Rinan Shah

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Master of Science in Climate Change and Sustainability Studies (2013 – 2015) 

Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering (2007 – 2011) 

 

PUBLICATIONS

Journal Articles

Shah, Rinan. 2022. “Marginality and Informality in Domestic Water Scarcity: Case of a Self-Service Mountain Town.” In: ICAS Conference Proceedings, 630-639. Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789048557820/ICAS.2022.073

Shah, Rinan. 2022. “Laying Bare: Determinants of Informal Water Vendors for Domestic Water Supply in Himalayan Mountain Towns”. Himalaya, 74-90. https://doi.org/10.2218/himalaya.2022.7047

Shah, Rinan, and Shrinivas Badiger. 2018. “Conundrum or Paradox : Deconstructing the Spurious Case of Water Scarcity in the Himalayan Region through an Institutional Economics Narrative.” Water Policy, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.2166/wp.2018.115

Shah, Rinan, and Badiger, Shrinivas. 2020. “Engagement of State and Non-State Infrastructure in Handling Domestic Water Scarcity of the Water-Rich Eastern Himalayan Region of India”. International Journal of Water Resources Development (Special Issue) [Under Review]

Shah, Rinan. 2022. “Roles That Springs Play: Renewed understanding of spring water, its access, and water conservation”. South Asia Water Competition (SAWAC) 2022 Edited Volume by Hanns Seidel Foundation [Under Review]

Policy Recommendations

NWP 2020: How is India’s youth reimagining its water future? Submitted to the National Water Policy working committee. June 2020

Book Reviews

Agrawal, Tanvi, Shah, Rinan, Mahajan, Rashmi R and Vora Anav (2021) “Book review - Cultivating the Nile: the everyday politics of water in Egypt”. Water Science Policy, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.53014/IUXO9352  

Shah, Rinan (2022). “Book Review: Caring for Glaciers”. Conservation and Society [Under Review]

Reports

Contributing Author, Chapter 4, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II Sixth Assessment Report

Effectiveness of Water adaptation responses in reducing climate-related risks: A meta-review. 2021. Aditi Mukherji, Manish Kumar, Holly M. Berman; Angelica Katharina Casparina Brackel; Martina Angela Caretta, Calynn Dowler; Valeria Fanghella; Sharlene Liane Gomes; Benjamin Jerome Gray; Greeshma Hegde; Jonathan Lautze; Ashwina Mahanti; Mamta Mehar; Megan Mills-Novoa; Sanchari Mukhopadhyay; Lakshmikantha NR; Prajjwal Kumar Panday; Jagadish Parajuli; Ritu Priya; E.B. Uday Bhaskar Reddy; Pamela Rittelmeyer; Cydney Kate Seigerman; Rinan Shah; Gitta Shrestha; Balsher Singh Sidhu; Aprajita Singh; Jaishri Srinivasan; Brock Ternes; William Rigoberto Delgado Thompson; Shuchi Kirit Vora; Yashoda Yashoda

Popular Writings

Youth Engagement for Global Action: Theme - Inclusive Water Governance. Nahin Khadizatul, Shristi Shakya, Rinan Shah. Oxfam Asia. 2020

Where do I belong? The University of Western Australia Blog.2020

Data and knowledge generation for SDGs. swissnex Blog. 2020

Exploring and Unraveling Domestic Water Scarcity in Urban Mountain Towns. www.sustera.org. 2018

Contextualizing Water Scarcity in Urban Mountain Towns: The Case of Darjeeling. City Observer, 72-81. 2018

Visibility of Water Infrastructure. ATREE Young Researchers Network. 2019

 

FELLOWSHIPS

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment Institutional Fellowship (August 2015 – August 2020)

National Mission on Himalayan Studies Senior Research Fellowship (April 2018 – March 2019)

National Mission on Himalayan Studies Junior Research Fellowship (April 2016 – March 2018)

 

GRANTS

HWISE-RCN (Household Water Insecurity Experiences – Research Coordination Network) Collaborator Accelerator Award (CAA) 2021 for a proposal on “Deconstructing Water Insecurity in Himalayan Mountains Towns” along with Dr.Trevor Birkenholtz and Vilina Engheepi.

