Moving towards joint Planned and Autonomous Adaptation

Summary of lecture given by Professor Judith Rees, Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & Environment and the ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy. This was a part of India-Uk Lecture Series 2010


Two of the massive challenges identified by the National Action Plan on Climate Change are to implement the pathways to a low carbon economy and secondly to shape adaptation policies minimizing cost of climate change impacts on economy and society.


The adaptation strategies have to be undertaken considering the markets and technology in consideration, focus on human development, plans for deforestration and ecosystems, developing capacities and legal instruments for governance of climate change, and evolving institutions which will take care of economics of climate risks especially insurance.


We should consistently ask adaptation questions in terms of research approaches and gaps, decision making under uncertainty, distinctive approaches between science based action and social science inspired action, cost-benefit trade-off.

There are basically two types of adaptation mechanisms; Planned and Autonomous Adaptation। Scientific knowledge of climate change takes care of quantitative aspects of impacts arising out of climate change. We should give more and more emphasis on qualitative aspects through certain specific case studies by suggesting cost effective interventions either as governmental, community based approach or private firm level approach.


There exists huge knowledge gaps regarding adaptation mechanism. Science and technology has measure role to provide input to this mechanism by proposing
adaptation measures, strategies and risk aversion policies. While doing this sources of adaptation investment, adaptation cost have to be generated while taking care of barriers towards adaptation. Here individual and community incentivisation of the adaptations is very very necessary.


Therefore we must start thinking adaptation in social science way.

There is lot of uncertainty at the decision making level. The limitations of climate and integrated models for decision making are obvious. Limitations of local climate trend data are also beyond any question.Uncertain abilities of eco-systems have been observed many times. Uncertain pace and success of mitigation is also not in question, Paucity of socio-economic projections for assessments of vulnerability, adaptive capacity and growth paths are also increasingly visible.


The science of climate change believes in evolving predictions and then moving towards action. This approach first tries to structure a problem, assess the relevant changes, assess the relevant impacts, design and assess adaptation options, evaluate outcome. Approach considering socio-economic priorities believes in assessing risk and then evolving towards policy regime. First it structures a problem, then it proposes adaptive strategies, further it assesses strategies, assess trade-off between various options available and eventually evaluating outcome. Here it should be remembered than science based approach comes with optimization and that of social science approach comes with robustness. In both the situations it is the social cost that is very very significant to take into account.


As we know that adaptation is deliberate action reducing adverse consequences and harness beneficial opportunities from climate change which may be actual, anticipated, perceived. These also may be normal actions, and mechanisms to cope with past climate variability and address adaptation deficit. These are responsive actions to climate related change in macro economy. These are actions not related to climate change nevertheless reducing vulnerability or increase adaptive capacity.


In the planned adaptation it is public actions by national, state, local government owned bodies that are responsible for adhering to the procedures. Autonomous adaptation is done by private companies (transitional or local), NGOs, community groups are equally crucial.
There seems to be artificial divide due to uncoordinated autonomous actions by spatially and functionally segmented public sector actors. So, there is need for governments to inform, incentivise and regulate both public and private actors.In essence character of agency affects outcome of the process. Understanding nature of agency is significant in managing trade-off between different interest groups, thus balance in coordination is keenly desirable.


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Public Relation inspired Journalism: Stenographer of India Shining !!!

Is six billion dollar public relation business in India a sitting elephant in the media room which no one wants to discuss? What are the implications of the paid news on credibility of journalism? Is line between advertising and public relations is so blurred to distinguish the ever growing space of manipulation being exploited by politicians, corporate henchman and marketing managers? How all this business of public relations has engulfed the creative and content-ful profession of media busy in opinion forming, information diffusion and raising the entertainment quotient of the public.



The subject of panel discussion was The Influence of Public Relations on Journalism and the veterans participated were Mr. Vinod Mehta, Editor, The Outlook; Mr. Pankaj Pachauri of NDTV-India; and Mr. Dilip Cherian of Perfect Relations. It was topped by crispy moderation of Mr. Paranjoy Guha-Thakurta. This followed after ceremony of Chameli Devi Jain Award 2010 which was given to Shoma Chaudhari, Editor of Features from Tehalka. She said that the moral weight behind the news coming out of immense hard work always matters. Sometimes neutrality may be misunderstood as an attitude of saying nothing but we have to make our stand clear on the issues of binaries of life; whether we wish to work for the privileged or underprivileged class. She was particularly very critical about the power relations being used to suppress the voice of the people dedicate their life to pronounce the dissent for the injustices done by the privileged. She asserted that discourse has to shift from equity to justice.



