Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan

Progress in Human Development - Are we on the right path?

The conventional measure of the Human Development Index (HDI) is a linear average in three dimensions, HDI1. This is indifferent to uniformity in attainment across dimensions. An alternative, HDI2, based on the shortfall from the ideal using Euclidean distance, addresses the above anomaly. These two measures are used to analyse progress in human development for 127 countries over the period 1990-2004. Introducing the notion of an ideal path, measures of fluctuation and normalised-change are proposed. Empirical illustration highlights the pattern in Sub-Saharan countries, Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and some of the emerging economies.

Towards a conceptual framework for development of sustainable development indicators for an urban setup

Bruntland Commissions report led to popularisation of notion of sustainability and a boom in the development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). Numerous efforts have been made worldwide in constructing SDIs at global, national, and local scales, but India has been lacking in such initiatives. Motivated by this dearth of studies and prevailing sustainability risks in million-plus cities in India, this paper develops an SDI framework to assess sustainability of resources for city of Mumbai. With a systematic consideration of 16 SDI initiatives across the world, it reviews different SDI frameworks - their advantages, limitations, and applications. A multi-view black box (MVBB) framework has been introduced by eliminating the system component from the extended urban metabolism model (EUMM) and introducing three-dimensional views of economic efficiency (EE-view), social well-being (SW-view), and ecological acceptability (EA-view). Important domain areas and sectors are identified and a model has been demonstrated applying MVBB framework on energy domain.

Urban transport sustainability indicators - application of multi-view black-box (MVBB) framework

In a recent work Nathan and Reddy (2011a) have proposed a Multi-view Black-box (MVBB) framework for development of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for an urban setup. The framework is flexible to be applied to any domain or sector of urban system. In this paper the proposed MVBB framework is applied for transportation sector of Mumbai city. The paper begins with a discussion on transportation sector and its unsustainability links and trends. It outlines the concept of sustainable transportation system and reviews some of the prominent sustainable transportation indicator initiatives. In order to formalize sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for transportation sector, the study collates the indicators from literature, placed them in Mumbais context and classified them into the three dimensions of urban sustainability-economic efficiency, social wellbeing and ecological acceptability.

Towards sustainable development: planning surface coal mine closures in India

ABSTRACT Coal is the major source of Indias electricity today, accounting for 59 per cent of its electricity generation capacity and 75 per cent of the electrical energy generated. Given that 63 per cent of the power generation capacity added in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012–2017) was coal-based, coal is set to remain the most staple source of electricity for India in the foreseeable future. Of the coal produced in India, more than 90 per cent is dispatched from surface or opencast mines, with potentially harmful effects on the environment, due to loss of forests and habitats, disruption of biodiversity and of local communities, and associated damage to agriculture, water resources and local air quality. Acknowledging these adverse environmental impacts, the Government of India has mandated the restoration of mining areas post mine closure to create a ‘self-sustaining ecosystem’, while optimising the use of mined-out land for the benefit of local communities. Within this context, the article reviews Indias surface coal mine closure policies, regulatory regimes and operating practices with reference to best practices for reclamation and restoration in selected major coal-producing countries. The article identifies the shortcomings in Indias policies and suggests strategies and measures to remedy them.

A MANUSH or HUMANS Characterisation of the Human Development Index

Abstract Proposing a set of axioms MANUSH (Monotonicity, Anonymity, Normalisation, Uniformity, Shortfall sensitivity, Hiatus sensitivity to level), this paper evaluates three aggregation methods of computing Human Development Index (HDI). The old measure of HDI, which is a linear average of the three dimensions, satisfies monotonicity, anonymity, and normalisation (or MAN) axioms. The current geometric mean approach additionally satisfies the axiom of uniformity, which penalises unbalanced development across dimensions. We propose ℋα measure, which for α ≥ 2 also satisfies axioms of shortfall sensitivity (emphases on the worse-off to better-off dimensions should be at least in proportion to their shortfalls) and hiatus sensitivity to level (higher overall attainment must simultaneously lead to a reduction in gap across dimensions). Special cases of ℋα are the linear average (α = 1), the displaced ideal (α = 2), and the leximin ordering (α → ∞) methods. For its axiomatic advantages, we propose to make use of the displaced ideal (α = 2) method in the computation of HDI replacing the current geometric mean.