 

INVITED LECTURES

“Urban water management in Darjeeling” at pre-conference workshop of 8th APHW International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Urban Water Management at IIT Roorkee , 21^st Nov 2019.

“Water and its Issues” to students at the Model Conference Of Parties, Shenyang China on 22^nd August 2019.

Presented and presided over Interdisciplinary Regional Seminar on: Socio-Political and Economic Development of North Bengal and Sikkim  at Department of Economics, Political Science and Sociology, Indian Institute of Legal Studies, Siliguri, India (12^th April 2019).

“Unpacking Domestic Water Scarcity in the Water-Rich Eastern Himalayan Region of India” at Centre for Himalayan Studies, North Bengal University, Darjeeling, India (5^th April 2019).

 

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Carrying out a systematic metareview on effectiveness of adaptation strategies for Chapter 4 IPCC Water Adaptation Meta Review” under Dr.Aditi Mukherji,IWMI (April 2020 – 2022)

Part of “Cross-CARIAA (Collaborative Adaption Research Initiative in Africa and Asia) Dialogue on Economics of Adaptation: Setting Agenda for Incremental and Transformative Change” in New Delhi, India (9th to 13th January 2017).

Interned with the Sikkim State Disaster Management Authority where the tasks included the review and aligning climate change and sustainability perspectives with the City Disaster Management Plan for Gangtok, Multi Hazard Risk Vulnerability Assessment Report and the Sikkim State Action Plan on Climate Change. (5th May to 5th June 2014).

 

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS ATTENDED:

Part of the International Water Resources Association Partner Session on “Water Towers: Downstream Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation Strategies” at the Water Security and Climate Change Conference (1^st – 3^rd December 2022).

Presented at the Himalayan Studies Conference 2022 as a part of the theme “Spatiotemporalities and/of Infrastructures in the Indian Himalaya II” with a presentation entitled “What’s Your Status? Water Infrastructure in Urban Mountain Towns” (13^th – 16^th October 2022).

Presented at the IHE Delft PhD Symposium 2022 – “Understanding Water Consumption and Sufficiency in “Urban” Mountain Towns” (13^th – 14^th October 2022).

Was part of a panel on “Moving towards sustainability in urbanscapes” at ATREE@25 conference Life and Lives (18^th – 19^th August 2022).

Presented a collaborated paper “Visualising the Urban: Seeing Water Pipes in Darjeeling and Kalimpong” at Urban Arc 13^th – 15^th January 2022 (Bhutia and Shah, 2022).

Attended the Environmental Humanities Online Publishing Workshop “Storying Climes of the Himalaya, Andes, and Arctic” (9th – 14th October 2021) organized by Himalayan University Consortium/International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and My Climate Risk (World Climate Research Programme). Co-hosted by Royal Thimphu College (Royal University of Bhutan) and Yunnan University.

Presented a paper “Informality as an Indicator of Marginality: Studying Domestic Water Scarcity in a Water-Rich Region” at the  (24th – 27th August 2021).

Presented at the Hydrorationality in South Asia conference (online) on "Domestic Water Crisis as a Means to Understand Regional Disparity" (11^th & 12^th January 2021).

Selected to attend the Transboundary Rivers of South Asia (TROSA) Winter School 2020 Theme: Inclusive Water Governance organised by South Asian University; Oxfam; UNESCO Chair of International Water Cooperation Uppsala University (Online).

Rapporteur for "Dialogue Workshop among academic knowledge producers and SDG actors" in Bengaluru, India on January 16th and January 17th, 2020” organized by Knowledg2Action South Asia Cluster of Cooperation.

Panel discussion "Contemporary Gorkhas and Modern Day Intellectualism" at the Gorkha Youth Summit 2019, 17^th – 18^th October 2019. 

Presented my work entitled “Experiences and Definitions of Water Security by Mountain Communities” at the Water Future Conference, 24^th – 27^th September 2019 in Bengaluru.

