SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT

| 1 

NEWS OF THE 

SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT 

ISSUES 09 AND 10 - SUMMER/AUTUMN 2012 

Foto: Kishor Krishnamoorthi 

EDITORIAL 

by Prof. Hagedorn, Project Leader 

In Memoriam: 

Elinor and Vincent Ostrom 

With deep sadness the Sustainable 

Hyderabad community 

and members of its associated 

universities and institutes 

have learned about the passing 

of Professors Elinor and Vincent 

Ostrom. On June 12, 2012, 

Professor Elinor ‘Lin’ Ostrom passed away at 

the age of 78 after suffering from a painful 

disease. Her husband and research companion 

Professor Vincent Ostrom followed her only 

a few days later, on June 29, 2012, aged 92. 

It seems symbolically fitting that they left together, 

as they were so close in both their private 

and scholarly lives. Although some time 

has now passed since their departure, we can 

still not believe that they are no longer among 

us. 

As a member of the Scientific Advisory 

Board of the Sustainable Hyderabad Project, 

Elinor Ostrom’s support guided us in preparing 

for the challenges we have faced during the 

project. The encouragement she gave motivated 

us to develop the kinds of feasible concepts 

that have enabled the project to achieve 

outstanding results. She also gave us the feeling 

that what we are doing in this project is 

important and particularly relevant for both 

achieving progress in institutional analysis of 

social-ecological systems and supporting the 

people, while improving their environment, in 

Hyderabad and beyond. 

Lin Ostrom began engaging in academic 

research at the University of California, Los 

Angeles, where she did her PhD on water management 

and water policy in southern California. 

From 1965 until shortly, she 

was at Indiana University Bloomington. 

During a career of more 

than 45 years, her work has made 

a deep and lasting impact on 

the study of political, social, and 

economic institutions. Her contributions 

to institutional analysis 

have fundamentally influenced 

generations of scholars. She has initiated and 

conducted numerous research projects and 

published widely in political science, public administration, 

institutional economics, ecological 

economics, development economics, and 

public policy – with over 300 publications of 

various forms to her credit. Moreover, she has 

supervised more than 80 PhD students and 

additionally supported many young researchers 

from outside her own university, and even 

internationally, in doing their PhD or post-doctoral 

research. There is a variety of theoretical 

and methodological approaches that she has 

employed, developed, and also popularised, 

not only in institutional analysis, but also in related 

areas like game theory and experimental 

social sciences. 

Mainly driven by the objective of understanding 

self-organised collective action, Lin 

Ostrom created a comprehensive framework 

for understanding not only collective action, 

but also resource management, property 

rights, social capital, and institutional design: 

the Institutional Analysis and Development 

framework (IAD). This framework, which is 

now used by thousands of scholars all over the 

Content 

1 Editorial 

4 News from the Project 

6 Policy Section 

10 Thematic Section 

15 Investing in the Future 

Calendar 

01–07 September 2012 

World Urban Forum (WUF 6) 

Naples, Italy 

04–06 October 2012 

Sustainable Hyderabad International 

Workshop, Hyderabad 

29 Nov – 01 December 2012 

Conference ‘Design and Dynamics 

of Institutions for Collective 

Action’ Utrecht University, 

The Netherlands

2 | NEWS EDITORIAL FROM THE PROJECT 

Elinor Ostrom and Konrad Hagedorn 

during the International 

Conference on Cooperative Studies 

in October 2008 

world, emerged over years of extensive discussion 

and empirical explorations. As the IAD 

framework has proven to be a well-founded 

organising schema for categorising concepts 

that can be used to build theories for a variety 

of empirical phenomena, it has successfully 

served as a guiding heuristic and intellectual 

map for conceptualising the complex issues of 

research and implementation in our Sustainable 

Hyderabad Project. 

Institutional analysis of social-ecological 

systems requires the kind of cross-disciplinary 

work that we have been trying to do in our 

project. Such work raises the difficult question 

how to bring together people from different 

disciplines and also make them understand 

each other? Here, another significant contribution 

made by Lin Ostrom comes into play. She 

not only established frameworks for analysing 

and crafting institutions, but also created a path 

breaking institution of her own. Together with 

Vincent, Lin founded the Workshop in Political 

Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University 

Bloomington in 1973, extending its scope 

of operation internationally in the early 1980s 

when they both spent a year at the Centre for 

Interdisciplinary Research of Bielefeld University. 

There they were strongly influenced by 

different concepts and theories developed by 

German scholars – for example, in the areas 

of Ordnungstheorie and game theory, and the 

work of Nobel Prize Winner Reinhard Selten 

– maintaining contact with many institutes in 

Germany long afterward. 

For Lin Ostrom, the Workshop became an 

institution that was most dear to her heart. 

Now named after its founders, it is multidisciplinary, 

multi-national and has developed 

a particular culture of academic discussion. 

Coming out of the Ostroms’ ground-breaking 

work, the Bloomington School established an 

organised program of advanced studies for visiting 

scholars from around the world, a place 

where they can share their experiences and expertise. 

The Workshop has generously hosted 

about 500 such scholars, among them several 

members from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s 

RESS division. 

There is a strong link between the community 

of scholars associated with the Workshop 

and one of those fields of research in which 

Elinor Ostrom developed a revolutionary and 

ground-breaking innovation. This is her research 

on common pool resources (CPR) and 

common property, leading to the publication 

of her book Governing the Commons (1990), 

wherein she carefully revealed the characteristics 

of successful and unsuccessful CPR institutions 

and she arrived at a theory of collective 

action regarding their constitution and maintenance. 

In particular, she identified a “set of 

design principles” that characterise successful 

CPR regimes. After this advance, it is unlikely 

that there is anyone left in the scientific community 

who actually believes that the “tragedy 

of the commons” can reasonably be considered 

a general paradigm. 

Visit at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin for Participating 

in the Advisory Council 

Also standing out among her many publications, 

in the award-winning Understanding 

Institutional Diversity (2005) Ostrom stresses 

that we certainly are able to improve the sets 

of rules – the institutions – that regularise interaction 

between ecological and social systems. 

Yet she recognises that these systems 

are very complex and vary from case to case. 

Consequently, applying standard concepts for 

institutional design may lead to unintended 

outcomes. Thus it is important for policy analysts 

to learn from concrete situations and 

conditions, to be involved instead of assuming 

that they are able to make “optimal” policy 

recommendations while being isolated from 

the problems they are advising on. The notion 

of one true model or solution that fits all 

situations must be abandoned. We can actually 

do great harm if we apply simple solutions 

to complex problems and then try to impose 

them on every situation. In other words, due to 

the complexity of action situations and ecosystems, 

oversimplification is dangerous. Professor 

Ostrom’s answer to this problem was not 

to resort to blueprints, but rather to reveal “design 

principles” of successful institutions, based 

on experience regarding viable institutions and 

governance structures. Institutional diversity, 

she concluded, contributes to the robustness 

of institutions and governance systems. 

Lin Ostrom’s inventiveness and steadiness 

in contributing to theoretical and conceptual 

discussions in the area of institutions and sustainability 

was also demonstrated during the 

last few years by several leading publications 

SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT ISSUES 09 AND 10

EDITORIAL | 3 

on human–ecosystem interaction, including 

“Complexity of Coupled Human and Natural 

Systems” (2007) and “A Diagnostic Approach 

for Going Beyond Panaceas”. In the latter article, 

Professor Ostrom (2007) warns of the danger 

of blueprint approaches to the governance 

of tough social-ecological problems and emphasises 

the ineffectiveness of panaceas that 

scholars have derived from simple, predictive 

models of social-ecological systems (SES). To 

this end, she proposes to do justice to complex 

realities by applying diagnostic methods 

for finding the combinations of variables that 

structure the incentives and guide the actions 

of actors who are subjected to diverse governance 

systems. In particular, she recommends 

paying attention to the nested attributes of a 

resource system and identifying the resource 

units provided by that system. Her initiative to 

establish the SES Club as a forum for discussing 

the development of a cross-disciplinary framework 

using a general language for analysing 

SES can be considered both a valuable heritage 

and an obligation. 

