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Abstract Sugar is the second largest agro-based industry in India and has a major influence on the country’s water, food, and energy security. In this paper, we use a nexus approach to assess India’s interconnected water-food-energy challenges, with a specific focus on the political economy of the sugar industry in Maharashtra, one of the country’s largest sugar producing states. Our work underscores three points. First, the governmental support of the sugar industry is likely to persist because policymakers are intricately tied to that industry. Entrenched political interests have continued policies that incentivize sugar production. As surplus sugar has been produced, the government introduced additional policies to reduce this excess and thereby protect the sugar industry. Second, although the sugar economy is important to India, sugar policies have had detrimental effects on both water and nutrition. Long-standing government support for sugarcane pricing and sales has expanded water-intensive sugarcane irrigation in low-rainfall areas in Maharashtra, which has reduced the state’s freshwater resources and restricted irrigation of more nutritious crops. Despite its poor nutritional value, empty-calorie sugar has been subsidized through the public distribution system. Third, the Indian government is now promoting sugarcane-based ethanol production. This policy has the benefit of providing greater energy security and creating a new demand for surplus sugar in the Indian market. Our analysis shows that a national biofuel policy promoting the production of ethanol from sugarcane juice versus directly from molasses may help reduce subsidized sugar for human consumption without necessarily expanding water and land use for additional production of sugarcane.
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Indigenous Glass Manufacture in India: An Ethnographic Approach
The production of glass was a major technological development in the ancient world. It required vast knowledge of pyrotechnology and engineering to build furnaces, to maintain the furnace temperature for weeks, and to be able to mix the correct proportions of raw materials. Archaeologists have spent considerable time and energy investigating ancient crafts to understand ancient communities. The antiquity of glass in India is 3,500 years. Indian glass beads and bangles have been major exports all over the Indian Ocean and beyond for more than 2,500 years. The bulk of the glass available in India was primarily produced from Indian indigenous glass. Although different recipes were certainly used, the major raw material for this glass, called reh, was locally available. The furnace for the melting of reh was developed indigenously and the pyrotechnology involved is an important component of ancient Indian knowledge. The traditional production of reh glass was abandoned by the end of the twentieth century. This mode of glass production was certainly very ancient and could have been used even before the beginning of the Common Era. This paper attempts to ethnographically document the production mode of indigenous Indian glass in western Uttar Pradesh, with comparisons to archaeological data. The paper also evaluates the ethnohistorical data based on scientific analyses.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1649742
- PAR ID:
- 10388129
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of glass studies
- Volume:
- 64
- ISSN:
- 0075-4250
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 225-247
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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