Policy choice and riverine water quality in developing countries: An integrated hydro-economic modelling approach

Industrialization and urbanization, as a result of rapid economic development, have led to the deterioration of water quality in many rivers in developing countries. The Kelani River in Sri Lanka provides drinking water to Colombo and a range of market and non-market ecosystem services; but these services are threatened by deteriorating water quality. We apply a hydro-economic model that accounts for spatial patterns of water quality and abatement cost variability between firms in the catchment. The hydro-economic model combines a hydrological model of water quality with an economic optimization model to determine a cost-effective policy under alternate policy regimes. These include: the existing policy based on effluent concentration standards, effluent trading and effluent trading with multiple zones and an effluent tax. Tradeable permits with multiple zones are the least cost policy option that accounts for both spatial externalities and abatement costs. However, given current institutional capabilities, an effluent tax would be a more realistic second best policy as a transition from the current policy of effluent concentration standards to a policy based on the quantity of effluents.

Role of the Indian Supreme Court in Shaping Technology Development

Public interest litigation questioning risk regulation of emerging technologies has been a mechanism through which the Supreme Court has become increasingly involved in the national narrative on technology, development, risk and the role of the state. Such litigations include biotechnology and nuclear technology which have also been identified as important ingredients of the national development agenda. This is similar to other developing countries where identification of emerging technologies that help the economy leapfrog, have become part of the development agenda. Understandably the focus of the state is on development rather than on risk regulation. This has attracted considerable criticism from civil society groups and legal challenges to the regulatory framework. The Supreme Court despite its stated lack of competence to understand and address technological issues and its innate restraint to comment on what it deems to be policy matters, has been forced to address issues of risk regulation and in the process play a critical role in constituting the technology and shaping the imagination of that technology within the national narrative. The aim of this article is to examine and evaluate the role of the Supreme Court in this context through an analysis of two case studies of nuclear technology and biotechnology.