health impacts in the urban and nonurban regions. We show that outdoor air pollution is just as severe in nonurban regions as in the urban regions of India, with implications to monitoring, regulations, health, and policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deep structure of the continental collision between India and Asia and whether India's lower crust is underplated beneath Tibet or subducted into the mantle remain controversial. It is also unknown whether the active normal faults that facilitate orogenparallel extension of Tibetan upper crust continue into the lower crust and upper mantle. Our receiver-function images collected parallel to the India-Tibet collision zone show the 20-km-thick Indian lower crust that underplates Tibet at 88.5-92°E beneath the Yarlung-Zangbo suture is essentially absent in the vicinity of the Cona-Sangri and Pumqu-Xainza grabens, demonstrating a clear link between upper-crustal and lower-crustal thinning. Satellite gravity data that covary with the thickness of Indian lower crust are consistent with the lower crust being only ~30% eclogitized so gravitationally stable. Deep earthquakes coincidewith Moho offsets and with lateral thinning of the Indian lower crust near the bottom of the partially eclogitized Indian lower crust, suggesting the Indian lower crust is locally foundering or stoping into the mantle. Loss of Indian lower crust by these means implies gravitational instability that can result from localized rapid eclogitization enabled by dehydration reactions in weakly hydrous mafic granulites or by volatilerich asthenospheric upwelling directly beneath the two grabens. We propose that two competing processes, plateau formation by underplating and continental loss by foundering or stoping, are simultaneously operating beneath the collision zone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the impact of air pollution on human health is well studied, mechanistic impacts of air pollution on wild systems, including those providing essential ecosystem services, are largely unknown, but directly impact our health and well-being. India is the world’s largest fruit producer, second most populous country, and contains 9 of the world’s 10 most polluted cities. Here, we sampled Giant Asian honey bees, Apis dorsata, at locations with varying air pollution levels in Bangalore, India. We observed significant correlations between increased respirable suspended particulate matter (RSPM) deposition and changes in bee survival, flower visitation, heart rate, hemocyte levels, and expression of genes related to lipid metabolism, stress, and immunity. Lab-reared Drosophila melanogaster exposed to these same sites also exhibited similar molecular and physiological differences. Our study offers a quantitative analysis on the current impacts of air pollution on insects, and indicates the urgency for more nonhuman studies to accurately assess the effects of pollution on our natural world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread belief in misinformation circulating online is a critical challenge for modern societies. While research to date has focused on psychological and political antecedents to this phenomenon, few studies have explored the role of digital media literacy shortfalls. Using data from preregistered survey experiments conducted around recent elections in the United States and India, we assess the effectiveness of an intervention modeled closely on the world’s largest media literacy campaign, which provided “tips” on how to spot false news to people in 14 countries. Our results indicate that exposure to this intervention reduced the perceived accuracy of both mainstream and false news headlines, but effects on the latter were significantly larger. As a result, the intervention improved discernment between mainstream and false news headlines among both a nationally representative sample in the United States (by 26.5%) and a highly educated online sample in India (by 17.5%). This increase in discernment remained measurable several weeks later in the United States (but not in India). However, we find no effects among a representative sample of respondents in a largely rural area of northern India, where rates of social media use are far lower. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arsenic is a toxic pollutant commonly found in the environment. Most of the previous studies on arsenic pollution have primarily focused on arsenic contamination in groundwater. In this study, we examine the impact on human health from atmospheric arsenic on the global scale. We first develop an improved global atmospheric arsenic emission inventory and connect it to a global model (Goddard Earth Observing System [GEOS]-Chem). Model evaluation using observational data from a variety of sources shows the model successfully reproduces the spatial distribution of atmospheric arsenic around the world. We found that for 2005, the highest airborne arsenic concentrations were found over Chile and eastern China, with mean values of 8.34 and 5.63 ng/m², respectively. By 2015, the average atmospheric arsenic concentration in India (4.57 ng/m²) surpassed that in eastern China (4.38 ng/m²) due to the fast increase in coal burning in India. Our calculation shows that China has the largest population affected by cancer risk due to atmospheric arsenic inhalation in 2005, which is again surpassed by India in 2015. Based on potential exceedance of health-based limits, we find that the combined effect by including both atmospheric and groundwater arsenic may significantly enhance the risks, due to carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic effects. Therefore, this study clearly implies the necessity in accounting for both atmospheric and groundwater arsenic in future management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lions