Partners
Government Partners
The Government of Gujarat constituted the GPCB (Gujarat Pollution Control Board) on 15.10.1974 as per provisions under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, the with a view to protect the environment, prevent and control the pollution of water in the State of Gujarat, that occupies a prominent niche in progressive and industrial development of the country. The Head Office performs activities concerning general polices and enforcement of various provisions of the Acts as well as general administration and co-ordination with other agencies.
GPCB is the key regulating and implementing agency of environmental regulation in Gujarat. The pilot Emissions Trading Scheme in Surat and proposed markets across Gujarat are being implemented by GPCB.
The Gujarat Pollution Control Board and Punjab Pollution Control Boards are state regulators of environmental regulations and key implementing agencies of the markets in their respective states.
Shri R. B. Barad, IAS
Chairman GPCB
Shri D. M. Thaker, IAS
Member Secretary, GPCB
Honorable Shri R. B. Barad (IAS) is the Chairman of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB). His responsibilities encompass overseeing the board’s operations and ensuring compliance with pollution control laws, particularly the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
Previously, Shri R. B. Barad held the position of Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Ahmedabad) and Municipal Commissioner (Jamnagar). He also served as the Collector in various cities in Gujarat. His leadership and commitment to environmental causes have resulted in significant advancements, including improved air and water quality in Gujarat. With his expertise in administrative leadership and passion for sustainable development. He continues to drive positive change in the field of environmental conservation.
Hon’ble Shri D. M. Thaker is the Member Secretary of the Gujarat Pollution Control Board with an additional charge as director of the Forest & Environment Department. He holds a strong educational background with a masters in Environmental Engineering. His experience at the Gujarat Pollution Control Board spans over 25 years working at various positions at the regional field offices and the head office.
He is actively engaged in programs designed to address environmental challenges and the pollution control sector and contributed in many initiatives of the Board including implementation of re-engineered manifest and VLTS system of the Board for better management of e-waste and hazardous waste in the state. He has played a pivotal role in implementation of many new paradigms during his tenure at the Board.
Implementation Partners
NCDEX e-Markets Limited (NeML, Formerly NCDEX Spot Exchange-NSPOT) is the leading Indian electronic web based, online, commodities spot market and services company. It combines best features of financial markets and spot markets. Incorporated in October 18 2006, NeML is a wholly owned subsidiary of NCDEX (majority owned by LIC, NABARD, IFFCO, PNB, Canara Bank, NSE). NCDEX is India’s largest Agricultural commodity exchange with more than 90% market share.
With a national presence, the company has pioneered breakthrough initiatives like Mandi Modernization Program (MMP), e-Pledge, and e-marketing. The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) trading platform is hosted and operated by NeML.
South Gujarat Textile Processors Association (SGTPA) is an association of Textile Processing units of South Gujarat – mainly in and around Surat Area. There are around 400 processing units in this area. SGTPA addresses common concerns of these units and take care of presentations and representations on their behalf to several Ministries, Government Departments, Semi Government Institutions and Private Companies. SGTPA is a common platform for all the processing units of this area for constructive interaction and mutually beneficial policy making.
Majority of industries in the Surat pilot come under SGTPA, and therefore a critical stakeholder in the implementation of the scheme.
Research Partners
In 2014, the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago launched EPIC-India to help India tackle energy and environmental challenges head-on through crossdisciplinary, innovative research and partnerships with government, industry, research institutes and other stakeholders. EPICs work in India covers a broad range of areas including electricity and energy markets, energy modelling and the design of economically efficient regulatory mechanisms to reduce air and water pollution.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) was founded by Nobel Laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo in June 2003 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence. Anchored by a network of 193 affiliated professors from 56 leading universities around the world, J-PAL conducts randomised impact evaluations to answer critical questions in the fight against poverty.
Founded in 1961, the Economic Growth Centre (EGC) was intended as the first research centre in a major US university focused on the quantitative study of lower income economies. Today, the EGC is the home at Yale for economic research on global development and poverty reduction. EGC’s research focuses on applying rigorous methods to understand not only the links between economic growth and poverty, but also how rising inequality and a changing climate affect individual wellbeing, especially among marginalized groups in developing countries.
Anant Sudarshan
Associate Professor, Department of Economics at the University of Warwick
Michael Greenstone
Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics; Founding Faculty Director, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth; Director, EPIC
Nicholas Ryan
Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University
Rohini Pande
Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics; Director, Economic Growth Center, Yale University
Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at the University of Warwick, Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). Prior to joining the University of Warwick, he held the position of South-Asia Director at EPIC and taught at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
He received his PhD in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and holds undergraduate and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and Stanford University, respectively. His research encompasses several aspects of energy and environment policy, including the design of environmental regulation, air-pollution reduction, climate change, energy efficiency, electricity access, and renewable energy policy. Anant works at the intersection of environmental economics and engineering, with on-going research on a variety of areas including environmental regulation, air-pollution, climate change, energy efficiency, electricity and renewable energy. His present work includes collaboration with India’s Ministry for Environment and Forests to design and evaluate a pilot emissions trading program to regulate industrial air pollution. He is also working with the Government of Bihar on electricity distribution reforms designed to reduce losses and enhance the supply of power.
Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, the College and the Harris School, as well as the Director of the Becker Friedman Institute and the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He previously served as the Chief Economist for President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he co-led the development of the United States Government’s social cost of carbon. Greenstone also directed The Hamilton Project, which studies policies to promote economic growth, and has since joined its Advisory Council. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Before coming to the University of Chicago, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT.
Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy globally, is largely focused on uncovering the benefits and costs of environmental quality and society’s energy choices. His current work is particularly focused on testing innovative ways to increase energy access and improve the efficiency of environmental regulations around the world. Additionally, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change as a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab. He also created the Air Quality Life Index that provides a measure of the gain in life expectancy communities would experience if their particulates air pollution concentrations are brought into compliance with global or national standards.
Greenstone received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University and a BA in economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.
Nicholas Ryan studies energy markets and environmental regulation in developing countries. Energy use enables high standards of living but rapid, energy-intensive growth has caused many environmental problems in turn. Nick’s research measures how energy use and pollution emissions respond to regulation and market incentives. His work includes empirical studies of the effect of power grid capacity on electricity prices, how firms make decisions about energy-efficiency and how environmental regulation can be designed to best abate pollution at low social cost.
Nick is joining Yale University as a Cowles Foundation Fellow for 2014-15 and an Associate Professor of Economics from 2015 onwards. He has been a Prize Fellow in Economics at Harvard University from 2012-2014. He received a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2012 and a BA in Economics summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He previously worked as a Research Associate in the Capital Markets group at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC.
Rohini Pande is the Henry J. Heinz II Professor of Economics and Director of the Economic Growth Center, Yale University. She is a co-editor of American Economic Review: Insights.
Pande’s research is largely focused on how formal and informal institutions shape power relationships and patterns of economic and political advantage in society, particularly in developing countries. She is interested the role of public policy in providing the poor and disadvantaged political and economic power, and how notions of economic justice and human rights can help justify and enable such change.
Her most recent work focuses on testing innovative ways to make the state more accountable to its citizens, such as strengthening women’s economic and political opportunities, ensuring that environmental regulations reduce harmful emissions, and providing citizens effective means to voice their demand for state services.
In 2018, Pande received the Carolyn Bell Shaw Award from the American Economic Association for promoting the success of women in the economics profession. She is the co-chair of the Political Economy and Government Group at Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a Board member of Bureau of Research on Economic Development (BREAD) and a former co-editor of The Review of Economics and Statistics. Before coming to Yale, Pande was the Rafik Harriri Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School, where she co-founded Evidence for Policy Design.
Pande received a PhD in economics from London School of Economics, a BA/MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and a BA in Economics from Delhi University.
Research and Implementation Staff
Communication Team
Vicki Ekstrom High
Senior Director, Communications and External Engagement
Ashirbad S Raha
Regional Director- Communications
Shrutikantha Kandali
Communications Specialist
Vicki Ekstrom High is the Senior Director for Communications and External Engagement for EPIC. Prior to coming to the University of Chicago, Vicki created and led the media and public relations efforts for the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) and the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. She was also a speechwriter for the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, and a Press Secretary for the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship under the chairmanships of Senators Mary Landrieu and John Kerry. Vicki started her career in Washington D.C. as the national beat reporter for the Bangor Daily News.
As the Regional Director of Communications, Ashirbad is the organization’s senior communications leader, managing a comprehensive strategy to strengthen EPIC India’s reputation in India and the region. With more than 17 years of experience in strategic communication on issues related to energy and environment, climate change, and humanitarian response, he leads a team of communication specialists and consultants with expertise in digital communications, web, and social media, video production, and internal communications.
Under his leadership, EPIC India initiated its video storytelling initiatives by launching a YouTube channel and producing films that got an international audience at the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP27) in Egypt and COP28 in Dubai. He and his team also anchored the launch of institutional social media channels including LinkedIn and Instagram and engineered the publishing of a multimedia monthly e-newsletter. Ashirbad was also instrumental in the brand building of AQLI – an environmental data research tool of the University of Chicago – in India and the region. Strategic outreach has ensured that over the years, AQLI findings have been mentioned in books, films, TV shows, Newspapers, and even the Indian Parliament.
A former journalist with The Times of India, Ashirbad puts storytelling at the center of his work and is committed to using experimental and impactful communication techniques to execute outreach strategies that create systemic impact. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Delhi University and a postgraduate diploma in journalism from the Times Centre for Media Studies. When not working, Ashirbad tries to centralize his energy in practicing slow living.
Shrutikantha Kandali is EPIC India’s Communications Specialist. She has a decade of experience in the development sector and has worked with leading non-profits in education, environmental sustainability, and women’s empowerment.
Shrutikantha has worked as a writer and communications professional, and she employs creative and innovative storytelling to demonstrate impact and effect change. She has also spoken about the power of storytelling as a TEDx speaker at IIFT New Delhi and was a finalist at UN Women’s Project Inspire in Singapore in 2014.
Her interests lie in travelling, designing, reading, photography, and writing stories. She has worked on several children’s books and compendiums. Shrutikantha holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Print Journalism from the YMCA in New Delhi and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi.