Articles by Jayanta Bandyopadhyay

There has been no significant change in the knowledge-base and institutional structure for managing water systems since colonial rule. This makes the recent efforts of the Ministry of Water Resources for restructuring the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board significant. This article argues that the effort should be backed by interdisciplinary studies that see surface water and groundwater as ecologically connected.

In the aftermath of the catastrophic flashfloods and landslides that ravaged the state of Uttarakhand in mid-June 2013, we need to analyse the calamity and identify the role of human footprints on the Himalaya in magnifying the losses of life and property in the state.

Handbook of Climate Change and India:Development, Politics and Governance edited by Navroz K Dubash (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2011; pp xxiv + 400, Rs 1,250.

How much of the benefits of economic growth accrue directly to farmers and workers who lose their livelihoods when agricultural land is taken over for development? If handled properly, the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 offers an opportunity for equitably addressing the interests of diverse sections affected by the land acquisition process.

The Nobel Prize in Economics co-awarded to Elinor Ostrom marks a rare departure from the traditional approach of the selectors which hitherto has been characterised by adherence to sub-disciplines more explicitly recognised as falling within the discipline of economics, rather than those that govern an economic system from its exterior, created at the interface of political economy, economics and social anthropology. This essay is a tribute to her work taking into consideration the implications of her thought in the context of governance of commons in general, and in south Asia in particular.