India's Risks

Description

A prospective superpower, India is still grappling with a host of risks that threaten to hamper its progress. These range from environmental threats caused by GM crops and pollution; dangers to health from HIV-AIDS and maternal mortality; safety concerns about natural hazards, nuclear power, and industrial disasters; and challenges to livelihoods and values. Some of the issues that this volume explores are: what counts as an ‘acceptable’ risk, and who decides? How should divergent perceptions of risks be reconciled? And, where is the line between science and politics? Advocating a more multidimensional approach to managing risks, the authors challenge many of the dominant perspectives in India. The field of risk research, which has emerged over the last 40 years in the West, has been relatively unexplored in India. In an effort to bridge this gap, this volume brings together Indian and Western scholars and practitioners across the fields of psychology, anthropology, law, politics, sociology, public health, philosophy, science, and architecture, who offer insights on the theory of risk, lessons from the West, and the realities of risk in India.  

Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Abbreviations

Introduction
Raphaelle Moor and M.V. Rajeev Gowda
1. Adopting a Multi-dimensional Lens to Approaching Risk in India
   Raphaelle Moor

Section One  Disasters and the Environment
2. Article 39 and Environmental Decision-making in India
   Leo F. Saldanha and Bhargavi S. Rao

3. Integrating Information Disclosure with Indian Environmental Policy
   M.V. Rajeev Gowda and Mathew Idiculla

4. Linking Post-disaster Reconstruction to Long-term Risk Reduction: Challenges and Opportunities in India
   Rohit Jigyasu

Section Two  Public Health
5. The Rise of Institutional Births in India: Are Maternal and Newborn Risks Adequately Addressed?
   Asha Kilaru, Shanti Mahendra, Baneen Karachiwala, and Zoe Matthews

6. Culture in and of HIV-AIDS Risk Management in India
   Ajay Bailey

7. Exploring H1N1 Risk Communication in India
   Ranjani Ramaswamy

8. A Business Management Framework for Addressing Public Health Risk: The Avahan Experience in Scaling-up HIV Prevention in India
   Sema K. Sgaier

Section Three  Science and Technology
9. Science and Politics in Indian GM Crop Regulation: A U-turn Down a Blind Alley
   Erik Millstone

10. Absurd Confidence: Risk and Nuclear Power in India
    M.V. Ramana

11. Before and After Fukushima: The Many Fronts of Managing the Nuclear Power Option
    Marc Poumadère

12. Sustainable Management of Radioactive Waste: What Can India Learn from Stakeholder Engagement in the West?
    Claire Mays

13. Can Health and Safety Regulators Respond to Changing Societal Expectations?
    Frederic Bouder

About the Editors and Contributors
Index