Presented my work on “Political Economy of Domestic Water Scarcity in the Eastern Himalayan Towns” at World Water Week, 25^th – 30^th August 2019 organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute, Stockholm Sweden.

Attended workshop on Managing and Governing Resource in the “Anthropocene”: Political Ecological Explorations from South Asia at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India (28^th November to 1^st December 2018).

Presented at the 2^nd Himalayan Researchers’ Consortium, National Mission on Himalayan Studies, Gangtok, Sikkim, India (26^th - 27^th November 2018)

Presented a paper “Ascertaining Access to Water Provisioning Systems in the Urban Mountain Town of Darjeeling, India” at Graduate Research Meet 2018, Emerging Trends in Humanities and Social Sciences at Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India (26^th - 27^th October 2018).

Gave a five-minute talk titled “The Effect of State Entities on the Manifestation of Domestic Water Scarcity” at the Eastern Himalayan Natureconomics^TM Forum in Guwahati, Assam, India (2^nd - 3^rd November 2017).

Made an Oral Presentation on “Deconstructing Domestic Water Scarcity in the Mountain Towns of the Eastern Himalaya” at 9^th International Perspective on Water Resources and the Environment in Wuhan, China (4^th to 6^th January 2017).

Attended “The Bailey Bridge Initiative (BBI) – Summer School April 2015 – Science and Technologies for Building Agency” under the Socio-Ecological Stewardship Programme (SESP) under the Director’s Office, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. (15^th to 25^th April 2015)

 

CONSULTATIONS

Multistakeholder Consultation on Transformative Futures for Water Security (TFWS) Initiative IWMI (23^rd November 2022).

Oxfam Annual Learning Forum, Kathmandu (4^th – 6^th May 2022).

Attended a workshop on “Knowledge Politics in Natural Resource Management (NRM) in South Asia: Sharing Experience and Learning” (17^th November 2021) organized by Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) and ForestAction in Nepal, with contributions from the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Ecology Development and Research (CEDAR) and Indian School of Business.

National Policy Advocacy Workshop on Springshed Management under The National Mission on Himalayan Studies with the support of Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India. (28^th October 2021).

Panel Discussion: Breaking Silos: Future of Water Research for Himalayas organized by Co-PREPARE, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) and University of Potsdam (UP). (28^th October 2021).

SAMVAAD “Land, Indigenous Communities and Climate Action” organized by Regulatory Governance Students in association with Centre for Science, Technology and Society, Tata Institute of Social Sciences. (23^rd September 2020).

 

AWARDS AND HONORS

Received a registration waiver to attend and present12th International Convention of Asia Scholars (24th – 27th August 2021)

One of the 5 winners of the inaugural AGU Water and Society Technical Committee (TC) Twitter contest (2020)

Selected as a member of the EauMega 2020 Youth Steering Committee. EauMega is a conference organised by UNSECO, ARCEAU Île-de-France (Association Research Communities in the field of WATER), SIAAP (Interdepartmental Syndicate for Sanitation of the Parisian Agglomeration) and Métropole du Grand Paris (Greater Paris Metropolis) and presented the Youth Declaration (7^th – 11^th December 2020).

eDX Verified Certificate for Governance for Transboundary Freshwater Security (December 2020)

Received financial support to attend and present at the World Water Week, 25th – 30th August 2019 organised by the Stockholm International Water Institute, Stockholm Sweden

Was part of the Authors Meet Critics 2018 organized by International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (10 Dec 2018)

Visited the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) under the Royal Norwegian Embassy Grant for Student Exchange (27^th Nov to 3^rd Dec 2017).

Member of the HI-AWARE Academy for Doctoral Students (2016)

Selected by Scientific Committee, the Science and Technology Service of the French Embassy in India to participate at the International Conference on “Water, Megacities and Global Change” in Paris, France (1st to 4th December 2015).

 

ACADEMIC SERVICES:

Facilitator and coordinator for the Indian Youth Water Network (2020 -)

Support for GIS workshop and rapporteur at Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Training Programme by ATREE 1^st -12^th July 2019 and December 2019

Member of International Water Resoruces Association Working Group on Mountains and Plains