are one of the world’s most iconic megafauna, yet little is known about their temporal and spatial demographic history and population differentiation. We analyzed a genomic dataset of 20 specimens: two ca. 30,000-y-old cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea), 12 historic lions (Panthera leo leo/Panthera leo melanochaita) that lived between the 15th and 20th centuries outside the current geographic distribution of lions, and 6 present-day lions from Africa and India. We found that cave and modern lions shared an ancestor ca. 500,000 y ago and that the 2 lineages likely did not hybridize following their divergence. Within modern lions, we found 2 main lineages that diverged ca. 70,000 y ago, with clear evidence of subsequent gene flow. Our data also reveal a nearly complete absence of genetic diversity within Indian lions, probably due to well-documented extremely low effective population sizes in the recent past. Our results contribute toward the understanding of the evolutionary history of lions and complement conservation efforts to protect the diversity of this vulnerable species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable food systems aim to provide sufficient and nutritious food, while maximizing climate resilience and minimizing resource demands as well as negative environmental impacts. Historical practices, notably the Green Revolution, prioritized the single objective to maximize production over other nutritional and environmental dimensions. We quantitatively assess outcomes of alternative production decisions across multiple objectives using India's ricedominated monsoon cereal production as an example. We perform a series of optimizations to maximize nutrient production (i.e., protein and iron), minimize greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource use (i.e., water and energy), or maximize resilience to climate extremes.We find that increasing the area under coarse cereals (i.e., millets, sorghum) improves nutritional supply (on average, +1% to +5% protein and +5% to +49% iron), increases climate resilience (1% to 13% fewer calories lost during an extreme dry year), and reduces GHGs (-2% to -13%) and demand for irrigation water (-3% to -21%) and energy (-2% to -12%) while maintaining calorie production and cropped area. The extent of these benefits partly depends on the feasibility of switching cropped area from rice to coarse cereals. Based on current production practices in 2 states, supporting these cobenefits could require greater manure and draft power but similar or less labor, fertilizer, and machinery. National- and state-level strategies considering multiple objectives in decisions about cereal production can move beyond many shortcomings of the Green Revolution while reinforcing the benefits. This ability to realistically incorporate multiple dimensions into intervention planning and implementation is the crux of sustainable food production systems worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sex ratio at birth (SRB; ratio of male to female live births) imbalance in parts of the world over the past few decades is a direct consequence of sex-selective abortion, driven by the coexistence of son preference, readily available technology of prenatal sex determination, and fertility decline. Estimation of the degree of SRB imbalance is complicated because of unknown SRB reference levels and because of the uncertainty associated with SRB observations. There are needs for reproducible methods to construct SRB estimates with uncertainty, and to assess SRB inflation due to sex-selective abortion. We compile an extensive database from vital registration systems, censuses and surveys with 10,835 observations, and 16,602 country-years of information from 202 countries. We develop Bayesian methods for SRB estimation for all countries from 1950 to 2017. We model the SRB regional and national reference levels, the fluctuation around national reference levels, and the inflation. The estimated regional reference levels range from 1.031 (95% uncertainty interval [1.027; 1.036]) in sub-Saharan Africa to 1.063 [1.055; 1.072] in southeastern Asia, 1.063 [1.054; 1.072] in eastern Asia, and 1.067 [1.058; 1.077] in Oceania. We identify 12 countries with strong statistical evidence of SRB imbalance during 1970-2017, resulting in 45.0 [36.4; 54.8] million missing female births globally. The majority of those missing female births are in China, with 23.1 [16.5; 30.7] million, and in India, with 20.7 [15.5; 26.6] million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposures to ambient and household fine-particulate matter (PM2.5) together are among the largest single causes of premature mortality in India according to the Global Burden of Disease Studies (GBD). Several recent investigations have estimated that household emissions are the largest contributor to ambient PM2.5 exposure in the country. Using satellite-derived district-level PM2.5 exposure and an Eulerian photochemical dispersionmodel CAMx (Comprehensive Air Quality Model with Extensions), we estimate the benefit in terms of population exposure of mitigating household sources--biomass for cooking, space- and water-heating, and kerosene for lighting. Complete mitigation of emissions from only these household sources would reduce India-wide, population-weighted average annual ambient PM2.5 exposure by 17.5, 11.9, and 1.3%, respectively. Using GBD methods, this translates into reductions in Indian premature mortality of 6.6, 5.5, and 0.6%. If PM2.5 emissions from all household sources are completely mitigated, 103 (of 597) additional districts (187 million people) would meet the Indian annual air-quality standard (40 µg m-3) compared with baseline (2015) when 246 districts (398 million people) met the standard. At 38 µg m-3, after complete mitigation