Elinor Ostrom’s outstanding contributions 

to several disciplines have been recognised inside 

and outside the scientific community. She 

has received many honours and awards. She 

was a member of the National Academy of 

Sciences, which awarded her the John J. Carty 

Award for the Advancement of Science (2004). 

Further outstanding awards were the International 

Studies Association Harold and Margaret 

Sprout Award for excellence in the field 

of international environmental affairs for her 

book Governing the Commons, the Frank E. 

Seidman Prize in Political Economy, the Johan 

Skytte Prize in Political Science, the Atlas Economic 

Research Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement 

Award and the John J. Carty Award for 

the Advancement of Science from the National 

Academy of Sciences. In 2005, she received 

the James Madison Award from the American 

Political Science Association and the Sustainability 

Science Award from the Ecological Society 

of America. In 2006, the Political Economy 

Section of the American Political Science Foundation 

honoured her with the William Riker 

Award for her book Understanding Institutional 

Diversity, and in 2008 received the Galbraith 

Award from the American Agricultural 

Economics Association. In addition, she was 

president of several professional associations 

and held honorary doctorates from universities 

worldwide, among them an honorary doctorate 

from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 

2007. In May 2009 she received the renowned 

German Reimar Lüst Award for International 

Scholarly and Cultural Exchange from the Alexander 

von Humboldt Foundation. Half a year 

later, in 2009 she became the first woman to 

be awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics – the 

crowning moment of her career. 

In addition to her roles as theorist and educator, 

Ostrom also continuously worked as an 

extremely skilful catalyst and disseminator of 

theories and methods, to the benefit of the 

scientific community. Both of the research programs 

and networks Ostrom set up and her 

own contributions to interdisciplinary knowledge 

indicate her dedication to prioritising 

those issues that are among the most urgent 

challenges to our research. There are quite a 

number of colleagues, young researchers and 

also students in our project and the universities 

and institutes involved who feel the same obligation. 

Above all, Ostrom’s emphatic commitment 

to the fundamental problems of modern 

societies and the vital issues of humankind has 

been highly regarded by many members in the 

international scientific community. 

Workshop in Berlin June 2005 in the PINE Project 

With their pioneering work on institutional 

analysis and common property, Elinor and Vincent 

Ostrom have left an enduring legacy for 

our field of knowledge. Their contributions to 

institutional analysis have already fundamentally 

influenced generations of scholars. To us, 

their untimely deaths signify a great loss of distinguished 

scientists and valued friends whom 

we will remember with great affection for their 

high standards and integrity of purpose, for 

their passionate scholarship and good sense 

as well as for their continuous encouragement 

and advice. But we also mark this sad occasion 

by pointing to the optimism about the future 

that their work stands for. We share their belief 

that change and innovation in institutions governing 

interactions between nature and society 

could indeed be the key for tackling problems 

of poverty, hunger, energy, emergence and 

resolution of conflicts, environmental pollution, 

sustainability, and resource degradation. 

News 

Prof. Marco Janssen, Director 

of the Center for the Study of 

Institutional Diversity, School 

of Human Evolution and Social 

Change at Arizona State University, 

USA honoured us with 

a public lecture as part of the 

Sustainable Hyderabad National 

Workshop - Albrecht Daniel 

Thaer Kolloquium 2012 on 

“Crafting or designing: Intended 

Institutional Change for Social- 

Ecological Systems” on June 7. 

Professor Daniel W. Bromley, 

University of Wisconsin-Madison 

and Humboldt-Universität 

zu Berlin, was the discussant. 

More information here: 

www.sustainable-hyderabad. 

de/uploads/Announcement%20ADT%20Public%20 

Lecture%202012.pdf

4 | NEWS FROM THE PROJECT 

NEWS FROM THE PROJECT........................................................ 

News 

Vinish Kathuria, School of Management 

IIT Bombay, has been 

awarded the prestigious Mahalanobis 

Memorial Medal for 

the current round. This award 

is given by The Indian Econometric 

Society every two years 

in recognition of outstanding 

contributions to the field of economics. 

The other co-winners of 

this round are Kausik Chaudhuri 

(Madras School of Economics) 

and Esther Duflo (MIT). Vinish 

Kathuria has worked extensively 

in the areas of Industrial 

Organisation and Environmental 

Economics and is currently 

in the PhD advisory committee 

of some doctoral students under 

the Sustainable Hyderabad 

Megacity programme at the Division 

of Resource Economics, 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 

National Workshop in Hyderabad 

The National Workshop of the Sustainable 

Hyderabad Project was conducted on 

July 18, 2012 at the Project House in Hyderabad. 

With the project entering into its final 

year, the main aim of the one-day workshop 

was to achieve a common understanding of 

the process through which the technical and 

organisational solutions tested during the project 

can be sustained and scaled up. During 

the workshop, convened by the coordinators 

of the project, the research partners in the project 

discussed and agreed upon an action plan 

for the final year, which includes analysing the 

results of the pilot projects, capacity building, 

the workshop in October 2012 as well as steps 

towards a ‘Perspective Action Plan’ (PAP) for 

Hyderabad. 

The participants commonly emphasised the 

importance of the consolidation of the advocacy 

process in different focus fields and that this 

process should be led by the Indian partners 

in the consortium. This will include efforts to 

incorporate the action recommendations from 

the project into the current proposals for the 

State Action Plan for Climate Change. The participants 

agreed that, during the International 

Workshop in October 2012, the potential for 

collaborative actions beyond the project period 

and issues concerning further scaling up of the 

pilot initiatives should be discussed in detail. 

Workshop Participants 

Crafting or Designing? Intended Institutional Change for Social-Ecological Systems 

National Workshop in Berlin 

The Sustainable Hyderabad Project and defective institutions or the creation of new 

the Albrecht-Daniel-Thaer Kolloquium 2012, institutions to mediate novel problematic circumstances. 

During the discussion, the crafting 

supported by the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, 

brought together more than 40 interdisciplinary 

scientists to discuss the challenges of un- 

as a major alternative to cases where institu- 

of institutions by the involved actors emerged 

derstanding institutional arrangements whose tional design is initiated or even imposed by external 

forces. The distinction between crafting 

purpose is to mediate social-ecological change. 

A series of presentations and a lively discussion and designing is intended to suggest a tension 

between the attendees characterised this twoday 

National Workshop (June 7-8, 2012, Berlin) of deliberate democratic discourse versus those 

between new institutions that are the product 

organised by Dimitrios Zikos, Andreas Thiel and that emerge through the claimed wisdom of 

Christian Kimmich. The institutional arrangements 

that structure and regularise human in- 

seen as a result of important open-system pro- 

experts. Institutions that are crafted may be 

teractions were the focus of a lively debate by cesses, whereas those that are designed may 

internationally known scholars such as Daniel be seen as result of closed-system rules. The 

W. Bromley (University of Wisconsin-Madison, participants agreed that this issue, constituting 

USA and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany), 

Marco Janssen (Arizona State Univer- 

under the Sustainable Hyderabad Project, is 

a conceptual key to the research conducted 

sity, USA), Ray Ison (Monash University, UK), worth exploring further and disseminating to 

Claudia Pahl-Wostl (University of Osnabrück, the broader scientific community. Thus, Dimitrios 

Zikos and Andreas Thiel agreed to lead an 

Germany) Konrad Hagedorn and Andreas Thiel 

(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany), Esther 

Blanco (University of Innsbruck, Austria), special issue as an output of the event. 

