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The ongoing “water wars” is presently a war over two paradigms — namely the colonial engineering paradigm that is visibly reductionist, and the

The sole reliance on the traditional British engine while constructing Farakka Barrage has created problems at a minimum of two levels.

This paper argues that the challenges in the governance of two Himalayan river systems, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, emerge largely from crucial information and knowledge gaps. The dominance of the paradigm of “reductionist hydrology” solely based on structural interventions has resulted in the lack of recognition of the long-run costs incurred through ecosystem damages and water conflicts at various levels. The knowledge gaps—including

Water needs a multidisciplinary approach that exceeds the capacity of reductionist engineering and myopic neoclassical economics.

This brief examines the silent “water war” being waged in India in the form of conflicts over two opposing paradigms in water governance: the reductionist, colonial engineering paradigm, and the emerging, holistic paradigm of integrated water governance. The brief highlights the paradigm debate at the global scale, and outlines the canons of the integrated approach, contrasting it with the reductionist approach using examples in India. It mak

is paper formulates an analytical framework to assess the impacts of India's Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on commodity value chains. Existing academic literature have relied on examining Balance of Payments (BoP) to assess the impact of FTAs. is paper views such methodology as reductionist, and instead oers alternative lenses of the impacts on the commodity value chain. is paper brings into fold the concerns for the wellbeing of various stakehold

Despite the call for a global paradigm shift in water governance—from the traditional reductionist engineering approach to the more holistic integrated river basin governance framework—a change is not yet perceptible in India’s water governance architecture. The hesitation to change has led to ecological problems and conflicts at various levels. This paper identifies the knowledge gaps that inhibit the paradigm shift and explores the lacuna