The Centre for Social and Economic Progress hosted a Seminar on “India’s Green Transition” featuring a conversation with Nirvikar Singh, Co-Director of the Center for Analytical Finance at UCSC and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economics, Management & Religion and Renu Kohli, Senior Fellow, CSEP on Monday, July 8, 2024 at 1 pm (IST). Attendees joined online via Zoom.

About the Event

The seminar revolved around a discussion on the paper on India’s possible pathway to reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, often framed as a target year achieving net-zero carbon emissions. It examined the speed and the components of such a “green transition,” including promoting renewables for electric power generation, electrification of transportation and industry, alternative fuels such as green hydrogen, conservation, and restructuring some economic activities. The paper discusses policies that will be needed, and institutional and political economy challenges that will arise in pursuing a green transition along with long-run economic development. Finally, it considers the financial costs of achieving the goal of decarbonisation within the next few decades, and possible sources of finance.

Conversation With:

• Nirvikar Singh

Nirvikar Singh is Co-Director of the Center for Analytical Finance at UCSC (of which he was the founding Director), and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Economics, Management and Religion. From 2010 to 2020, he held the Sarbjit Singh Aurora Chair of Sikh and Punjabi Studies at UCSC.

He has served as a member of the Advisory Group to the Finance Minister of India on G-20 matters, Consultant to the Chief Economic Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, and the Expert Group on post-Covid-19 economic recovery formed by the Chief Minister of Punjab state in India. At UCSC, he has previously directed the South Asian Studies Initiative, and served as Director of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Co-Director of the Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, and Special Advisor to the Chancellor.

In the 1990s, he organised one of the first major US conferences on Indian economic reform. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BSc and MSc from the London School of Economics, where he was awarded the Allyn Young Prize, Gonner Prize and Ely Devons Prize. His most recent book was The Other One Percent: Indians in America.

Moderator:

• Renu Kohli

Renu Kohli is an economist with research and practitioner experience on macroeconomic policies and issues. She has previously worked with the RBI, the IMF and thinktanks including ICRIER and the Institute of Economic Growth.

Her work has focused on financial sector liberalisation, capital flows and exchange rate management in emerging markets with special India focus, international macroeconomic coordination, and recently, the macroeconomic impact of decarbonisation in India. She has been published in refereed journals such as the Review of  Development Economics, Journal of Development Studies, Journal of Asian Economics, Oxford University Press, IMF Working Papers, RBI Staff papers, and contributed to edited volumes. She has exposure to multilateral surveillance including Article IV missions; as short-term expert with IMF Institute, her training missions include courses on financial programming & policies and macroeconomic diagnostics.

Dr. Kohli has wider engagement with the private financial sector and investors through talks, presentations and consultation on Indian macroeconomic policies. She also serves as an independent director on the board of NCML Ltd and NFIN.   

Please contact Manmeet Ahuja at MAhuja@csep.org for general queries and Ayesha Manocha at AManocha@csep.org for media queries.

All content reflects the individual views of the speakers. The Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP) does not hold an institutional view on any subject.