effort towards producing an academic journal 

Frank van Laerhoven (Utrecht University, The 

Netherlands) and many others. The Workshop 

was dedicated to showcasing a specific facet of 

the interrelation between institutions and the 

way humans shape, and are shaped by, socialecological 

systems. Special attention was given 

to intended institutional change whose rationale 

is the deliberate replacement of existing 

Workshop Participants at Heinrich-Böll Foundation 


NEWS FROM THE PROJECT | 5 

NEXUS REPRESENTS THE SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT AT THE POST-OIL-CITY - 

SYMPOSIUM IN HYDERABAD 

by Tobias Kuttler and Dr. Angela Jain 

The current and future challenges of Hyderabad 

and other megacities were in the focus 

of a public symposium held at Vidyaranya 

High School in Hyderabad on August 12, 

2012, where Tobias Kuttler represented the 

nexus institute and the Sustainable Hyderabad 

Project. The occasion for this symposium was 

the opening of two parallel exhibitions “Post 

Oil City: The History of the City’s Future” and 

“Cyberabad – Landscape of Surprise – Opportunities 

for India’s Emerging Urbanisms” currently 

visiting Hyderabad in the context of the 

Indo-German year titled “Germany and India 

2011-2012: Infinite Opportunities”. The event 

was organised by the Goethe-Zentrum Hyderabad 

in collaboration with the Institute for Foreign 

Cultural Relations (ifa e.V.) and Anh-Linh 

Ngo of ARCH+. 

The program covered diverse topics related 

to planning, lifestyles and culture in the context 

of sustainable urban development. The future 

of urban mobility in megacities like Hyderabad 

was highlighted by several panelists. Tobias 

Kuttler presented the project “Walkable City 

Hyderabad” advocating the development of 

a pedestrian-friendly environment in the city 

and thus contributing to sustainable urbanism. 

In this project, nexus collaborates with several 

German and Indian partners including universities, 

cultural organisations, local NGOs and 

civic initiatives. The participation of citizens 

is considered a key element in this transport 

planning project. 

“By this means many of the goals formulated 

by the project partners have been accomplished. 

Walkability and sustainable transportation 

are on the political agenda of the 

city. Yet we need to work on implementing the 

solutions we jointly elaborated”, Tobias Kuttler 

concludes on the project’s impact to date. 

In the discussions following the presentations, 

these findings were more profoundly debated 

and suggestions for strategies towards 

implementation were made. 

Audience on Symposium 

At the end of the day, Amita Desai, the 

head of the Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad, 

draws a very positive conclusion about the 

symposium, summarising that the aim of the 

event – initiating a dialogue to stimulate a new 

type of urban planning – has been achieved. 

TRAFFIC, MOBILITY AND LOGISTICS: FIRST RESULTS OF PILOT 

PROJECT ACTIVITIES 

by Tanja Schäfer (PTV) 

In June 2012, the first 

phase for two major activities 

(corridor and public 

transport improvement 

for limited planning areas) 

connected to the Pilot Project “Integration of 

Energy-Efficiency and Climate Change aspects 

– Adaptation and Mitigation – into the ongoing 

Strategic Transport Planning Process by 

the means of the Strategic Planning Tool” was 

implemented successfully. 

For both activities, we were able to develop 

different measures/planning options capable 

of improving the energy-efficiency of the 

transport system in Hyderabad. With respect 

to the corridor activity, two options were identified 

that could result in a) a significant rise of 

average bus speeds (competitive with private 

transport) and b) improved access of pedestrians 

to bus stops (e.g. zebra-crossings). Both 

aspects are vital for enhancing not only the efficiency, 

but also the attractiveness to riders of 

public transport. 

Meanwhile, for the public transport network, 

initial ideas have been developed for 

optimising and restructuring the network to 

achieve better integration of bus services with 

other public transport services (i.e. MMTS and 

especially the future MRTS). Analogous to the 

corridor results, the conducted impact analysis 

shows that the considered measures are capable 

of improving accessibility while simultaneously 

reducing costs for service provision. 

Prerequisites for the successful first-stage 

implementation of both activities were comprehensive 

data collection (primary and sec- 

Figure 1: Planning Area for Corridor 

Improvement Activity. Source: own 

graphic based on Google maps

6 | NEWS POLICY FROM SECTION THE PROJECT 

Speed in kmph 

35 

30 

25 

20 

15 

10 

5 

0 

Average speed of bus during peak hour 

IDPL TO TB 

MP 

IDPL TO TB 

EP 

Direc.on 

TB TO IDPL 

MP 

TB TO IDPL 

EP 

Present 

condi9on 

Op9on 1 

Op9on 2 

Figure 2: Corridor Improvement Activity: Comparison 

of simulation results. Source: own graphic 

ondary) and modelling, in order to set-up the 

tools needed for the ex-ante analysis of the 

impacts the different options may have. These 

tasks were mainly performed by NIT Warangal 

and PTV, but strongly supported by the local 

authorities HMDA and APSRTC. 

The next stage of implementation will comprise 

additional stakeholder workshops and 

trainings – the first feedback round is already 

completed – and the selection of parameters 

for up-scaling of results to strategic or city level 

in order to feed the gained know-how into 

the strategic planning process and Perspective 

Action Plan. 

In addition to the Pilot Project activities, 

the Capacity Building Programme on Comprehensive 

Mobility Planning was continued 

in February 2012 with an advanced student 

training module. In October 2012, the last Capacity 

Building Module will be conducted according 

to plan. 

Planning area 

MMTS network 

National highway 

Figure 3: Planning Area for Public Transport Activity. 

Source: own graphic based on Google maps 

Figure 4: Corridor Improvement, Option 1: Concept 

of a queue-jumping land and pre-signal for buses on 

the western approach of intersection 1. 

Source: own graphic based on Google maps 

POLICY SECTION ........................................................................ 

News 

The Future Megacities were represented 

at a joint German informational 

stand with a broad 

programme at the World Urban 

Forum (WUF 6) in Naples, Italy 

(September 1-7). The Sustainable 

Hyderabad Project participated 

in the joint effort by reporting 

on seven pilot projects. 

More information at: 

http://future-megacities.org/ 

index.php?id=55&L=1#c402 

TOPIC 1: ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMUNITY RADIO IN TARNAKA, 

HYDERABAD, INDIA 

A Pilot Project within the Sustainable Hyderabad Project 

by Dr. Angela Jain, Dr. Bhaskar Poldas and Rajesh Kota VVS 

Introduction 

Civil society participation 

is of crucial importance 

for sustainable city development. In 

discussions on climate change, it has been emphasised 

that the voices of civil society should 

be heard and their needs taken into account. 

But the formal representation of citizens on the 

local level in urban areas in India in general, 

and particularly in the emerging megacity of 

Hyderabad, is still quite weak. In this regard, 

Civil Society Organisations are of great importance, 

as they represent the views of citizens 

to a certain extent. One such organisation in 

Hyderabad is the (Standing Committee of) Tarnaka 

Residents Welfare Associations (TRWA). 

RWAs are independent associations of residents 

living in an area and are registered under 

the Andhra Pradesh Societies Registration 

Act (2001). As an ‘umbrella organisation’, the 

TRWA represents the approximately 40,000 

residents of Tarnaka Ward. 

Finding political representation at urban 

local governance level insufficient, the TRWA 

considers RWAs as tools for social change, 

self-governance and development. Accordingly, 

all projects that the TRWA undertakes 

seek to serve the improvement of social and 

physical environment in the Ward, aiming at 

a better quality of life and empowerment of 

citizens, making Tarnaka a ‘model colony’ for 

self-governance. 

To empower the citizens of the Ward for 

ushering in a better quality of life, TRWA had 

been contemplating setting up a community 

radio station (CRS). As one of the important 

local partners in the Sustainable Hyderabad 

Project and as a basis of existing community 

structures, the idea of TRWA implementing a 

CRS in one Ward of Hyderabad seemed promising. 

