SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT

4 | NEWS FROM THE PROJECT
vending in Hyderabad. During the workshop
sessions, representatives from vendors associations
and self-help groups discussed the issue
with respective NGOs and governmental agencies.
The delegate of the Mission for Elimination
of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) – the
major agency negotiating for implementation of
the street vendors bill in Andhra Pradesh – was
able to use the workshop results for understanding
better the currently dynamic legal situation
of street vendors in Hyderabad. The input of
the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation
(GHMC) food inspectors and the Food and Nutrition
Board representatives covered the important
issue of how to improve food safety standards.
Obstacles facing the vendors’ community
during their day-to-day work were also intensely
discussed. By the end of the day, concepts for
three best practice activities as integral elements
of the Sustainable Street Food Framework were
finalised. Even more decisive, the discussions
among the attendees shaped the way ahead
concerning implementation of those activities in
the very near future.
Work Package Leader Dr. Christine Werthmann and Dr. Srinivasa Srigiri
DIVISION OF RESOURCE ECONOMICS, HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY,
BERLIN (RESS)
Dr. Srinivasa Reddy Srigiri was
leading so far the activities of
the WP on Industrial Pollution
Abatement as a DAAD postdoctoral
fellow. Since August
2011, Srinivasa has been leading
WP5 comprising research
on ‘Institutions and Governance
Structures’ in different focus
fields of the project. By applying
the Institutions of Sustainability
framework to specific
potential-intervention
areas,
Srinivasa seeks to contribute to
the discourses for better institutions
and governance systems.
News
Dr. Zikos chaired the Urban Planning
session at the 4th World Scientific
and Engineering Academy and
Society International Conference on
Urban Planning and Transportation
(UPT’11), Corfu, Greece, 14–16 July
2011, where MSc Chidambaram
presented the paper Development
of a comprehensive integrated
framework based on on-road
vehicle emissions estimation in
Hyderabad, India.
Dr. Srinivasa Reddy Srigiri
TERI AND RESS INITIATE
NEW PILOT PROJECT
In 2010, partners from
TERI, RESS and IfG conducted
a survey on household
energy consumption patterns in Hyderabad,
finding that a significant percentage of the
urban poor still use firewood for cooking. After
analysis of the results, the project team decided
to initiate a pilot project in March 2011 that will
experiment with collective action towards facilitating
the shift from firewood to Liquefied Petroleum
Gas (LPG) for the urban poor. This pilot
project, conducted with stakeholders from Hyderabad,
aims to facilitate the urban poor meeting
their energy needs while shifting to cleaner
and modern fuels. More details about this pilot
project are presented in the policy section on
page 5.
COOPERATION IN GERMANY
RESS has increasingly invested in building
strong ties not only with Indian partners, but
also with German and European researchers and
projects working on similar contexts. As such,
Prof. Hagedorn, project leader; Dr. Zikos, scientific
coordinator; Dr. Srigiri, WP5 leader; and
MSc Kimmich, researcher, participated on 29
July in a round table discussion with Dr. Padmanabhan,
project coordinator of the BioDIVA
project, to explore common ground of the two
projects. The meeting concluded with further
activities being envisioned, such as joint publications
that will materialise in the near future.
Collaboration between Dr. Zikos from the
Sustainable Hyderabad Project and Dr. Otto-
Banaszak from the Guantig Project (China) resulted
in co-chairing of two sessions on “Multiple-methods
analysing the complexity of human
behaviour and the interactions with socio-ecological
systems” at ESEE 2011 in Istanbul, where
they presented a paper based on experimental
research conducted by their respective projects
on irrigation. This is considered the first step
for a more ambitious collaboration, aiming at
exploring and explaining similarities and differences
in agricultural practices and in farmers’
behaviour in Guantig and Hyderabad. At the
same session, MSc Kimmich presented the paper
“Understanding concerted action through
methodological pluralism: The electricity-irrigation
nexus in Andhra Pradesh, India”: a direct
output of research conducted under Sustainable
Hyderabad Project.
INDIAN DELEGATION OF JOURNALISTS
MEETS RESS RESEARCHERS
On 24 June 2011 a delegation of Indian
journalists – consisting of VIJAYARAGHAVAN,
SHOBA (Sr. Reporter, The Indian Express)
KULKARNI, SAGARARVIND, (Spl. Correspondent,
Press Trust of India) MUDUR, GANAPATI,
(Science Editor, The Telegraph), RAMACHAN-
DRAN, RAMASESHAN, (Associate Editor, Frontline
/ Hindu), SHARMA, DINESH CHANDRA,
(Science Editor, Mail Today), GANESH, NA-
RAYANI, (Sr. Editor, The Times of India), and
DUTTAGUPTA, ISHANI (Editor, Global Indian) –
visited our colleagues at Humboldt’s Division of
Resource Economics (RESS). Dr. Srinivasa Reddy
Srigiri first introduced the main ideas and aims
of our Project. Afterwards, Christian Kimmich
and Ranjan Kumar Ghosh explained their PhD
research projects and how their results are linked
with our Project.
Indian Delegation of Journalists at HU Berlin
SUSTAINABLE HYDERABAD PROJECT ISSUES 05 AND 06