Articles & Op-Eds

Ask any Mumbaikar, and they will tell you about the haze: a grey blanket over the skyline that was rare 20 years ago but is now routine. They are not imagining it. Ground monitors and satellites agree. Until 2006, Mumbai’s annual average PM10 levels hovered around 60-80 µg/m³, low by [...]

In 'Eyes Now on Viksit, Net Zero Later' (Edit Page, Oct 16), Bjorn Lomborg argues that India's ambition to become a developed country by 2047 and its commitment to net zero emissions by 2070 'work at cross-purposes', and presents an 'immense trade-off' in which trying to achieve both will make [...]

India spends billions on oil and gas imports, facing economic and geopolitical risks. Heat pumps offer a cost-effective, energy-efficient solution to reduce import dependence and boost energy security. Every year, India spends hundreds of billions of dollars to import crude oil and natural gas. In the last financial year, the [...]

The Montreal Protocol has delivered, but it must transform to deal with new threats to the planet. Four decades ago, the world did something remarkable. It discovered that refrigerants once celebrated as technological miracles were destroying the ozone layer, and it responded by negotiating a global treaty to phase them [...]

India could soon produce urea using little more than water, air, and sunlight. Urea is the fertiliser Indian farmers rely on most. While its widespread misuse has contributed to soil infertility and to air and water pollution, it is equally true that without urea, India would struggle to sustain food [...]

If even FIFA World Cup was forced to pause for heat, the myth that developed nations can manage climate change is over. They should recommit to deep emission cuts, transfer finances & tech to developing world. William Nordhaus was the poster child of the “global warming isn’t so bad” camp [...]

From Swachh Bharat to LiFE, the PM has given environmental agenda a distinctly Indian vocabulary rooted in Deendayal Upadhyaya’s integral humanism As Narendra Modi becomes India’s longest continuously serving elected Prime Minister, it is worth asking: What is his environmental philosophy, and what drives his environmentalism? This question has often [...]

Walk past a roadside eatery in Varanasi at six in the morning and you will see a familiar sight: the kettle on, the chulha glowing, and the first batch of puri-jalebi being prepared. What you may not notice is the smoke above it. Multiply that smoke by the lakhs of small commercial eateries across [...]

Producing green urea alone will not be sufficient. We must also optimise urea consumption, because urea is significantly overused in the country, polluting land, water and climate. The West Asia conflict has thrown a spotlight on India’s deep energy insecurity. What is less discussed is how this vulnerability affects our [...]

In an era of accelerating ecological crisis — of climate change, biodiversity loss, and deepening social inequities — we need more Gadgils: Thinkers with intellectual courage, moral clarity, and the willingness to engage with diverse views In the long arc of Indian history, only a handful of scientists have truly [...]

I have travelled extensively over the past three decades and never once fallen sick outside India — until my visit to Brazil last month for COP30. A simple viral infection ended up becoming a mirror, revealing how differently India and Brazil approach antibiotic use, and why this difference matters. In [...]

Every winter, Delhi’s air pollution debate follows a familiar script. We look for villains, argue over blame, ignore science and solutions. This year has been no different – except that it has bordered on the absurd. Pollution season opened with the Supreme Court allowing “green crackers”, followed by Delhi govt’s [...]