Courses, Toolkits, Manuals, Guides and Handbooks

India is the most populous nation after China (1,342 million). India hosts 17.5 per cent of the world’s population compared to China’s 19.4 per cent. Of 28 states and seven Union Territories, 20 states contribute to 98 per cent of India’s population.

In order to safeguard the health of the people, drinking water must meet quality standards. The main issues involved in drinking water safety are water quality management, surveillance and control mechanisms.

Levels of contaminants need to be ascertained through standard procedures. Each agency involved in water supply in India, has its own laboratory test practices and this manual details methods for all parameters adoptable by all laboratories.

The most effective means of consistently ensuring the safety of drinking water supply is through the use of a comprehensive risk assessment and management approach, that encompasses all steps in water supply from catchment to consumer. Such approaches are called Water Safety Plans (WSPs).

The aim of a WSP is to organize and systematize records of management practices applied to drinking water and to ensure workability of such practices to organized drinking water supply.

Delivery of safe drinking water is vital for protecting public health and of promoting more secure livelihoods.

The traditional approach to water quality and safety management has relied on the testing of drinking water, as it leaves the treatment works or at selected points, either within the distribution system or at consumer taps. It is referred to as ‘end‐product testing’.

This Operation and Maintenance (O&M) manual for rural water supplies by the Department of Drinking Water And Sanitation and Water and Sanitation Program of the World Bank complements their Gram Panchayat Handbook released in 2010 . It takes into account the current aspirations and challenges facing the sector, and builds on the framework already set out in the National Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and Strategic Plan 2011-2022. 

This working paper by World Bank analyzes how changes in the prices of land, labor, and food induced by modest temperature increases over the next three decades will affect household-level welfare in India.

“Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2010”  is compiled by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. It provides a wide range of data on outlays, expenditure and capital formation, crop production and productivity across States, markets and prices, terms of trade, price support and procurement, domestic and international trade, credit, insurance etc.,

Timely availability of reliable information on agricultural output and other related aspects is of great significance for planning and policy making particularly, in the management of concerns in areas such as food security, price stability, international trade etc. The information is extremely useful in identifying problem areas and the nature of required intervention in terms of spatial, temporal and qualitative inferences. The handbook presents a comprehensive picture of the progress made by the agriculture sector at the All India level as well as across the States. 

This guide by the Water and Sanitation Program and the Ministry of Urban Development, is meant to enable municipalities and urban local bodies make informed decisions on sanitation technologies.

Poor sanitation facilities and the lack of sanitation facilities are a health hazard and exact a human toll on human health. Realising the magnitude of the problem and the resulting fallout, the Government of India has been increasing the funding for sanitation infrastructure via the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). However, money alone cannot solve the problem. Urban local bodies and municipalities need sound advice on technological options, planning and implementation to ensure that the money is well spent and the sanitation projects cater to the need of the target audience.

This report on Indian urban infrastructure and services is an outcome of the High Powered Expert Committee (HPEC) chaired by Isher Judge Ahluwalia set up by the Ministry of Urban Development in May, 2008 for estimating the investment requirement for urban infrastructure services. It is an inevitable outcome of the faster rates of growth to which the economy has now transited. Indeed, urbanisation is itself a process that will support growth. The Committee has made recommendations on how to deal with these challenges of urbanisation.

The Committee has held several meetings with officials from the Government of India, state governments and local governments and also met with academicians and other stakeholders such as Asian Development Bank with interest and expertise in Indian urban issues.

The report argues that the challenge of managing urbanisation will have to be addressed through a combination of increased investment, strengthening the framework for governance and financing, and a comprehensive capacity building programme at all levels of government. The Committee has projected very large investment requirements for providing public services to specified norms and also supporting the growth process. The challenge of financing these investments is inextricably linked with the challenge of governing the cities and towns of India.

 The objectives of the study included: i) assessing the application of a common method for measuring irrigation subsidies in order to develop accurate, replicable and reliable subsidy estimates and ii) providing policy advice aimed at improving and standardizing the reporting of data on irrigation subsidies.