Aparna Sawhney

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• PhD
• Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University

Recently, the apex environmental agency of India observed that domestic industrial pollution has been increasing at an alarming rate in the last two decades, and the need to rein in traditional polluting industries. This raises the pertinent question of whether the poor domestic pollution regime has affected the pattern of India's trade in dirty ma...

We track US imports of advanced technology wind and solar power-generation equipment from a panel of countries during 1989-2010, and examine the determining factors including sector-specific US FDI outflow, country size, and domestic wind and solar power generation. Differentiating between the core high-tech and the balance of system equipment, we...

Our model examines how co-existence of market power and noncompliance affects the efficiency and effectiveness of a cap-and-trade system with banking-borrowing in a finite period model. The dynamic equilibrium analysis here extends the results of the established literature, and we show that the initial allocation of permits to the dominant firm con...

Appendix

International trade can play a catalytic role in economic development and employment enhancement. To understand the employment impact of India’s pattern of trade, we use a structural decomposition analysis utilising the World Input – Output Database. Distinguishing between final and intermediate exports from India, we quantify the domestic employme...

India has undergone a significant energy mix transformation over the past decade, with renewables accounting for 30% of installed grid capacity and almost 14% of electricity generation today. These achievements, however, fall short of the ambitious targets set for 2030. The policy package for renewables includes a market-based instrument of tradeab...

India has witnessed significant transformation in the energy mix over the last decade, with renewables accounting for 24% of the installed grid capacity and 10% of the electricity generation today. The achievements, however, fall short in the trajectory towards the ambitious targets set for the years 2022 and 2030. The policy package for renewables...

This paper analyses the role of a firm’s home market performance in its export entry decision for Indian manufacturing firms during the period 2000–2014. Classifying firms under three broad categories of new exporters, incumbent exporters and non-exporters, we show that new exporters, as well as incumbent exporters, are bigger and more productive c...

Encouraging foreign direct investment (FDI) has been an important development strategy for a capital-scarce economy like India. Systematic reforms and investment liberalization policies adopted since 1991 have substantially increased FDI in the manufacturing industry. The sustained growth of FDI in manufacturing sector and particularly in polluting...

The criterion of non-declining comprehensive wealth per capita used to determine sustainability of economic growth indicates that growth in most countries is weakly sustainable, as decline in natural capital is more than offset by increase in anthropogenic capital. This paper examines the sustainability of economic growth in India by estimating the...

As India prepares to emerge as a five trillion-dollar economy, it is critical for the growth to be sustainable. Given the high incidence of energy poverty, one of the greatest challenges for the country is to ensure universal access to clean electricity to its population by 2030. This article outlines the key policies implemented in India for the t...

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We track the impact of industrial agglomeration on the export behaviour of manufacturing plants in the organized sector across the Indian states during 2008–2009 through 2013–2014, at disaggregated 4-digit industry level. In our dynamic probit analysis, we find that manufacturing plants in industries with increasing agglomeration are more likely to...

One of the core development objectives of the liberalization regime in India was to enhance FDI in the high-technology industries. Although FDI inflows have increased substantively, it seems that the development goal of technology transfer has not been realized. Moreover, weak enforcement and compliance of environmental norms has put the country at...

Recycling of steel scrap has been one of the key drivers of improving energy efficiency in steel manufacturing worldwide. Energy intensity of Indian steel plants is higher than the world average, and the strategy of scrap recycling to enhance energy efficiency has gained policy momentum. We track the energy intensity of Indian steel plants during t...

India may be among the top economic performers of the world today but its impressive economic growth conceals the country’s deteriorating environmental health. The diverse environmental challenges confronting India range from severe deficiency in environmental amenities like clean air, clean water and sanitation that are required for basic human ex...

India is one of the largest importers of waste in the world with metallic scrap constituting the bulk of the waste imports. While relatively weak environmental standards in developing countries is often seen to be a key factor in the emergence of waste havens in cross-country studies, little attention has been given to examine the pattern of waste...

Inclusive economic development has become a pressing goal of government policy in India in the face of rising regional inequality. This paper examines the role of targeted development policy action in inducing economic growth and also in reducing regional income inequality during the last two decades (since the beginning of the 1990s)—a period mark...

The development of renewable energy-based power and associated technology has been an important goal for India. Government fiscal incentives to promote renewable energy capacity have been in effect through the last two decades, along with import tariff concessions on associated technology equipment as India remains critically dependent on the impor...

This chapter presents an Indian perspective on low-carbon growth through increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy. The chapter begins by providing a snapshot of the energy sector in India, followed by a discussion on the state of the electricity sector, with focus on the move toward renewable sources in grid as well as off-grid power modes...

IntroductionCurrent State of Regulatory Compliance and Institutional ChallengesCorporate Environmental Performance: Compliance and BeyondConclusion

The economic structure and rates of growth across the states in India are markedly different, with significant disparities in income per capita growth as well as sector-specific performance. The high-income states have typically led the Indian growth story with their high growth rates, while regional inequality continues to increase. The recent pol...

This paper analyses interrelationships between `economic development', `health', and `environment' in a simultaneous equations framework. Four structural equations have been postulated to explain changes in four endogenous variables in terms of several predetermined variables. The endogenous variables chosen for the model are GDPPC (per capita gros...

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, SAARC, founded in 1985, has floundered since its inception due to the lack of a strong political will. This article evaluates the political-economic and strategic benefits of deeper integration in South Asia from the Indian perspective. The abysmally low level of integration witnessed so far in...

As India assumes the chairmanship of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation at the next summit in April, it is pertinent to review the potential gains in revitalising trade and commerce in the region, identify barriers to greater regional integration and charter a role for India in rejuvenating intra-SAARC trade.

World trade in food has expanded significantly over the years and traditional tariff barriers have reduced with increasing commitments under the WTO. The industrialised countries potentially offer higher returns to food exporters from developing countries, but also pose a greater challenge in market access through stringent safety and quality stand...

The environmental services sector has been growing rapidly during the last two decades. Moreover, privatization and increasing outward-orientation of environmental services during the 1990s has made this sector an important service sector for negotiations under the new round of GATS.This study explores the nature and structure of the environmental...

Environmental public interest litigation and the resultant judicial activism in India during the late 1980s and 1990s have played the role of indirect market-based instruments of pollution management. While a purely judicial approach to environmental management is neither effective nor efficient, PIL has played a significant role in defining India'...

Economic or market based installments for pollution control has been in the policy agenda of the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests for a decade now. In the meantime, the law of pollution liability endorsed through environmental public interest litigation (PIL), and resultant judicial activism during the late 1980s and 1990s, has performed...

There has been a steady increase in environmental notifications under the provisions in the WTO Agreements as indicated by the recent WTO environmental database. This trend threatens to reduce market access and competitiveness of traditional exports from developing countries like India. The Indian businesses need to aggressively address the green c...

This paper analyses the impact of the SPS and TBT agreements on developing Asian countries with special reference to India. The implementation of these provisions has raised questions of economic protection versus environmental protection. Departure from harmonized international standards, and proliferation of eco-branding in the North, has resulte...

In order to gauge the sustainability of the economic growth of nations, genuine savings rates are used as a ready comparable measure. Essentially it provides a measure of the sum of the change in various forms of capital, including manufactured, ecological (natural resource and pollution), human and knowledge capital. The depreciation in manufactur...