of household sources, compared with 55.1 µgm-3 at baseline, the mean annual national population-based concentration would meet the standard, although highly polluted areas, such as Delhi, would remain out of attainment. Our results support expansion of programs designed to promote clean household fuels and rural electrification to achieve improved air quality at regional scales, which also has substantial additional health benefits from directly reducing household air pollution exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclonic atmospheric vortices of varying intensity, collectively known as low-pressure systems (LPS), travel northwest across central India and produce more than half of the precipitation received by that fertile region and its ~600 million inhabitants. Yet, future changes in LPS activity are poorly understood, due in part to inadequate representation of these storms in current climate models. Using a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model that realistically simulates the genesis distribution of LPS, here we show that Indian monsoon LPS activity declines about 45% by the late 21st century in simulations of a business-as-usual emission scenario. The distribution of LPS genesis shifts poleward as it weakens, with oceanic genesis decreasing by ~60% and continental genesis increasing by ~10%; over land the increase in storm counts is accompanied by a shift toward lower storm wind speeds. The weakening and poleward shift of the genesis distribution in a warmer climate are confirmed and attributed, via a statistical model, to the reduction and poleward shift of low-level absolute vorticity over the monsoon region, which in turn are robust features of most coupled model projections. The poleward shift in LPS activity results in an increased frequency of extreme precipitation events over northern India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune heterogeneity in wild host populations indicates that disease-mediated selection is common in nature. However, the underlying dynamic feedbacks involving the ecology of disease transmission, evolutionary processes, and their interaction with environmental drivers have proven challenging to characterize. Plague presents an optimal system for interrogating such couplings: Yersinia pestis transmission exerts intense selective pressure driving the local persistence of disease resistance among its wildlife hosts in endemic areas. Investigations undertaken in colonial India after the introduction of plague in 1896 suggest that, only a decade after plague arrived, a heritable, plague-resistant phenotype had become prevalent among commensal rats of cities undergoing severe plague epidemics. To understand the possible evolutionary basis of these observations, we developed a mathematical model coupling environmentally forced plague dynamics with evolutionary selection of rats, capitalizing on extensive archival data from Indian Plague Commission investigations. Incorporating increased plague resistance among rats as a consequence of intense natural selection permits the model to reproduce observed changes in seasonal epidemic patterns in several cities and capture experimentally observed associations between climate and flea population dynamics in India. Our model results substantiate Victorian era claims of host evolution based on experimental observations of plague resistance and reveal the buffering effect of such evolution against environmental drivers of transmission. Our analysis shows that historical datasets can yield powerful insights into the transmission dynamics of reemerging disease agents with which we have limited contemporary experience to guide quantitative modeling and inference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over 20,000 rabies deaths occur annually in India, representing one-third of global human rabies. The Indian state of Tamil Nadu has pioneered a "One Health" committee to address the challenge of rabies in dogs and humans. Currently, rabies control in Tamil Nadu involves postexposure vaccination of humans after dog bites, whereas potential supplemental approaches include canine vaccination and sterilization. We developed a data-driven rabies transmission model fit to human rabies autopsy data and human rabies surveillance data from Tamil Nadu. Integrating local estimates for canine demography and costs, we predicted the impact of canine vaccination and sterilization on human health outcomes and evaluated cost-effectiveness according to the WHO criteria for India, which correspond to thresholds of $1,582 and $4,746 per disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for very cost-effective and cost-effective strategies, respectively. We found that highly feasible strategies focused on stray dogs, vaccinating as few as 7% of dogs annually, could very cost-effectively reduce human rabies deaths by 70% within 5 y, and a modest expansion to vaccinating 13% of stray dogs could cost-effectively reduce human rabies by almost 90%. Through integration over parameter uncertainty, we find that, for a cost-effectiveness threshold above $1,400 per DALY, canine interventions are at least 95% likely to be optimal. If owners are willing to bring dogs to central point campaigns at double the rate that campaign teams can capture strays, expanded annual targets become cost-effective. This case study of cost-effective canine interventions in Tamil Nadu may have applicability to other settings in India and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author discusses protection of the environment and enhancing human well-being and challenges India is facing to address the concern. Topics discussed include impact of industrialization on India's natural forests, rates of energy production and consumption demand, and government's climate mitigation plans.

