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Eco-Construction

Habitat as Enabler of Rural Livelihoods

India remains predominantly a rural country with two third of its population and 70% of the workforce residing in rural areas. Growth and development of rural India will remain a key to overall growth of the country. The key economic driver in rural areas – agriculture – is, beset by …

Resource Efficiency in Building Construction

One would have thought that the principle of efficiency in the utilisation of material resources would be paramount in any science of production and consumption. Yet it is neither a value nor a habit of thought that is inculcated culturally, least of all in our practices of building and construction. …

Credit based Eco Housing model for Rural areas of India

Providing adequate shelter for its rural population continues to be a major challenge. Development Alternatives in collaboration with Fondazione FEM Onlus did an action research project on ‘credit-based eco housing for the rural populate of Bundelkhand region” in central India, which aimed towards provision of low coast eco-friendly housing for …

Greening India’s growth through Alternative Technologies

India is one of the fastest growing economy in the world. It has in fact reached a growth of 7.5% during the period January-March of 2015 as compared to China’s 7%. This has by far been quite impressive considering the economic slowdown globally over the last couple of years and …

TARAgram Yatra 2015: Resource Efficiency for an Urbanising India

The year 2015 stands out as a landmark year when the world got together to agree upon a universal agenda for growth i.e. the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is essential for our country to align our national priorities with these goals and targets and track national progress with the …

Solutions for new urbanism in India: Smarter, Sustainable and Humane Cities

In a discussion that was centred around the much talked about topic of ‘smart cities’ in India at present; Professor Amitabh Kundu raised an important question- why the current plan for smart cities is focussing only on 100 ‘smart cities’ and why can’t 1000 ‘smart cities’ be envisioned in this …