Countries across the world dare are showing vulnerabilities to climate change, especially in the Global South as most of these countries are less developed and resource deficient. Moreover, in these countries, urban development is frequently informal, thereby creating sprawling, unplanned urban areas that suffer from a relative lack of adaptive capacity.
South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate shocks. More than half of all South Asians, or 750 million people in the 8 countries – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka were affected by one or more climate-related disasters in the last two decades. As per the IPCC Report 2022, the impacts of climate change could result in a loss of 2% of GDP in South Asian countries by 2050.
South Asia is expected to be one of the hardest hit regions due to the impact of climate change because of the following reasons:

• Exposure to extreme heat: Heat waves are expected to become more frequent, intense and long- lasting in South Asia, increasing the likelihood of droughts in arid areas. In the Indus and Ganga River basins, “deadly” heat waves could cross the limits of human survivability especially due to lack of affordable air conditioning and food insecurity.
• Ice melt in the Himalayas: The Himalayas are a lifeline to some 1.5 billion people living directly in the floodplains of its many rivers. With rising temperatures, the ice mass of the Himalayas is retreating more rapidly than the global average. It is leading to the formation and spread of potentially dangerous glacial lakes in India, Bhutan and Nepal.
  • As ground waters are reaching critical levels and glaciers are melting, people will get more dependent on mountain water. This may exacerbate the water-sharing crisis between states and nations in the region.
• Sea-level rise: South Asia’s many coastal cities are relatively unprotected from sea-level rise, with one of the highest coastal protection deficits in the world. In India, sea level is predicted to rise by around 15-38 cm in India by 2050, placing major cities driving regional growth at risk, including Kochi, Kolkata, and Mumbai. Also, portions of Sri Lankan coastal land and Maldives could be submerged with the rising tides.
  • Sea-level rise gives way to saline water intrusion, threatening drinking water supply, agriculture, and aquaculture. Such a situation, along with the submergence of coastal areas, will lead to a large-scale migration crisis.
• Floods: Significant portions of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are prone to recurrent flooding due to such factors as heavy monsoon rains, increased frequency of cyclones, blocked natural drainage, melting glaciers and low elevation.

Therefore, the Global South, especially South Asia, which houses a significant population of the world, needs to develop stronger social safety nets and climate-resilient development pathways. Global-level collaboration is required to mitigate the effects of climate change, as developed countries of the North are historically responsible for climate-change induced crises.

The Information Technology-Business Process Management (IT-BPM) sector is a major segment of India’s services. It accounts for 8% of India’s GDP, employing more than 1.2 million people and constitutes sub-sectors such as Information Technology Services, Business Process Management (BPM), Hardware and Software Products and Engineering services.
State of IT-BPM industry in India:

• Within the IT-BPM sector, IT services constitute more than 51% share, followed by Software and Engineering services and BPM industry respectively.
• India’s BPM industry, with over 17,000 firms, currently controls more than a 37 per cent share in global sourcing and is witnessing a revenue growth of 1.7 times.
• The computer software and hardware sector in India attracted cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows worth US$ 85.51 billion between April 2000-March 2022.
• India’s IT-BPM sector is expected to expand to US$350 billion by 2025 and BPM is expected to account for US$50-55 billion out of the total revenue.

Factors that are at play in determining the location of IT hubs in different Indian cities are the following:

• Development of IT parks: State governments have given a boost to the IT sector by developing major IT parks. For example, many IT parks in Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad have helped them become the country’s major IT hubs.
• Local talent: Abundance of local talent in the city has enabled Bengaluru to become one of the most preferred destinations for IT investment.
• Government policies: Government measures to ease processes and attract tech firms to invest have given an impetus to the sector. For example, government-backed incubators, strong academic and research lab presence, initiatives like Start-Up Telangana portal, etc. have attracted many international conglomerates such as Microsoft, Google, IBM, Yahoo, Dell and Facebook to set up their Indian headquarters in Hyderabad.
• Strategic location: Cyber City, Gurugram is one of the country’s fastest-growing districts and has emerged as a preferred destination for IT companies due to its strategic location and proximity to the capital.
  • Similarly, the strategic location of Kochi and its proximity to the administrative department of the Ernakulam district has made it one of the leading IT centres of India.
• Development of infrastructure: Adequate infrastructural support coupled with hundreds of colleges, polytechnics and ITls in Chandigarh city has made the city one of the largest technological hubs of Northern India.
  • Similarly, Thiruvananthapuram has world-class IT infrastructure facilities, which makes it a much sought-after IT destination in Kerala. Also, the state offers great opportunities for the IT industry due to factors such as geographical accessibility, an extensive telecom network that reaches most towns and villages, high literacy and export-based trade and commerce.

Apart from the above factors, other elements such as ‘work from anywhere’, relocation of talent to their hometowns, are critical in the evolution of Tier-II and III cities as supplementary ecosystems to the already established IT-BPM locations. Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Nagpur draw strength from mature IT-BPM destinations like Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai, Thane and Pune. Also, most Southern cities benefit from the presence of IT industries in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.

Crop residue and stubble burning has long continued to be a perennial menace after the post-harvest of paddy in North Indian states especially Haryana, UP, Punjab and Rajasthan. The practice of stubble- burning is a chronic problem caused by the vicious wheat-paddy cycle, free power to run tube-wells and other subsidies on seeds and fertilisers even at the cost of precious subsoil water.
After harvesting of paddy, there is a short window of two to three weeks for farmers to ready their fields for the next crop, i.e. wheat. Consequently, they set the stubble on fire without bothering about the consequences.
This leads to following issues:

• Pollution: Emits large amounts of toxic pollutants in the atmosphere which contain harmful gases like methane (CH4), Carbon Monoxide (CO), Volatile Organic compounds (VOC) and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which adversely affect human health. Delhi’s smog is one such consequence.
• Soil Fertility: Burning husk on the ground destroys the nutrients in the soil, making it less fertile and increases soil erosion on sloping land.
• Heat Penetration: The heat generated by stubble burning penetrates into the soil, leading to the loss of moisture and useful microbes.

Though the government provides incentives and subsidised machines for small and marginal farmers and has also declared stringent measures such as Section 188 of the IPC and the Air and Pollution Control Act of 1981, stubble burning remains a major issue in North India. Therefore, diverse and holistic long-term solutions need to be devised, such as:

• Use an enzyme that decomposes stubble: Spraying an enzyme, which decomposes stubble into useful bio-fertilizer, will prove to be an effective method to check air pollution.
• Installation of air filters near farm-fire areas: Air filters can be installed at places where farm fires incidents are being reported and limits for burning of stubble should also be set for the farmers.
• Voluntary compliance: Voluntary compliance coupled with effective official assistance needs to be well formulated. For this, the cooperation of village panchayats, farmers unions, NGOs and existing agriculture infrastructure should also be solicited in addition to perceived channels.
• Utilizing crop stubble: Instead of burning of the stubble, it can be used in different ways like cattle feed, roofing in rural areas, mushroom cultivation, packing materials, fuel, paper, bio- ethanol and industrial production, etc. Eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan has suggested setting up of ‘Rice Bio Parks’,
• Run biogas plants on stubble: Biogas plants that run on stubble should be set up and farmers must be shown the field demonstrations carried out by the agricultural department which shows that there is an increase in yield if stubble is incorporated in the field for three-four years. Stubble could be used for mulching by vegetable growers.

Practices like the Gram Panchayat of Balloh village in Bathinda, which had announced Rs. 500 per acre subsidy for not burning stubble in the fields can be emulated as a model practice. Coordinated efforts of all stakeholders and aggressive campaigning and awareness of ill-effects of stubble burning on human life and soil health among the farming community must go hand in hand.