Recent research on the agricultural impacts of climate change has primarily focused on the roles of temperature and precipitation. These studies show that India has already been negatively affected by recent climate trends. However, anthropogenic climate changes are a result of both global emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) and other short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs). Two potent SLCPs, tropospheric ozone and black carbon, have direct effects on crop yields beyond their indirect effects through climate; emissions of black carbon and ozone precursors have risen dramatically in India over the past three decades. Here, to our knowledge for the first time, we present results of the combined effects of climate change and the direct effects of SLCPs on wheat and rice yields in India from 1980 to 2010. Our statistical model suggests that, averaged over India, yields in 2010 were up to 36% lower for wheat than they otherwise would have been, absent climate and pollutant emissions trends, with some densely populated states experiencing 50% relative yield losses. [Our point estimates for rice (-20%) are similarly large, but not statistically significant.] Upper-bound estimates suggest that an overwhelming fraction (90%) of these losses is due to the direct effects of SLCPs. Gains from addressing regional air pollution could thus counter expected future yield losses resulting from direct climate change effects of LLGHGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The accretion of the Indian subcontinent to Eurasia triggered a massive faunal and floral exchange, with Gondwanan taxa entering into Asia and vice versa. The traditional view on the Indian-Asian collision assumes contact of the continental plates during the Early Eocene. Many biogeographic studies rely on this assumption. However, the exact mode and timing of this geological event is still under debate. Here we address, based on an extensive phylogenetic analysis of rhacophorid tree frogs, if there was already a Paleogene biogeographic link between Southeast Asia and India; in which direction faunal exchange occurred between India and Eurasia within the Rhacophoridae; and if the timing of the faunal exchange correlates with one of the recently suggested geological models. Rhacophorid tree frogs showed an early dispersal from India to Asia between 46 and 57 Ma, as reconstructed from the fossil record. During the Middle Eocene, however, faunal exchange ceased, followed by increase of rhacophorid dispersal events between Asia and the Indian subcontinent during the Oligocene that continued until the Middle Miocene. This corroborates recent geological models that argue for a much later final collision between the continental plates. We predict that the Oligocene faunal exchange between the Indian subcontinent and Asia, as shown here for rhacophorid frogs, also applies for other nonvolant organisms with an Indian-Asian distribution, and suggest that previous studies that deal with this faunal interchange should be carefully reinvestigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite widespread adoption of genetically modified crops in many countries, heated controversies about their advantages and disadvantages continue. Especially for developing countries, there are concerns that genetically modified crops fail to benefit smallholder farmers and contribute to social and economic hardship. Many economic studies contradict this view, but most of them look at short-term impacts only, so that uncertainty about longer-term effects prevails. We address this shortcoming by analyzing economic impacts and impact dynamics of Bt cotton in India. Building on unique panel data collected between 2002 and 2008, and controlling for nonrandom selection bias in technology adoption, we show that Bt has caused a 24% increase in cotton yield per acre through reduced pest damage and a 50% gain in cotton profit among smallholders. These benefits are stable; there are even indications that they have increased over time. We further show that Bt cotton adoption has raised consumption expenditures, a common measure of household living standard, by 18% during the 2006-2008 period. We