India’s rapid urban transformation is a relentless landscape of steel, concrete, and soil. As our metropolitan hubs expand, they consume massive quantities of virgin materials while generating approximately 150 million tonnes of construction and demolition (C&D) waste annually. Yet less than 1% of this debris is formally recovered, with the …
Water has never existed in isolation. It travels through forests, flows into rivers, seeps into healthy soils to replenish aquifers, and moves across landscapes that manage floods, droughts, and the livelihoods of people. For centuries, India recognised these natural connections. Ponds, streams, wetlands, forests, and rivers were not seen as …
India faces a significant challenge as we strive to become a developed, high-income economy by 2047, which marks the centenary of our independence. Our rural population continues to grow at a rate of 0.41%, although this growth is somewhat tempered by high migration to urban areas. This ambitious vision, termed …
In 1982, when Development Alternatives was founded, the vocabulary that governs India’s recent development ambitions did not yet exist. Sustainable development had no official definition. That would come five years later, in the Brundtland Commission’s landmark report – Our Common Future. Green jobs, circular economy, sustainability itself: none of these …
For years, rural India has seen significant development through various schemes aimed at improving infrastructure and providing funding. The scale is undeniable—and so are the results. Since 2019, the Jal Jeevan Mission has provided tap water connections to more than 140 million rural households, boosting national rural coverage from about …