Pankaj of NDTV kicked off the discussion by saying that PR firms have made journalists lazy because it is the pressure of the profession and the luxury of the news crafting simplified by many ICT facilities which is making journalism to be prey to the PR culture. It is true that we cannot escape from the 'difficult times' where more and more money is being piled up to sustain the media business, there is shrewd convergence between advertisers, public relation firms, ownership of media platforms and allegiance to corporate firm. Mr. Mehta said that these are the times where we take pride in attacking the politicians. But why we do not question the vested interests of the corporate hegemony. Even though it is very clear that bread and butter of media people is sourced from all these corporate interests, if we decide we can resist any pressure. After all this is the profession where ultimate success lies in the fact that how we can resist temptations unless it leads to serious issue of clash in your office. We have to live with the fact that PR is here to stay and we have to decide how to deal with it courageously.


Press Council investigator Mr. Guha Thakurta intervened to expose newspapers that have indulged in paid news and other kinds of media corruption. The list includes a local Maharashtra supplement of the Times of India, Hindustan of HT Media group, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, EenaduSakshi from Andhra Pradesh , Lokmat in Maharastra, Gujarat Samachar, and Punjab Kesri.



Dilip Cherian tried to unlock the ambiguous layers between news making, business purpose and vested mutual dependence of media and PR firm involve at the same moment. Many times it is the big media houses are responsible for raising the pitch of the TRP and sensationalism in the content business. He also said that many times it is not that journalists are lazy but they have to be forced to listen to the arguments, thought process and passion of particular person or story. PR is not always bad as it can really disseminate the information about the crucial aspects of development, scientific issues and key information to take preventive measures in emergencies.
The work of PR also greatly demands the creativity, immense hard work and consistency in displaying coherence with the client`s goal and aspirations.


All agreed on the suggestion of Pankaj that even though we are in the quagmire of paid news, we should reveal who is paying or sponsoring the program and news being published. Mr. Mehta said that if the PR is allowed to dominate the craft of journalism then there is no need to have a community called journalists. According to him, bigger the firm in the business is, it is more guilty of making interventions in unethical way, so buck does not stop there merely by identifying the problem. This discussion was very much triggered by Paid News Controversy which is being under scrutiny by Press Council of India and other legislative bodies.



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Honey Bee: Piling the Stones that Fell Afar !!

"There's a moral we may gather
From the busy bee for all,
Gather food stuff in the summer,
And protect it in the fall. "

---Nettie Sutton



Shodhyatra of ideas, novelty and creativity has been the mantra of the people who struggle to overcome the problems in their daily lives by very small incremental improvements in their approach towards life. A very small shift in the perspective may yield enormous returns in terms of efficiency, profit and satisfaction due to enhanced quality. Where does this motivation for proactive enhancement comes from? Some people call this motivation as 'intrinsic', some call this as induced due to circumstances. Even if this motivation is intrinsic why do not all people have this motivation? This is one of the questions being thought over under the research being lead by Hemant, a Ph.D. scholar in Centre for Studies in Science Policy in JNU. He was recently in Dhemaji district of Assam as a part of Shodhyatra organised by National Innovation Foundation and 'Srishti'. Understanding Motivation, Collaboration and Linkages for Grassroot Innovation Systems in India has been his passion of research.


Rashtrapati Bhavan is hosting the exhibition (10-14 March) of grassroot innovations which were identified, augmented and protected by the help of National Innovation Foundation. Honey Bee believes that "the prevalent mode of knowledge extraction from people, and dissemination among them, were non-sustainable. Knowledge has been extracted, documented without any acknowledgment to the source of knowledge for feedback. These practices have impoverished the knowledge holders by pushing them further down in the oblivion, but also have hampered the growth of an informal knowledge system, that is robust in nurturing creativity."



How to understand innovation from the perspective of a person working in the field, working in factory, in remote areas, in rural areas or in any region crippled with resources, finances, technical inputs and expert guidance. HoneyBee is confident that it is a metaphor indicating ethical as well as professional values, which most of us seldom practice. A honey bee does two things that we intellectuals, often don’t do. It collects pollen from the flowers and flowers don’t complain and it connects flower to flower through pollination. Similarly Honey Bee feels that their innovative and ethical approach to knowledge extraction, their sincere attempt to build up people to people communication and their commitment to let reasonable benefit be shared with the knowledge holders, qualifies them to identify themselves with the great metaphor of Honey Bee.



