The Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a global disaster that took countless lives, many of whom were frontline functionaries deployed to contain this crisis. As a result, the Indian state, unlike before, had to acknowledge the risk that accompanied their workers in this crisis.

India’s poor water security indicators are partly a result of the poor translation of federal spirit in governing its water resources.

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) provide the basis for assessing air quality nationally, determining pollution control priorities, and defining what we consider to be acceptable air quality to protect public health. They are framed and issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Air Act (1981).

Air pollution exposure is a year-round, nation-wide public health crisis in India. This paper presents a careful reading of nearly eleven hours of discussions on air pollution that took place in the upper and lower Houses of Parliament in November 2019.

This framing paper aims to provide an overview of the current state of knowledge and the governance framework on air quality management in India. Air pollution is the second largest risk factor for public health in India, behind only child and maternal malnutrition.

On 22.04.2021, India’s Environment Ministry published a Draft Fly Ash Notification, which was open for public comments for 60 days and sought to replace the earlier notifications with respect to fly ash management since 1999.

India’s highly centralized federal structure sits uneasily with the nature of the climate problem. While financial and bureaucratic capacities are concentrated in the centre, the locus of climate decisions lies largely in the states because they steer energy choices and respond to climate impacts.

It would appear, based on the experience over the past year, that at a given point in time, CoVID-19 affects a part of the country and not the whole nation. What does this imply for the sharing of resources between more affected areas and less affected areas?

The focus of this brief is on national climate governance with only partial discussion of the complementary federal governance structures required, which will be addressed elsewhere.

This report titled “Re FORM: Lessons for Urban Governance futures from the Pandemic” is based on the study which was undertaken by Scaling City Institutions for India (SCI-FI), Centre for Policy Research (CPR).