Therefore, the process of setting up the 

CRS was initiated as a Pilot Project under the 

Sustainable Hyderabad Project. 


POLICY SECTION | 7 

Aims of Community Radio (CR) 

The objective behind establishing a CRS is 

to create a platform to disseminate, exchange 

information and initiate discussions on topics 

relevant to citizens. It is, at the same time, a 

means for enhanced communication with regard 

to organisational coordination of existing 

programmes within a ward. The main purpose 

of setting up a CRS, however, is to enable and 

empower the local community to own and 

utilise information and communication media 

to support social, economic and cultural 

community developments. This participatory 

grassroots communication tool empowers local 

communities to voice their problems and 

needs, thereby enabling them to influence relevant 

decision-making processes, at least to 

a certain extent. Moreover, the audience becomes 

an active part of the radio programmes 

through their participation in all aspects, such 

as management, fund raising and programme 

production. Of course, such stations are intended 

to provide entertainment to the local 

community as well. 

CR builds on existing community structures, 

strengthens and complements them. The 

fact that community members are themselves 

responsible for raising funds, obtaining equipment 

and creating programmes for broadcast 

is expected to enhance their commitment. As 

for the Tarnaka CR, specific issues related to a 

wide range of groups will be focussed upon in 

its programmes. The groups identified so far 

are senior citizens interested in topics such as 

counselling on health, pensions, shelter and 

financial issues; working women and housewives 

wanting to focus on health and hygienic 

related issues, recipes and home decoration; 

children and youth willing to offer competitions, 

discussions, lessons, tutorials; job seekers 

and employers interested in job market information 

and job announcements; and, lastly, 

RWAs themselves, keen on offering a platform 

for solving problems through social dialogue 

and announcing invitations to meetings, festivities 

and other events. Apart from these 

groups, Tarnaka CR shall serve all residents 

as a communication platform for announcing, 

sharing and discussing issues of public interest, 

while focussing on environmental awareness 

and sustainable solutions to the challenge of 

climate change in a broader sense. 

Though a CRS is a public broadcasting 

system, its approach differs immensely from 

conventional radio. The grassroots approach 

feature of CR is its special focus on the audience, 

which simultaneously is a part of the station 

through participation in all aspects of its 

management and programme production. Radio 

programmes are prepared according to the 

needs of each group in the form of education, 

information and sharing of individual experiences 

and ideas. With regard to general issues 

related to the entire community, they initiate 

social dialogue and discussions to find optimal 

solutions. This is a good way of learning 

from each, as people can share their ideas and 

thoughts to a broad audience. 

The Tarnaka CRS will be helpful in raising 

the awareness of citizens about issues of sustainability 

and climate change, which can be 

initiated through programmes put on by school 

children and youth who are learning about the 

topic in their educational schools. When an initial 

level of climate change awareness at grassroots 

level is created among citizens, action 

can be initiated, for instance through community 

based adoption of climate change mitigation 

and adaptation strategies. 

Project status and plans 

Currently, the license application for the 

Tarnaka CRS is still pending with the Ministry 

of Information & Broadcasting (I&B), New Delhi, 

having been filed on November 10, 2010. 

Subsequently, 12 sets of TRWA and project 

objectives were sent to different ministries, 

including ministries of I&B, Civil Aviation, Defence, 

Home and Communication, on December 

6, 2010. The ministry of I&B accepted the 

application and invited the TRWA for screening 

on January 24, 2011, and the TRWA made 

a presentation before the screening committee 

on February 11, 2011. The clearance reports 

from different ministries were submitted to I&B 

in May 2012. 

In a meeting conducted in April 2012, attended 

by the CR team, a representative of 

the Sustainable Hyderabad Project (Dr. Poldas) 

and Prof. Vasuki from University of Hyderabad 

discussed the various steps for future planning 

at length. Prof. Vasuki, who was instrumental 

in establishing a CRS (Bol Hyderabad, 90.4 

FM) on the campus of the University of Hyderabad 

in Gachibowli, provided in-depth insight 

into the whole CR project. Based on his significant 

suggestions in matters of training technical 

staff to maintain the CRS and community 

reporters to prepare articles for broadcasting, 

plans are being formulated. With regard to 

the trainings, cooperation with another training 

team on journalism and communications is 

News 

A special report on the LPG Project 

was published in the online 

magazine of the Financial Times 

(FT) on July 26, 2012, authored 

by James Crabtree, head of the 

FT Mumbai bureau, under the 

title “Spark of inspiration”. 

The full article is available here: 

www.ft.com/intl/ 

cms/s/2/3136b400-d01c-11e1- 

a3d2-00144feabdc0. 

html#axzz24MSO4kbN 

The LPG Pilot Project, conducted 

under WP 3.2, was further profiled 

for the Financial Times Citi 

Ingenuity Award: Urban Ideas in 

Action: a programme recognising 

ingenious individuals or organisations 

that have developed 

solutions to urban challenges in 

the fields of education, healthcare, 

energy and infrastructure. 

More information on the awards 

is available here: 

www.eiseverywhere.com/ereg/ 

inactive.php?eventid=31507

8 | NEWS POLICY FROM SECTION THE PROJECT 

News 

On June 12 and 19, 2012, a special 

research colloquium (S-Fo- 

Ko) took place at the Humboldt- 

Universität zu Berlin. Doctoral 

researchers from the Sustainable 

Hyderabad Project presented 

on the progress of their work to 

their colleagues and supervisors. 

also being planned. Help is also being sought 

from other CRSs in Karnataka regarding some 

technical aspects. As suggested by Prof. Vasuki, 

three months worth of broadcasting programmes 

are being planned in advance, before 

the license is granted. 

To sustain the station, revenue generation 

through advertisements is envisaged, 

with engagement of an advertising agency for 

securing such commercials being discussed. 

Radio programmes are expected to be receivable 

within a radius of 10 kilometres from the 

broadcasting station. When the radio station 

completes three months of operations successfully, 

it is possible that the government may 

also provide commercials to be broadcast. 

Guidelines 

The CRS in Tarnaka shall be non-discriminatory, 

democratic and independent. The station 

will remain sensitive to the impact of its 

programmes within the community, as well as 

the surrounding communities. It shall strive to 

follow the following guidelines: 

• to present its target audience with a high 

quality, professional radio service, 

• to provide an impartial, fair and immediate 

local coverage, 

• to contribute to the development of a culture 

of critical and constructive debate and, 

in this context, to ensure that all sectors of 

the community get a fair opportunity to 

state their views and concerns on air, 

• to provide a forum within which these different 

sectors can interact in a way that 

helps to develop a culture of mutual respect, 

• to raise funds to ensure the continued successful 

running of the radio station, 

• to create and maintain effective and democratic 

staffing structures designed to accomplish 

the above goals. 

UNESCO sees community radio as a medium 

that gives voice to the voiceless, that serves 

as the mouthpiece of the marginalised and is 

at the heart of communication and democratic 

processes within societies. With CR, citizens 

have the means to make their views known 

on decisions that concern them. The notions 

of transparency and good governance take on 

new dimensions and democracy is reinforced. 

CR catalyses the development efforts of rural 

folk and the underprivileged segments of urban 

societies, given its exceptional ability to 

share timely and relevant information on development 

issues, opportunities, experiences, 

life skills and public interests. 

It is the endeavour of TRWA and nexus 

Institute to implement the above guidelines 

when the CRS is commissioned. It will be ensured 

that this medium provides equal opportunities 

to citizens, including the marginalised 

in the society, to express their views and decisions 

in matters relevant to them by following 

democratic processes. By following the principles 

of transparency and good governance in 

running the CRS, it is hoped that it will become 

a model enterprise in the urban society of Hyderabad. 

Most relevant for the Sustainable Hyderabad 

Project, the station would give nexus 

Institute a unique opportunity to analyse the 

possibilities of adopting community based climate 

change mitigation and adaptation strategies. 

