A prospective superpower, India is still grappling with a host of risks that threaten to hamper its progress. These range from environmental threats caused by GM crops and pollution; dangers to health from HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality; safety concerns about natural hazards, nuclear power, and industrial disasters; and challenges to livelihoods and values.
Some of the issues that this volume explores are: what counts as an ‘acceptable’ risk, and who decides? How should divergent perceptions of risks be reconciled? And, where is the line between science and politics? Advocating a more multidimensional approach to managing risks, the authors challenge many of the dominant perspectives in India.
The field of risk research, which has emerged over the last 40 years in the West, has been relatively unexplored in India. In an effort to bridge this gap, this volume brings together Indian and Western scholars and practitioners across the fields of psychology, anthropology, law, politics, sociology, public health, philosophy, science, and architecture, who offer insights on the theory of risk, lessons from the West, and the realities of risk in India.
Contents: Introduction. 1. Adopting multi-dimensional lens to approaching risk in India/Raphaelle Moor. I. Disasters and the environment: 2. Article 39 and environmental decision-making in India/Leo F. Saldanha and Bhargavi S. Rao. 3. Integrating information disclosure with Indian environment policy/M.V. Rajeev Gowda and Mathew Idiculla. 4. Linking post disaster reconstruction to long-term risk reduction: challenges and opportunities in India/Rohit Jigyasu. II. Public health: 5. The rise of institutional births in India: are maternal and newborn risks adequately addressed?/Asha Kilaru, Shanti Mahendra, Baneen Karachiwala and Zoe Matthews. 6. Culture in and HIV/AIDS risk management in India/Ajay Bailey. 7. Exploring H1N1 risk communication in India/Ranjani Ramaswamy. 8. A business management framework for addressing public health risk: the Avahan experience in scaling up HIV prevention in India/Sema K. Sgaier. III. Science and technology: 9. Science and politics in Indian GM crop regulation: A u-turn down a blind alley/Erik Millstone. 10. Absured confidence: risk and nuclear power in India/M.V. Ramana. 11. Before and after fukushima: the many fronts of managing the nuclear power option/Marc Poumadere. 12. Sustainable management of radioactive waste: what can India learn from stakeholder engagement in the West?/Claire Mays. 13. Can health and safety regulators respond to changing societal expectations?/Frederic Bouder. Index.
There are no reviews yet.