Shamil Shirish Khedgikar

Building an Inclusive Forest Economy Through Technology

Technology has long been central to the environmental crisis. While efficiency gains are often assumed to promote conservation, most advances have instead accelerated resource depletion. The Initiative on Forest Economy at the Indian School of Business explores how technology can be reshaped to create positive synergies—where productivity growth supports, rather than undermines, resource conservation.

Such synergies emerge when institutions and technology work together, giving greater control to those most affected by ecological harm. Within this framework, three pathways define how technology can foster an inclusive forest economy:

1. Enhancing Visibility & Traceability

Digital technologies can make the “first mile” of forest-based supply chains—often hidden within informal economies—visible and traceable. By digitally recording production and transactions, value creation can be redistributed more equitably across communities.

2. Creating Economies of Scale & Reducing Drudgery

Technology can unlock aggregation and productivity gains through shared storage, transport, and infrastructure. Locally adapted tools can also reduce the physical burden of forest-product collection while integrating informal producers into the formal economy.

3. Strengthening Accountability through Monitoring

Community ownership must be paired with transparent monitoring systems. Remote sensing, analytics, and mobile tools can help track resource use and ensure responsible, accountable forest management.

---

The Forest-Economy-Alliance on GitHub

The GitHub organization has evolved into a collaborative hub of open-source tools and datasets with over 120 repositories that attempt to bring this vision to life:

• 🌲 Bark Image Dataset: Labeled imagery for ecological research and AI training.
• 📱 Field Applications: Mobile and web tools for first-mile data capture and traceability.
• 🛰️ Analytics Pipelines: Open frameworks for remote sensing, transport, and aggregation analysis.

Together, these projects translate the initiative’s charter into action—turning ideas of transparency, scalability, and accountability into shared digital infrastructure for an inclusive forest economy.

Tracking India’s Economic Pulse Through Real-Time Data

IndiaPulse@ISB, an initiative under the Digital Identity Research Initiative (DIRI) at ISB, has evolved into a collaborative hub of open-source tools and high-frequency datasets that bring the vision of real-time, high-resolution intelligence to life. Released every Thursday, its insights span economic activity, jobs, health, and skills**, visualized at granular levels—across states, districts, and even sub-district units—to empower local decision-making and data-driven governance.

---

The IndiaPulse@ISB High-Frequency Data Infrastructure

🌊 Resource & Infrastructure Maps

High-resolution dashboards provided spatially explicit infrastructure metrics for states like Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, mapping water status, electricity, and access to financial and healthcare facilities. Between 2011 and 2017, analysis revealed rising groundwater scarcity — not only in arid regions like Rajasthan but also in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh — highlighting potential bottlenecks for future industrial growth.

📈 Economic Activity Pulse

The initiative built real-time tools such as TNPulse, which combined GST components, Company Registrations, and E-Way Bills to visualize a V-shaped post-COVID recovery. It also tracked near real-time electricity consumption at 1 km resolution, coded by sector (Agriculture, Services, Manufacturing, Wood), to depict state-level industrial activity, especially in Andhra Pradesh. Additionally, the platform mapped urban expansion through night-light radiance, showing that many urban centers have outgrown their 2011 Census definitions, calling for a reclassification of India’s evolving urban landscape.

🏭 Jobs & Welfare Proxies

IndiaPulse@ISB translated labor market challenges into measurable proxies, using MNREGA demand as an indicator of rural joblessness. Analysis showed a 1–2 month lag between downturns and spikes in job demand, and by late 2020, informal jobs had yet to recover to 2019 levels. The platform also mapped manufacturing job clusters — predominantly in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Maharashtra — and projected future employment potential through PLI-linked sectors like steel and pharmaceuticals. Notably, an analysis of women’s industrial workforce participation found that higher participation did not always correspond with narrower wage differentials, pointing to persistent gender disparities.

---

Regional Deep Dives and Policy Intelligence

State-specific applications deepened the analysis:

• TNPulse (Tamil Nadu): District-scale tracking of economic and infrastructure indicators, revealing top export destinations — USA, Germany, UK, China, and UAE.
• Himachal Pradesh Development Index: A block-level ranking correlating infrastructure strength with lower MNREGA dependence.
• Water and Resource Analysis: Demonstrated increasing resource stress in fast-growing states, reinforcing the importance of climate-resilient planning.

---

From Data to Decision Intelligence

Through the fusion of spatial analytics, open data, and near real-time monitoring, IndiaPulse@ISB exemplifies how digital intelligence can drive inclusive development, labor resilience, and environmental accountability.

Together, these projects turn the initiative’s charter—granularity, timeliness, and targeted policy action—into shared digital infrastructure for evidence-based governance and sustainable growth across India.

🏙️ Urban Governance in India: Institutional Evolution, Constitutional Design & Post-1992 Reform

Independent Research Project · Governance, Planning & Public Institutions

This project is a comprehensive, book-length analysis tracing how India’s urban governance system evolved from Mughal land institutions and colonial municipalization to the constitutional and statutory frameworks that define modern cities. It examines how institutions—🛡️ cantonments, 🏛️ municipal bodies, 🗂️ development authorities, and 🏢 planning commissions—were historically designed for centralized control and how these legacies continue to shape contemporary urban outcomes. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The study synthesizes 150+ years of laws, reforms, and planning regimes, culminating in a detailed evaluation of the 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments and the persistent gaps in fiscal, administrative, and planning devolution across states. It integrates analysis of India’s shift from the Planning Commission’s centralized Five-Year Plans to modern missions—including JNNURM, AMRUT, and Smart Cities—to reveal how federal–state dynamics influence service delivery, urban finance, and institutional accountability. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

Overall, the work positions Indian urban governance as a layered, negotiated, and evolving institutional architecture, offering a structured reference for practitioners and policymakers working at the intersection of 🏙️ urban planning, ⚖️ constitutional design, and 🧭 governance reform.

Abstract

The report highlights that selective targeting of certain crops, primarily of cereals such as wheat and rice, through favourable agriculture investment and government procurement policies has led to decline in production as well as consumption of other nutrition rich food grains such as sorghum and millets. Through the course of our analysis, we have illustrated that the decline in levels of consumption of nutri-cereals is linked to declining levels of consumption of certain essential micronutrients required for healthy growth and development of physical and mental cognitive abilities of individuals. The adverse effect of consumption of food grains lacking in essential micro-nutrients is particularly manifested in women and children of growing age. Lastly, rather than growing crops that are leading to an increase in the environmental distress of the state, the rationale for agriculture development should be grounded in mitigation of adverse environmental impacts which are being felt in Maharashtra over the last few years.

Work completed during internships and coursework at Cornell University and the School of Planning and Architecture Delhi. Details available on request.