TOPIC 2: APPLICATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS INTO PRACTICE, 

POLICY AND ACTION PLAN 

by Dr. Ramesh Chennamaneni 

With its funding programme 

Research for the 

Sustainable Development 

of Megacities of Tomorrow, 

the German Federal Ministry of Education 

and Research (BMBF) has been focusing 

on energy- and climate-efficient structures in 

urban growth centres. The BMBF expects that 

the outcome of such research will be strategies 

and pilot projects showing new ways for the 

introduction of energy- and climate-efficient 

structures in urban growth centres through: 

• technical innovations in urban infrastructure, 

adapted to local conditions and accepted 

by the citizens, 

• new ways in political decision processes, 

new forms of political decision making and 

governance, 

• new management instruments in urban decision 

making, 

• tools to evaluate the effectiveness of urban 

planning measures, 

• capacity building and vocational training, 

and 

• new partnerships combating climate 

change. 

Our Sustainable Hyderabad Project has entered 

the final stage of implementation, and 


POLICY SECTION | 9 

we can very humbly say that we are absolutely 

on the path towards realising the expected results 

of the Megacity Programme. 

Institutional analysis and change is the 

overall framework of the project, based on the 

premises that institutions shape the behaviour 

of individuals and certain institutions can be 

changed for the achievement of sustainable 

behavioural patterns. The project focused on 

developing a Sustainable Development Framework 

for the Greater Hyderabad region, with 

priority on mitigation and adaptation strategies 

for climate change and energy efficiency 

in various sectors, namely, transport, food 

provision, urban and peri-urban land use and 

provision of energy and water. One of the 

main objectives of implementing the project’s 

eight pilot projects has been to demonstrate 

how combinations of institutional and technical 

solutions developed through research can 

be operationalised to help in promoting mitigation 

and adaptation strategies with respect 

to climate change under local conditions. A 

closely interlinked objective of the project has 

also been to ensure the sustainability of the pilot 

initiative over time and the scaling up of its 

results by local partners and stakeholders. 

Although for analytic purposes developments 

in the three main action arenas of national 

level policy making, city level adaptation 

of policies and community level implementation 

of measures have been explored and their 

links established, the pilot projects are only attempting 

to change rules at the city and community 

levels. Achieving institutional change at 

a national level is restricted for two reasons. 

First, for any local level institutional innovation 

to graduate to that of a national level policy requires 

a considerable amount of time and usually 

has to pass through several stages (scales) 

of adoption. This is practically impossible 

within the timeframe of the project. Further, 

climate policies found a favourable place in the 

national agenda, leading to the drafting an action 

plan – also recently at the state level and 

several other missions for development of urban 

areas, renewable energies and other clean 

technologies. Therefore, the focus of our project 

has been to analyse factors for integrating 

such issues in the city’s development plans 

through crafting new rules for sectors such as 

transport and urban land use planning, food, 

energy supply and efficiency and water supply 

and use efficiency. These rules are intended 

to induce behaviours which then contribute to 

climate change adaptation or mitigation measures. 

The following diagram shows our present 

scientific activities, targeted at facilitating local 

climate discourses. Discourses play an important 

role in setting broader climate strategies 

into a proper perspective, which then allows 

for effective implementation of concerted actions. 

Studies conducted within our project 

have revealed that well-organised discourses 

on climate change are more concentrated at 

high-level decision making (national) levels, 

while they are severely lacking at state or city 

(local) levels. This leads to problems related to 

implementation of comprehensive strategies, 

largely due to lack of inter-departmental coordination. 

To fill this gap, within the scope of 

the project, various research and pilot activities 

are presently aimed at changing or creating 

rules enabling local adaptation and mitigation 

measures by strengthening existing discourses 

and/or with the inclusion of new discourses 

generated as a result of project activities. 

Climate Change 

Adaption and 

Mitigation: Pilot 

Actions 

Generate 

Workshops, 

Meetings, Reports 

and Policy 

Briefs with Key 

Stakeholder 

Embed in 

Local Climate 

Discourses 

Climate Change 

Discourses at Other 

Levels 

Produce 

Institutional 

Change 

at Various 

Levels 

Other Discourses 

(Poverty Reduction, 

Health, etc.) 

A Discursive Model of Institutional Change. 

Source: own graphic 

Moreover, decoupling climate discourses 

from those of poverty reduction, public health 

and sustainable economic development has 

been found to be hindering adoption of climate 

strategies. Our project is therefore making 

an attempt to address this problem by implementing 

well-researched adaptation and 

mitigation measures together with required 

changes in rules on a pilot basis. The knowledge 

generated through research and actions 

by the project, involving all stakeholders with 

necessary resources, is embedded in the local 

climate discourses. To capture this highly 

process-oriented outcome, empirical research 

on institutional discourses is planned, involving 

all eight pilot projects, using descriptive as 

well as interpretive analysis. In fact, all the activities 

planned by us in the coming months, 

such as the International Workshop, Capacity 

Building, Policy Briefs and Policy Dialogues, are 

part of this process of facilitating local climate 

discourses. By complementing these newly 

generated discourses with other prevalent dis- 

News 

The first publications from the 

Emerging megacities Discussion 

Papers have been printed and 

are available. 

Interested authors are invited to 

read our call for papers at: 

www.sustainable-hyderabad. 

de/emerging-megacities.html

10 | THEMATIC SECTION EDITORIAL 

courses of wider grounding, we expect that 

appropriate institutions can be designed or 

changed to promote broader adoption of climate 

change mitigation and adaptation strategies. 

Based on these outcomes, the Indo-German 

research and action teams – which can 

be seen as new partnerships that have evolved 

out of joint efforts towards combating climate 

change impacts – will formulate an action plan 

for Hyderabad that may prove useful for urban 

decision makers worldwide. 

THEMATIC SECTION................................................................... 

TOPIC 1: USING CHOICE EXPERIMENTS TO CALIBRATE PILOT PROJ- 

ECT INTERVENTION 

by Julian Sagebiel 

1 

Birol, E., and Karousakis, K., 

and Koundouri, Ph., 2006. Using 

a choice experiment to account 

for preference heterogeneity in 

wetland attributes: The case of 

Cheimaditida wetland in Greece, 

Ecological Economics, 60(1): 

145-156. 

Choice Experiments 

(CE) have been extensively 

used to evaluate goods, 

services or policies in transportation, 

environmental, 

and health economics as well as in marketing. 

In development economics, the method has 

been applied to elicit preferences of the poor in 

sectors like food, water or farming to provide 

stakeholder-coherent policy recommendations. 

The widespread use of CE is due to their 

rather simple yet general application format in 

combination with robust underlying economic 

theory. 

Figure 1: A Sample Choice Situation from the 

Survey: Each farmer was asked to answer eight of 

these choice sets, after a detailed explanation of the 

attributes was provided. 

A CE is a survey-based, stated preferences 

method in which respondents are asked to repeatedly 

choose between alternatives. Each 

alternative is described by attributes that vary 

from choice task to choice task. One advantage 

of this method, compared to other stated 

preferences methods, is its capability to evaluate 

the attributes of a good or policy rather 

than the good or policy itself. For example, 

policy makers are about to implement a sustainable 

wetland management policy. They 

know that there are different, maybe equally 

expensive, variants of the policy (e.g. degree 

of biodiversity, size of open water surface area) 

yet are unaware of public preferences. Further, 

they might be interested in quantifying 

the perceived values of the different variants 

to compare them to the related costs. Using 

CE, it is possible to identify a “socially optimal” 

policy by adjusting implementation to public 

preferences. This example 1 is one of many 

such experiments that have been conducted 

to guide policy makers in environmental policy 

questions. 