Everett M. Rogers in his book 'DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS' (The Free Press, 1983) explain to us about basics of innovation, it`s diffusion and it`s mechanism. He says, "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas. Communication is a process in which participants create and share information with one another in order to reach a mutual understanding. This definition implies that communication is a process of convergence (or divergence) as two or more individuals
exchange information in order to move toward each other (or apart) in the meanings that they ascribe to certain events."

Rogers narrates characteristics of the innovation from the individual perspective. These are:

1. Relative advantage: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes. The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social-prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction are also often important components.

2. Compatibility: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters.

3. Complexity: It is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use. Some innovations are readily understood by most members of a social system; others are more complicated and will be adopted more slowly.

4. Trialability: It is the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis. New ideas that can be tried on the installment plan will generally be adopted more quickly than innovations that are not divisible.

5. Observability: It is the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others. The easier it is for individuals to see the results of an innovation, the more likely they are to adopt.



Rogers unpacked other aspect of the process of diffusion of innovation. About communication channels he says that, "The essence of the diffusion process is the information exchange by which one individual communicates a new idea to one or several others. This process involves: (1)an innovation, (2) an individual or other unit of adoption that has knowledge of, or experience with using, the innovation, (3) another individual or other unit that does not yet have knowledge of the innovation, and (4) a communication channel connecting the two units. While classifying this he envisages broad category of innovators or adopters which are: (1) innovators, (2) early adopters, (3) early majority, (4) late majority, and (5) laggards.


It will be a daring statement to say that innovators I visited at the exhibition at Mughal Gardens were just like us. But they were more disempowered than us in terms of access of information, channel of finances and reach to the institutions recognizing novelty in their ideas. If we see the list of award winners some of whom presented their inventions, we would be able to reflect on the challenges they are tackling. Consider an invention by Susant from Bhubaneswar whose super Brain Modulator is a device by which a completely blind, deaf and disabled person can do all types of work as a normal human being can do and that via breathing. The project helps blind, deaf and dumb disabled person to do day to day work via breathing. 'Super Brain Modulator' received first prize by NIF for year 2009. Through this technology disabled persons can operate the electrical and electronic appliances. They can also communicate with others about their basic requirements in daily life.

In another invention, an automatic asu machine developed by Mallesham to alleviate the pain of his mother. To increase the speed of weaving spin a traditional Pochampalli silk sari, he greatly enhanced the yarn weaving efficiency of hand winding devise to help his mother to make asu for eight sarees per day compared to previous number of two.

A. Muruganantham has developed a mini sanitary napkin making machine by which it is possible to prepare low cost sanitary napkins. The novelty of this invention lies in integration of well known equipments like mixi (defibration), core forming process and naturally operated electric sealing unit to cut down the cost of production.


Yusuf Khan developed 'Groundnut Digger cum Separator Machine'. This is low cost, drudgery reducing, tractor driven device which digs out the groundnuts (99%) and separates them from earth. Normally in post harvest season, about 25 % of groundnuts stay beneath the soil which needs to be recovered by manual labour.


Annasaheb Udgavi has developed 'Rain Gun' named Chandraprabha which is low cost sprinkler usable for sprinkling of slurries of 110 feet in agricultural field with alternative nozzles size to suit the requirement. The discharge stream is so thick that it can even wash away pests without physicallt damaging the plants.

The list goes on. Many of the inventions like these have been patented by NIF with the inventor`s accent to help inventor to commercialization those. Like on inventor told before patenting he could sell only 50 odd pieces to customers. But after NIF came to his help to patent his invention upto now he has able to sell 1000 pieces of his invention.


Finally let me attract your attention towards what Anil Gupta, a brain behind NIF says in editorial of Honey Bee vol 20(3) of July-Sept. 09. He says, " The game stone piler is a metaphor for building knowledge networks. Every volunteer, scientist, entrepreneur contribute to the network provide the stones to be piled. There are always forces, which disintegrate and delay the building of network, or piling of stones. But without such forces , those who gather courage to rebuild the broken links or forge new piles perhaps will not enjoy their contribution." In short, Prof. Gupta asserts that nectar of innovations will not emerge if these forces did not act. The challenge is to use these forces creatively and constructively.


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