The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) is delighted to invite you to a Seminar titled Fiscal Federalism and Climate Change: Building the Institutional Framework in India on Monday, December 9, 2024 from 11:00 AM-12:30 PM (IST).

The seminar will feature presentations by Anoop Singh, Distinguished Fellow, CSEP and Swetha Kolluri, Visiting Fellow, CSEP. The presentations will be followed by a panel discussion with Muthukumara Mani, Lead Environmental and Climate Change Economist, Southeast Asia Region, World Bank and Vinod Thomas, Visiting Senior Fellow, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. The discussion will be chaired by Laveesh Bhandari, President, CSEP and moderated by Anoop Singh.

The seminar will be held at the CSEP Auditorium, 6, Dr Jose P Rizal Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi – 110021. Please note that this is an in-person event only. If you are in Delhi on the day, please join us for the seminar. The event will be available on the CSEP website and YouTube channel upon completion.

Register here to attend

About the event

Abstract: The working paper provides a comprehensive overview of India’s evolving framework for climate change governance, assessing the current federal structure and proposing strategies for enhancing institutional support and coordination for effective climate action. As India has committed to ambitious international goals, this study outlines the need for a robust domestic framework to achieve these commitments. Drawing on lessons from countries, the paper explores how India can apply fiscal federalism principles to empower states and offers a roadmap to integrate climate actions across the levels of government.

Presenter and Moderator 

Anoop Singh

Anoop Singh is Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog, Government of India. He is also Distinguished Fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), New Delhi. He has recently been Member, 15th Finance Commission of India.

Before that he has been Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University; Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific Global Regulatory and Strategy Policy, JP Morgan; and Member of the Working Party of the Robert Triffin International (RTI) on the reform of the international monetary system. At the International Monetary Fund, he was Director of the Asia and Pacific Department; Director of the Western Hemisphere Department; and Director of Special Operations.

He holds degrees from the universities of Bombay, Cambridge, and the London School of Economics. His additional work experience includes being Special Advisor to the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. His recent publications include Asia and the Changing Global Economy (2022).

Presenter

Swetha Kolluri

Swetha Kolluri is Visiting Fellow – Climate & Artificial Intelligence at CSEP. Her research interests encompass Climate Resilience, Carbon Finance and Innovations for Inclusion and Sustainability.

Swetha has diverse experience working in the environment and rural development sectors with multilateral organisations, governments, research labs, and startups in India and the USA, with a focus on digital transformation and innovations. She has built digital public goods to strengthen climate resilience in the Global South. At the World Bank (Washington DC), she promotes AI innovations for climate-smart agriculture and carbon financing in Asia and Africa. As Head of Experimentation at UNDP, she led several AI innovations for data-driven policymaking and strengthening climate resilience in India. Her work on open-source innovations was recognised at UNGA ’23 and in the UN Secretary General’s Digital Strategy.

Swetha also spent a decade working on strategies for flagship programs in rural development and conducted policy research at the National Advisory Council in India. She has several publications to her name and delivers guest lectures on ‘AI for Good’ at esteemed institutions such as Yale, Harvard, NAAA, iCISA, NIRD, and others. She is a Fulbright scholar and a graduate in Environmental Data Science from Yale University. She also studied Rural Management at IRMA and Electronics Engineering at JNTU.

Chair 

Laveesh Bhandari 

Laveesh Bhandari is President and a Senior Fellow at CSEP.  Dr Bhandari has published widely on subjects related to sustainable livelihoods, industrial, economic, and social reforms in India, economic geography, and financial inclusion. He received his PhD in economics from Boston University for which he was awarded the Best Thesis in International Economics. He has taught economics at Boston University and IIT Delhi. Apart from applied economics research, Dr Bhandari has built, seeded, and exited from three companies in the research, analytics, and digital domains, including Indicus Analytics, a leading economic research firm. Currently, he is conducting research on issues of inclusion, India’s energy transition, and how it will impact the government as well as the economy.

Discussants

Muthukumara Mani

Muthukumara Mani (Mani) is a Lead Environmental and Climate Change Economist for the Southeast Asia Region of the World Bank currently stationed in Hanoi. Mani has several years of experience at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in advancing inclusive green growth and climate change issues with national and sub-national governments. Mani has many books, policy reports, and peer-reviewed journal articles to his credit. He holds a PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Prior to joining this position, Mani was in the South Asia region, where his work program focused on leading policy dialogue in advancing inclusive green growth and climate change issues with national and sub-national governments.

His report on ‘Striving for Clean Air’ was featured in the Economist magazine, and his ‘South Asia’s Hotspots’ was presented in the New York Times as a benchmark climate change study. Mani also supported the South Asia region’s green, resilient, and inclusive recovery programs in addition to co-leading the preparation of the Climate Change Action Plan.

In addition, Mani has led the preparation of guidelines for assessing the environmental implications of development policy operations in his assignment with the Environment Global Practice of the World Bank. His work has also focused on country environmental assessments; natural resources management; environmental institutions and governance; and trade and climate change issues. Prior to joining the World Bank, Mani was an Economist in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund. In addition to participating in the IMF country missions for Article IV consultations and Program Reviews, he was responsible for providing guidance on integrating environmental and climate change considerations in the IMF’s country programs and advising on tax policy issues.

Vinod Thomas

Vinod Thomas is currently Visiting Senior Fellow at Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and previously Visiting Professor at National University of Singapore. He is a Distinguished Fellow in Development Management at the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, and a member of the advisory panel on climate change at CSEP. His current work concerns risk and resilience, new directions in evaluation, climate change and sustainable development, inclusion, and welfare.

Previously, Thomas was Senior Vice-President of the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank Group (2006-2011), and Director General of Independent Evaluation at the Asian Development Bank (2011-2016). At the World Bank, he was also the Director of the 1991 World Development Report, Chief Economist for Asia, Country Director for Brazil, and Vice President of the World Bank Institute.

He has a PhD and MA in Economics from the University of Chicago and a BA from St. Stephen’s college, Delhi. He has authored 17 books including The Quality of Growth, 2000; Multilateral Banks and the Development Process, (with Xubei Luo), 2012; Climate Change and Natural Disasters, 2017, (with Namrata Chindarkar); Economic Evaluation of Sustainable Development, 2019, and Risk and Resilience in an Era of Climate Change (2023).

Please contact Gurmeet Kaur at GKaur@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.