For energy and water related issues in the 

Sustainable Hyderabad Project, we have employed 

stated preferences methods with a similar 

motivation. Our findings are incorporated 

into policy briefs and will enter the Perspective 

Action Plan. However, we also recently conducted 

a CE for a very different purpose. Here, 

we wanted to identify preferences of beneficiaries 

(i.e. a small subset of people who are 

directly affected), so as to adjust the implementation 

procedure of small pilot projects or 

development cooperation projects. The main 

difference between this application and more 

conventional CE, lies in the target group and 

the generalisation of results. Classical applications, 

usually relevant for large groups or the 

whole population (e.g., marketing a new product, 

constructing a new highway, preserving a 

natural habitat, setting up a new health insurance 

scheme), are aimed to attain general conclusions, 

whereas our proposed application is 

restricted to specific and unique interventions. 

The overall rationale is as follows. Whenever 

new ideas are to be tested in the field, some 

fine tuning is necessary, which varies from case 

to case. When fine tuning is not conducted a 

priori, trial and error costs are higher than necessary. 

Gathering a priori information might 

be much cheaper and pitfalls can be avoided. 

While many such a priori methods exist and are 

frequently applied, CE exhibits some outstanding 

potential benefits. First of all, a maximum 

of realism is provided, as different scenarios 

are presented to the respondents. Second, 


THEMATIC SECTION | 11 

the comparative nature of CE tasks makes decisions 

easier for respondents, compared to 

surveys where direct statements are required. 

Third, the method is efficient in that very precise 

and quantifiable findings can be collected 

in a relatively compressed format. Fourth, with 

a good sample selection and proper statistical 

design, estimates are relatively reliable, as it is 

easy to cover large shares of the target population. 

Fifth, a CE task is more compelling to 

respondents than answering simple, perhaps 

boring, questions. 

In order to illustrate this idea, the following 

paragraph provides some background regarding 

pilot project 5, “Implementing cooperative 

and technical solutions to increase energy efficiency 

in irrigation”, after which the motivation 

for and conducting of a CE to inform project 

implementation are explained. 

Farmers in the project area who use electric 

water pumps suffer from poor electricity quality 

in terms of voltage fluctuations and restricted 

power supply. To overcome these issues, IfG 

together with the project partners decided to 

provide capacitors (a small and inexpensive 

technical equipment that can reduce motor 

burn-outs and increase energy efficiency) to 

the farmers. Additionally, assistance would be 

provided to set up a water pump cooperative 

for self-help, better internal organisation and 

more negotiating power against the distribution 

company. Even after interviewing several 

farmers and experts, however, the project 

implementation team still lacked precise and 

representative information on the farmers’ 

preferences for different capacitor attributes, 

especially non-technical ones like warranty 

and capacitor costs. Further, it needed to be 

determined whether farmers would be willing 

to join the cooperative. In the end, it all depends 

on the willingness of the stakeholders to 

participate. If the stakeholders are not willing 

to adopt the proposed changes, the project is 

likely to fail. Sometimes, even small deviances 

from a preferred application can prevent successful 

implementation. In order to avoid falling 

into this trap, it is helpful to find out 

• whether farmers are at all willing to install 

capacitors, 

• whether farmers are willing to pay a price 

to attain a capacitor, 

• whether farmers would be interested in 

joining the cooperative, 

• to what extend a warranty would be appreciated 

by the farmers, and 

• how warranty, price and cooperative membership 

are traded off and interact. 

Answers to these questions can guide implementation, 

especially in predicting what 

will “work” or “fail”. For example, if farmers 

are willing to pay for capacitors only when it 

comes with a warranty, it would be fatal to 

charge for capacitors that have no warranty. 

Further, it is useful to investigate how much a 

farmer would pay additionally for one year of 

warranty. 

As implied above, IfG conducted a CE to 

answer these questions so as to help in calibrating 

the intervention to maximise farmers’ 

benefits. The idea was put into practice in a 

survey with 234 farmers from the intervention 

villages and from neighbouring “control 

group” villages in February 2012. The CE consisted 

of three alternatives: “no capacitor”, 

“only capacitor” and “capacitor and cooperative”. 

The latter two alternatives comprised 

two attributes, each having two levels. The 

Always choose… Freq. Percent 

alternative “no capacitor” 1 0.43 % 

alternative “only capacitor” 2 0.85 % 

alternative “capacitor and cooperative” 15 6.41 % 

the cheaper alternative 26 11.11 % 

the alternative with longer warranty 39 16.67 % 

either cheaper price or longer warranty 43 18.38 % 

not to any pattern 108 46.15 % 

Table 1: Simple choices 

Table 1: Simple Choices 

attribute levels appeared in different combinations 

between choice situations. The attributes 

were “years of warranty” (level 1: no warranty, 

level 2: five years warranty) and “investment 

costs for capacitor” (level 1: no costs, 

level 2: 300 INR). Figure 1 presents one out 

of the 16 choice situations which were used in 

the survey. After a detailed explanation of the 

alternatives and attributes, each respondent 

answered eight choice situations. The results 

shed light on the questions raised above. First, 

simple decision heuristics can be detected: a 

respondent always chooses the same alternative 

regardless of the levels of the attributes or 

he always chooses the alternative where one 

specific attribute is better. From table 1, one 

can see that only one respondent always opted 

against capacitors, while 15 respondents always 

chose the alternative “capacitor and cooperative”, 

26 respondents always chose the 

alternative that was cheaper and 39 respondents 

always opted for longer warranty. Another 

43 respondents chose either based on the 

cost or the warranty attribute, though it was 

not possible to identify which of the attributes 

was dominant due to design issues. Basically, 

it seems that there is no general resistance towards 

capacitors, even when it costs something 

News 

The BMBF Future Megacities 

Newsletter was published online 

in July 2012. Tanja Schäfer contributed 

to the newsletter with 

her short article “An Approach 

to Create Resilient Transport 

Systems in Hyderabad”. 

The newsletter is available here: 

http://future-megacities.org/ 

fileadmin/documents/newsletter/Megacities_Newsletter_ 

No2_2012_Internet.pdf 

Figure 2: The Survey in Practice: 

Presentation of choice sets to farmer

12 | NEWS THEMATIC FROM SECTION THE PROJECT EDITORIAL 

and comes without warranty. Further, more 

respondents were keen on longer warranty 

than on free capacitors. The data can further 

be analysed with micro econometric methods. 

Applying a conditional logit model, it is possible 

to calculate choice probabilities, marginal 

effects and willingness to pay values (trade-off 

between the attributes) for the attributes. The 

model estimates in terms of willingness to pay 

Willingness to 95% confidence intervall 

Attributes pay in INR Lower bound Upper bound 

Alternative cooperative 324.9 *** 243.9 405.9 

One year Warranty 117.4 *** 89.7 145.1 

Costs -‐1 *** -‐1 -‐1 

Number Observations 

3550 

Number Respondents 

233 

Count R 2 

0.735 

Table 2: Conditional logit regression results expressed in Willingness to pay conditional on 

Table 2: Conditional logit regression results expressed 

in willingness to pay conditional on those 

those choosing an alternative with capacitor 

choosing an alternative with capacitor. 

are presented in table 2. The sampled farmers 

are more likely to choose the alternative with a 

cooperative and, not surprisingly, prefer lower 

costs and longer warranty. They are on average 

willing to pay 325 INR additionally for joining 

the cooperative and 117 INR additionally 

for one more year of warranty. Although the 

analysis can be widely extended, such as by 

investigating preference heterogeneity or correlating 

the choices with socio-demographic 

variables, important insights have already become 

obvious and can be directly used for project 

implementation. 

Although this example is limited to only 

three attributes, there might have been other, 

more relevant features that were not included. 

If there is little a priori information available, 

it is useful to conduct focus group discussions 

and expert interviews to optimise attribute 

choice. 

The advantages of precise and extended 

analysis come, however, at the cost of extra 

time and effort. A CE should only be used if the 

additionally generated information, compared 

for example to focus group discussions, is really 

required for implementation. Arguments 

against the use of CEs include the following. 