conclude that Bt cotton has created large and sustainable benefits, which contribute to positive economic and social development in India [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's Late Cretaceous fossil mammals include the only undisputed pre-Tertiary Gondwanan eutherians, such as Deccanolestes. Recent studies have suggested a relationship between Deccanolestes and African and European Paleocene adapisoriculids, which have been variably identified as stem euarchontans, stem primates, lipotyphlan insectivores, or afrosoricids. Support for a close relationship between Deccanolestes and any of these placental mammal clades would be unique in representing a confirmed Mesozoic record of a placental mammal. However, some paleogeographic reconstructions place India at its peak isolation from all other continents during the latest Cretaceous, complicating reconstructions of the biogeographic history of the placental radiation. Recent fieldwork in India has recovered dozens of better-preserved specimens of Cretaceous eutherians, including several new species. Here, we incorporate these new specimens into an extensive phylogenetic analysis that includes every clade with a previously hypothesized relationship to Deccanolestes. Our results support a robust relationship between Deccanolestes and Paleocene adapisoriculids, but do not support a close affinity between these taxa and any placental clade, demonstrating that Deccanolestes is not a Cretaceous placental mammal and reinforcing the sizeable gap between molecular and fossil divergence time estimates for the placental mammal radiation. Instead, our expanded data push Adapisoriculidae, including Deccanolestes, into a much more basal position than in earlier analyses, strengthening hypotheses that scansoriality and arboreality were prevalent early in eutherian evolution. This comprehensive phylogeny indicates that faunal exchange occurred between India, Africa, and Europe in the Late Cretaceous-Early Paleocene, and suggests a previously unrecognized ∼30 to 45 Myr "ghost lineage" for these Gondwanan eutherians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research published within the issue by A. Basu, N. Sarkar-Roy and P. P. Majumder which presented a genomic reconstruction of the history of extant populations of India. Topics covered include the sociocultural norms that restrict intermarriage in large social strata, the foreign invasions of India, and the ancestral components of the Indian population.

The authors discuss the environmental problem posed by stratospheric ozone loss particularly in India and China. The authors referred to a way of considering a nested framework, a spatial scale of governance in terms of societal, intellectual, and institutional components. Authors have highlighted the study in finding the roots of environmental problems and its possible solution. The author added that one can gain understanding in addressing problems by categorizing environmental problems.

Drawing on over 4,000,000 individual and 2,000 agency observations across five countries, this paper examines the relationship between features of an employee's work environment and intrinsic motivation in public agencies. It finds that practices which foster employees' sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness are associated with substantially higher levels of intrinsic motivation across a broad range of settings. This is true both at the individual and agency level and when examining changes within agency over time. These patterns appear to be at least partially a result of differential selection in and out of the agency, with lower levels of supportive practices associated with greater desire to exit for employees with higher levels of intrinsic motivation. Nonfinancial elements of job design are strongly associated with intrinsic motivation, as are potentially more difficult to alter features of an agency, such as satisfaction with compensation and managerial quality. There is also suggestive evidence that the relationship between agency practices and employee intrinsic motivation is stronger when tasks are more difficult to monitor., Competing Interests: The author declares no competing interest.

