An update about work

It's been a really long time since I wrote about work, so here is an update:

Today I finished a 40-page report. Well, this is technically the second time I wrote it, since my boss asked me to rewrite the first version (a result of miscommunication). So we'll see if I'm really done--I'm guessing I'm not.

Ok, let me back up a second and tell you what this report is all about. Women in rural India use traditional cookstoves, called "chulhas," which are very inefficient, consume a ton of fuelwood, and emit smoke within the house. So women spend hours collecting wood from the forests, plus they basically can't breathe inside their own home and get all sorts of respiratory problems. Not to mention that the soot from these stoves actually contributes more to climate change than one might expect (see this NYTimes article from April. Note that Stanford professor Mark Jacobson, the director of my major and the professor of two classes I took, as well as Ibrahim Rehman, the director of my division at TERI and my current boss, are quoted in the article. In fact, my project is closely related to and involves many of the same people as Project Surya, which is mentioned in the article).

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) wants to have an "improved chulha" initiative. An improved chulha, or improved "cookstove" (I still don't understand why they don't just say stoves), is a more energy-efficient stove that consumes less fuelwood and emits less smoke or has a chimney so the smoke does not stay indoors. MNRE wants to disseminate these improved cookstoves to every household in rural India. Pretty ambitious. The Government of India (GoI) tried to do this in the 80's and 90's, but it was pretty much an epic fail. Only 7% of stoves disseminated were actually adopted, or something ridiculously low. Now MNRE has asked TERI to come up with suggestions for a new, more effective initiative.

My role in this project so far has been to come up with "delivery mechanisms" for the cookstoves. The question I'm trying to answer is: how can we effectively distribute (sell) these stoves to households and actually convince women to use them? This report I wrote was reviewing past and ongoing improved cookstove programs in India and the developing world (I also looked at China, Nepal, Mexico, and Guatemala) to figure out what lessons we could learn from their successes and failures. I also looked at other programs that distribute goods and/or services to rural India to see if the cookstove initiative could, to use my boss's word, "piggyback" on their distribution channels (if these programs would be willing to collaborate, of course). Finally, I had to specify the roles and tasks for all the stakeholders. This last part turned out to be more complicated than I had anticipated. My understanding is that my report will be part of a larger report to be submitted to MNRE.

The other project I'm working on but have yet to start is creating a "total energy plan" for the state of Kerala. The project should officially start in mid December. In January, I'm going to Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, for an unspecified amount of time, probably a month to six weeks. As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I will be going back and forth for large chunks of time between Delhi and Kerala. I've been promised a lot of time in villages, so I'm psyched about that. But I don't really know yet what my role in the project is.

In other, completely unrelated news: I went to the movies last weekend with Will and Anand. We all took separate autos home, and Anand's autowallah asked him if I was Kashmiri! According to Anand, he said something like "your friend is so fair. Is she Kashmiri?" He thought I was Indian! Never thought that would happen. I mean, it's not like I'm Nadeen, who is constantly mistaken for Indian. ;)