First, CEs involve much preparation and are 

cost intensive. Like most quantitative methods, 

a relatively large sample size is required 

to get statistically sound estimates, and field 

investigators need to be hired and trained for 

at least one full day. Second, falsely selected 

or omitted attributes or a poor experimental 

design can bias the results and lead to false or 

misleading implications. Third, due to the hypothetical 

nature of the method, respondents 

might not answer in the same manner as they 

would actually behave in real decision situations 

(hypothetical bias). 

Figure 3: Training of the Field Investigators: Before 

going into field, the field investigators require at 

least one day of training to fully understand the 

Choice Experiment. 

TOPIC 2: ON-SITE TRAININGS: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO 

BUILD CAPACITY AMONG STREET FOOD VENDORS 

by Anne Dahmen and Prof. Christoph Dittrich 

Ingredients for vegetable manchurian 

are placed on the floor 

uncovered for several hours, a 

risk of contamination that can be 

easily avoided. 

Since our last Newsletter 

(7/8, Winter 11/12), 

we have completed an announced 

training tool: a 

Street Food Safety Manual. 

The next phase within the food-safety strategy 

of the Pilot Project Sustainable Street Food 

Plan has been focused on implementation of 

the capacity building measure of on-site trainings, 

which will begin in autumn 2012. 

On the basis of the safety manual, easy-toapply 

measures and guidelines to adjust personal 

behaviour and food handling practices 

are to be taught at food-safety trainings, conducted 

in cooperation with the Home Science 

College, the NGO SNEHA and other partners. 

So far, street food-safety training programmes 

in Hyderabad have failed, because participating 

street vendors dropped out rather quickly 

or refused to participate in the training sessions 

at the outset. Two major reasons have 

been identified for this conduct. Firstly, most 

of the petty trade vendors are running their 

businesses without formal licenses. Hence, 

they do not fall under the Food Safety and 

Standards Act and therefore are not within 

the field of responsibility and requirements of 

GHMC food inspectors. As long as these vendors 

are hampered from obtaining licenses and 

are still threatened by corruption, displacement 

and confiscation of property (pushcarts, 

cooking utensils, food items), the issue of food 

safety remains rather insignificant to them. 

Some vendors do take measures to improve 


THEMATIC SECTION | 13 

the hygiene at their stall (see photos), but generally 

vendors are either little or not aware of 

the potentials food safety holds for sustainable 

improvements of their businesses and livelihoods. 

Secondly, many street food vendors left 

the training classroom due to time constraints. 

Street vending is a time consuming business. 

Most of the vendors have to bear a 12 to 16 

hour working day, taking into account the time 

consuming provision of raw materials, preparation 

of food items at home, transportation to 

vending sites, cooking, selling and so forth. 

The key features of the on-site training aim 

to offer solutions for these big challenges. We 

have designed an innovative and convenient 

training format. Trainings will be held within 

walking distance of the vendors’ roadside workplace. 

Compact training sessions of 2 ½ hours 

will introduce different topics (e.g., personal 

hygiene, upgrade of vending unit) tailored to 

the vendors’ concrete day-to-day business 

situation. Trainings will seek to enable petty 

trade vendors to consciously act according to 

Indian food-safety regulations and to fulfil customers’ 

expectations regarding hygiene, while 

still guaranteeing good service, timely product 

presentation and delicious taste. 

Sessions of four days will complete one 

training round. Within this capacity building 

measure, four training rounds will be conducted, 

with each round consisting of a slight different 

format. Differing in the design of incentives 

given (income-compensation, certificate 

etc.), the evaluation and comparison of the 

individual training rounds will help to find an 

optimal training format concerning the motivation 

of vendors to participate and put in practice 

what they have learned. 

The Street Food Safety Manual will serve as 

the main guideline for the trainings. Both, the 

manual and the training format will be evaluated 

comprehensively, with findings to be incorporated 

into the Perspective Action Plan. Apart 

from capacity building, the trainings should 

also serve to answer the following questions: 

• Can scientific knowledge on food safety be 

successfully transferred to the urban street 

food sector by implementing appropriate 

hand-outs, didactics for vocational training, 

instructions and tools? 

• Can training formats suited to vendors 

work patterns provide socially accepted 

incentives to encourage street vendors to 

participate in food-safety trainings and to 

use their new capacities during everyday 

business activities? 

Vendors distribute their work, a good measure to 

avoid cross contamination. Covering of items on 

display is one of the things lacking here. 

TOPIC 3: INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATIONS OF CLIMATE 

CHANGE ON CLIMATE-RELATED BEHAVIOUR OF CITIZENS IN HYDER- 

ABAD, INDIA 

by Dr. Bhaskar Poldas 

In recent years one particular 

topic has drawn the 

attention of environmentalists 

trying to tackle problems related to climate 

change, namely ecology and religion. The Forum 

on Religion and Ecology at Yale, the largest 

international multi-religious project of this 

kind, “recognises that religions need to be in 

dialogue with other disciplines (e.g., science, 

ethics, economics, education, public policy, 

gender) in seeking comprehensive solutions 

to both global and local environmental problems.” 

Motivation for the research presented below 

emerged during a previous project, when 

the author discerned a tendency to believe 

in religious interpretations of climate change 

among junior college students in Hyderabad. 

From a total of 129 students interviewed, 32% 

believed that climate change is a result of increased 

sin in the world, 27% considered it to 

be a phenomenon of “end times” and 33% 

even believed that its effects may decrease 

if human beings become more spiritual/religious. 

1 

Furthermore, every year during droughts, 

citizens of different faiths in Hyderabad perform 

religious rituals or offer prayers for rains. 

Hindu priests of Tirimala Tirupathi Devasthanams 

perform maha varun#a yagñam for rains, 

while Muslims and Christians pray for them. 

At such ceremonies, both Hindu and Muslim 

1 

Poldas, B. (2011): Analysing junior 

college students’ awareness 

of climate change in the emerging 

megacity of Hyderabad and 

developing teaching modules to 

augment their knowledge on 

the issue. DAAD Postdoc Research 

Programme, Sustainable 

Hyderabad Project, Berlin.

14 | THEMATIC SECTION 

2 

http://news.rediff.com/slide- 

show/2009/jul/04/slide-show- 

1-hyderabad-prays-for-rain. 

htm#contentTop [Accessed 

07.07.2010] 

3 

Dwivedi, O. P. (2000): Dharmic 

Ecology. In: Hinduism and Ecology: 

The Intersection of Earth, 

Sky, and Water. Ed. Christopher 

Key Chapple und Mary Evelyn 

Tucker. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 

Harvard University Press: 

3-22. 

4 

White, Lynn (1967): The 

Historical Roots of Our Ecological 

Crisis. Science. Vol. 155 (No. 

3767): 1203-1207. 

priests have commented that lack of rains is a 

punishment from God for the increased sin in 

the world. 2 However, the collective action of 

citizens tends to stop after performing these 

rituals, reflecting their satisfaction that they 

have done enough. Precisely at this point, external 

intervention is necessary to alert them 

to continue their efforts further by examining 

their lifestyles to reveal actions detrimental 

to the environment and adapting them to be 

climate friendly. The involvement of religious 

scholars, such as Hindu gurus, Islamic Moulanas 

and Christian priests, could be helpful to 

motivate citizens to work individually and collectively 

against climate change. 