Indoor residual spraying (IRS) is used to control visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in India, but it is poorly quality assured. Quality assurance was performed in eight VL endemic districts in Bihar State, India, in 2014. Residual dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was sampled from walls using Bostik tape discs, and DDT concentrations [grams of active ingredient per square meter (g ai/m(2))] were determined using HPLC. Pre-IRS surveys were performed in three districts, and post-IRS surveys were performed in eight districts. A 20% threshold above and below the target spray of 1.0 g ai/m(2) was defined as "in range." The entomological assessments were made in four districts in IRS and non-IRS villages. Vector densities were measured: pre-IRS and 1 and 3 mo post-IRS. Insecticide susceptibility to 4% DDT and 0.05% deltamethrin WHO-impregnated papers was determined with wild-caught sand flies. The majority (329 of 360, 91.3%) of pre-IRS samples had residual DDT concentrations of <0.1 g ai/m(2). The mean residual concentration of DDT post-IRS was 0.37 g ai/m(2); 84.9% of walls were undersprayed, 7.4% were sprayed in range, and 7.6% were oversprayed. The abundance of sand flies in IRS and non-IRS villages was significantly different at 1 mo post-IRS only. Sand flies were highly resistant to DDT but susceptible to deltamethrin. The Stockholm Convention, ratified by India in 2006, calls for the complete phasing out of DDT as soon as practical, with limited use in the interim where no viable IRS alternatives exist. Given the poor quality of the DDT-based IRS, ready availability of pyrethroids, and susceptibility profile of Indian sand flies, the continued use of DDT in this IRS program is questionable.

In this paper, using idealized climate model simulations, we investigate the biogeophysical effects of large-scale deforestation on monsoon regions. We find that the remote forcing from large-scale deforestation in the northern middle and high latitudes shifts the Intertropical Convergence Zone southward. This results in a significant decrease in precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere monsoon regions (East Asia, North America, North Africa, and South Asia) and moderate precipitation increases in the Southern Hemisphere monsoon regions (South Africa, South America, and Australia). The magnitude of the monsoonal precipitation changes depends on the location of deforestation, with remote effects showing a larger influence than local effects. The South Asian Monsoon region is affected the most, with 18% decline in precipitation over India. Our results indicate that any comprehensive assessment of afforestation/reforestation as climate change mitigation strategies should carefully evaluate the remote effects on monsoonal precipitation alongside the large local impacts on temperatures.

Despite being wealthier, Indian children are significantly shorter and smaller than African children. These differences begin very early in life, suggesting that they may in part reflect differences in maternal health. By applying reweighting estimation strategies to the Demographic and Health Surveys, this paper reports, to my knowledge, the first representative estimates of prepregnancy body mass index and weight gain during pregnancy for India and sub-Saharan Africa. I find that 42.2% of prepregnant women in India are underweight compared with 16.5% of prepregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. Levels of prepregnancy underweight for India are almost seven percentage points higher than the average fraction underweight among women 15-49 y old. This difference in part reflects a previously unquantified relationship among age, fertility, and underweight; childbearing is concentrated in the narrow age range in which Indian women are most likely to be underweight. Further, because weight gain during pregnancy is low, averaging about 7 kg for a full-term pregnancy in both regions, the average woman in India ends pregnancy weighing less than the average woman in sub-Saharan Africa begins pregnancy. Poor maternal health among Indian women is of global significance because India is home to one fifth of the world's births.

In the last decade, a number of quantitative epidemiological studies of specific diseases have been done in developing countries that for the first time allow estimation of the total burden of disease (mortality and morbidity) attributable to use of solid fuels in adult women and young children, who jointly receive the highest exposures because of their household roles. Few such studies are available as yet for adult men or children over 5 years. This paper evaluates the existing epidemiological studies and applies the resulting risks to the more than three-quarters of all Indian households dependent on such fuels. Allowance is made for the existence of improved stoves with chimneys and other factors that may lower exposures. Attributable risks are calculated in reference to the demographic conditions and patterns of each disease in India. Sufficient evidence is available to estimate risks most confidently for acute respiratory infections (ARI), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer. Estimates for tuberculosis (TB), asthma, and blindness are of intermediate confidence. Estimates for heart disease have the lowest confidence. Insufficient quantitative evidence is currently available to estimate the impact of adverse pregnancy outcomes (e.g., low birthweight and stillbirth). The resulting conservative estimates indicate that some 400-550 thousand premature deaths can be attributed annually to use of biomass fuels in these population groups. Using a disability-adjusted lost life-year approach, the total is 4-6% of the Indian national burden of disease, placing indoor air pollution as a major risk factor in the country.