PPPs in infra are on the cusp of disaster. The country needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure

Growth is back on the agenda, says the government. It is hoping that with pushy announcements foreign and Indian investment will miraculously start pouring in and infrastructure will be the name of the game once again. But this assumption ignores one crucial detail: currently, public-private partnerships (PPPs) in infrastructure are on the cusp of disaster. India needs a different strategy to build public services infrastructure.

Cars use more space, crowd the road and move far fewer people. Our educated road planners must count people, not vehicles

I write this stuck in traffic. Nothing unusual. But my location makes me realise, once again, how our highway route to progress is going nowhere. The road I am using is newly commissioned and expensive. It is the 28-km Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, which was built just a few years ago to take care of the explosion of traffic between the two cities. It is access-controlled, with a 32-lane toll plaza, and was to provide easy access and a fun ride. The concessionaire – built as it is under the famous public-private partnership model – took all steps to keep it prized for cars. “Slow-moving” traffic like motorcycles, bicycles and even three-wheelers were banned on it.

In an off-grid but interactive system, govt would provide feed-in tariff incentives for entrepreneurs to set up local solar energy systems

Supply issues comprise one part of the energy conundrum I discussed in this column last fortnight. The cost of energy and our ability to pay for it is the other. The matter gets vexed because the rise in price of raw material of all energy sources is accompanied by huge inefficiency in distribution and accounting. But importantly, we remain a poor country, where the cost of energy is a factor in its availability and accessibility for all.

So, why the power crisis? Reasons are deeply systemic & extremely worrying. There is no doubt that supply is constrained

The power outage in northern India on two days should not be dismissed or misjudged. Analysts are jumping to the conclusion that the crisis was foretold. They blame delays caused by environment and forest clearance procedures and demand the winding-down of the regulatory framework, so that we can re-energise ourselves. Their other favourite whipping horse is “free” electricity to farmers, which is said to be crippling the state electricity boards. These explanations are naïve and mistaken. India’s power sector does need urgent reform, but first we need to know what to fix.

Kerala govt's ban on endosulfan prevails. State pays monthly pension of Rs 2,000 to those who are bedridden & Rs 1,000 to those with ailments, disability

I want to tell you today a true story of extraordinary courage, not of one, but of many. This past fortnight I was in Kasargod, a district in Kerala, splendid in beauty and natural resources, but destroyed by one toxic chemical: endosulfan. The pesticide was aerially sprayed over cashew plantations for 20 years, in complete disregard for the fact that there is no demarcation between where plantations end and habitation begins.

When extreme weather events begin to occur with increased intensity and frequency, they should make us think

During my weekly conversation with my sister, I told her about the unusual searing heat this June, the problems of power cuts and how we are coping in India. She, in turn, told me that in Washington, DC, where she lives, there was a terrible storm that damaged her roof and uprooted trees in her garden. They were fortunate that they still had electricity, because most houses in the city were in the dark. She also said it was unbearably hot because the region was in the grip of an unprecedented heatwave.

The environmental movement is based on the idea that people do not want something bad in their vicinity: not in my backyard, or Nimby

The environmental movement is based on the idea that people do not want something bad in their vicinity: not in my backyard, or Nimby. This concept has driven change across the world and continues to be the reason why projects, from shale gas exploration in the US to wind power in the UK, face protests. Ordinary people, but with power because they are part of the voting middle class, take up these issues because their lives are affected.

A lot of high-flown rhetoric ushered in last week's UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Rio+20 was the biggest summit the UN had ever organised.