The objective behind this project is to study 

the philosophies of the three major religious 

streams – Hindu, Muslim, and Christian – represented 

in Hyderabad in the light of ecology 

and communicate the principles/guidelines 

concerning ecology laid down therein to people, 

thereby appealing to their religious sentiments 

to act against climate change. Motivating 

citizens to act against climate change 

through such a strategy could be promising, 

since the successful chipko movements in India 

in the nineteen seventies to save ecology were 

guided by religious beliefs. The inspiration for 

chipko movements was the dedication of the 

bishnoi community in Rajasthan, which has 

been practicing environmental conservation as 

their religious duty. 3 

As part of a qualitative survey, interviews 

with religious scholars as well as citizens were 

conducted and analysed. The scholars are in 

varying degrees aware of climate change and 

the suffering of people under its impacts. Except 

one scholar belonging to a Christian religious 

stream, all are of the opinion that people 

are suffering due to climate change as well as 

increased sin in the world. One Hindu scholar 

stated that the “effects of both GHG emission 

and Kaliyuga are there”. The nature of both 

sufferings is different, however, as the returns 

for personal “misdeeds” will be different than 

the hardships they face or losses they incur due 

to climate change. This reveals that they are 

very open to scientific explanations about climate 

change and accept them. 

The just-mentioned scholar continued that, 

today “wherever you look, wherever you go, 

sin has increased. In olden days greenery used 

to be worshipped and nowadays it is quite opposite 

to it. Now, wherever a tree is seen, it is 

being cut off and pillars are erected and buildings 

are built quickly. Subsequently it will be 

checked whether they can be extended further. 

Only such thoughts do people have now. 

There is a connection between famines and 

such things”. He concluded that “only when 

there is positive thinking in human beings they 

will avoid GHG emission”. 

All interviewed scholars stated that various 

guidelines exist in different religious texts 

such as the Bhagavad Gita, the Mahabharata, 

the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible and gave 

references. Some also mentioned corresponding 

narrations recorded in some texts contain 

moral lessons for human beings. The personification 

of the elements of nature Ether, Earth, 

Water, Fire and Wind as gods in Hindu philosophy, 

as evidence of the highest regard being 

given to nature, was highlighted. 

On being asked how such guidelines would 

influence people, they mentioned that people 

in Hyderabad are basically religious and the 

guidelines would influence them positively. 

The positive effect on people of the “spiritual 

TV channels” belonging to various religions has 

been that, in the words of one Hindu scholar, 

that since “their arrival people are becoming 

cautious. From the time scholars (Gurus) are 

teaching ‘good’ in different channels of different 

religions things are improving”. These 

channels could therefore serve as a useful medium 

to communicate ecological guidelines in 

religious texts to people. 

In their opinion, primarily religious scholars 

have the responsibility to communicate such 

guidelines to people. One Christian scholar 

mentioned that, according to Lynn White, 

man interpreted the words “have dominion” 

in Genesis 1:26 from the Bible wrongly as “to 

conquer”, thus acting as if he was the owner 

of the earth and exploiting it. 4 Instead, through 

understanding these words correctly, humans 

should have become stewards of the natural 

environment. He therefore opined that it is the 

responsibility of Christian churches to play a 

leading role in the matter, as misinterpretation 

of this verse was the root cause of a false human 

attitude towards nature, which ultimately 

caused the ecological crisis. 

The primary analysis of citizens’ interviews 

so far indicates that citizens belonging to the 

Islamic religious stream see a cosmic regulation 

behind the calamities taking place today as a 

result of the increased sin in the world and believe 

that things will improve if human beings 

change inwardly. 

After analysis of the interviews, during the 

last phase of research it is planned to compile 


INVESTING IN THE FUTURE | 15 

and develop religious guidelines to conserve 

nature in consultation with religious scholars 

and finalise the strategies for communicating 

them to citizens. 

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE......................................................... 

GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE FOR ENERGY EFFICIENT DISTRIBUTION 

NETWORKS IN INDIA 

Adopting a holistic 

socio-technical system approach, 

Brijesh Bhatt’s dissertation 

focuses on the 

institutional parameters 

influencing adoption of 

technological innovations in the Indian electricity 

distribution sector, which is in a state 

of flux. It is facing the challenges of not only 

increase and change in demand patterns, but 

also tougher regulations, integration of renewable 

sources and information technology as 

well as increased consumer awareness. Moreover, 

a robust distribution network is crucial 

for eradicating huge distribution losses in the 

power sector and, hence, for enhancing electricity 

end use efficiency by delivering quality 

electricity to consumers. However, transition 

to new technologies in energy systems involves 

overcoming path dependencies resulting from 

the complex interaction between technologies, 

institutions and social/organisational behaviour. 

To act as path breakers, often new institutional 

forms are created, anticipating that they 

might accommodate new technologies. Recent 

structural changes in the power sector and ongoing 

distribution reforms clearly demonstrate 

this phenomenon. But the extent to which 

these institutional changes and various fiscal 

policies have succeeded in infusing technological 

innovation in the sector varies across different 

states in the country. The dissertation aims 

to understand how liberalisation and changes 

in organizational forms (e.g., input-based distribution 

franchisee model) have altered innovation 

processes in the distribution sector. 

The research identifies key actors and barriers 

that influence decisions for technology adoption 

by using methods of multi-criteria decision 

making. Building on the evolutionary theory of 

technical change, the decision making process 

of distribution utilities is modelled to study the 

influence of reforms, including various regulatory 

mechanisms and organisational forms. 

Performing a comparative case study across 

different organisational forms of distribution 

utilities, the study focuses on the relationship 

between governance structures and technology 

adoption. 

Imprint 

Dr. Dimitrios Zikos 

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin 

Division of Resource Economics 

Philippstr. 13, House 12 

D-10115 Berlin, Germany 

+49/(0)30/2093 6740 

www.sustainable-hyderabad.de

16 | NEWS FROM THE PROJECT 

HU Berlin - RESS 

Project Leader 

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn 

+49 (0)30 20 93 63 20 

k.hagedorn@agrar.hu-berlin.de 

Project Coordination 

Dr. Ramesh Chennamaneni 

+49 (0)30 20 93 63 92 

r.chennamaneni@agrar.hu-berlin.de 

Dr. Dimitrios Zikos 

+49 (0)30 20 93 67 40 

dimitrios.zikos@agrar.hu-berlin.de 


Department of Agricultural Economics 

Division of Resource Economics 

Visitor’s address: Philippstr. 13, House 12 

Postal address: Unter den Linden 6 


................................................. 

NEXUS 

Dr. Hans-Liudger Dienel 

+49 (0)30 318 054 63 

dienel@nexusinstitut.de 

Institute for Cooperation Management and 

Interdisciplinary Research, Berlin (NEXUS) 

Otto-Suhr-Allee 59 


................................................. 

PTV 

Tanja Schäfer 

+49 (0)721 96 51 168 

tanja.schaefer@ptvgroup.com 

PTV Group, Concepts & Solutions 

Research Sustainable Transport 

Haid-und-Neu-Str. 15 

D-76131 Karlsruhe, Germany 

................................................. 

HU Berlin - IfG 

Prof. Dr. Markus Hanisch 

+49 (0)30 20 93 65 00 

hanischm@hu-berlin.de 


Division of Cooperative Sciences and 

Berlin Institute for Co-operative Studies (IfG) 

Visitor’s address: Luisenstrasse 53 


................................................. 

CULT-GEO 

Prof. Dr. Christoph Dittrich 

+49 (0)551 39 80 21 

christoph.dittrich@geo.uni-goettingen.de 

University of Goettingen 

Institute of Geography 

Department of Human Geography 

Goldschmidtstrasse 5 

D-37077 Goettingen, Germany 

................................................. 

PIK 

Dr. Matthias Lüdeke 

+49 (0)331 288 25 78 

luedecke@pik-potsdam.de 

Dr. habil. Fritz Reusswig 

+49 (0)331 288 25 76 

fritz@pik-potsdam.de 

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research 

PO 601203 

D-14412 Potsdam, Germany 

PROJECT HOUSE IN HYDERABAD 

Kausar Villa H.No. 34-A 

Road No. 12, MLA Colony | Banjara Hills 

Hyderabad - 500 034, India

SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT

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