India'S Risks : Democratizing the Management of Threats to Environment, Health, and Values

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.

Raphaelle Moor is a consultant in the area of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, based in London. She managed the UKIERI's (UK-India Education and Research Initiative) 'India at Risk' project at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore for over two-and-a-half years.

M.V. Rajeev Gowda is Professor of Economics and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He serves as a Director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India and is a Carnegie Council Global Ethics Fellow. He is also active in Indian politics.