Climate Platform – News and Media
September 29, 2025 | Harnessing AI for Climate Solutions: Meet Mittal Family Climate Fellow Sachin Kumar
Sachin Kumar, the Mittal Family Climate Fellow, studies Artificial Intelligence, particularly the intersection of AI technology and societal impact. His research focuses on leveraging AI/ML to solve urban and societal challenges, specifically urban governance, climate change and sustainability. Currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi, he is also the Executive Officer of the University of Delhi Foundation. Mittal Institute spoke with Dr. Kumar about his research and what he hopes from his Mittal Institute fellowship.
September 24, 2025 | From Boston to Ahmedabad: Experts Share Strategies on Heat, Work, and Resilience
A multi-country session, titled ‘Protecting Workers in Heat Action Plans’ hosted jointly by the Mittal Institute, Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School, and Africa Office of the Harvard University Center for African Studies brought together experts from India, South Africa, and the United States to address the urgent intersections of labor, climate, and resilience.
September 22, 2025 | Women at the Frontlines of Climate Resilience: Lessons from Koshi Province, Nepal
In Nepal’s Koshi Province, climate change is worsening floods, droughts, and other threats to smallholder farmers. A new research project, “Documenting Women’s Leadership in Climate Resilience Building in Koshi Province, Nepal,” funded through the Mittal Institute’s inaugural faculty climate research grant program, seeks to capture how women-led organizations are driving grassroots adaptation efforts. Led by Vincenzo Bollettino and Patrick Vinck, the study uses interviews and focus groups to examine how women’s networks build resilience, the barriers they face, and their influence on local decision-making.
May 14, 2025 | The Impact of Climate Change on Emergency Healthcare in India: Research by Prof. Caleb Dresser
As climate change intensifies, extreme weather events—especially heatwaves—are placing growing pressure on India’s healthcare system. To better understand these challenges, the project “Climate Change, Health Security, and Emergency Care in India: An Exploratory Evaluation” was launched with support from a Mittal Institute Faculty Grant. Led by Caleb Dresser, Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor in Environmental Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the project ran from June 2023 to November 2024.
April 28, 2025 | Climate Change and Maternal Health: A Student Grant Report from Saravanan Thangarajan
Saravanan Thangarajan, Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery Candidate at Harvard Medical School, traveled to Tamil Nadu to explore the impact of climate change on maternal and infant health. Supported by a Mittal Institute Winter Research Grant, he interviewed mothers struggling to protect their children from heat, air pollution, and other environmental stressors.
April 3, 2025 | Harvard Faculty Visit Ahmedabad, India, to Understand Extreme Heat Impacts
In advance of the Mittal Institute’s major New Delhi conference, “India 2047: Building a Climate-Resilient Future,” a group of nearly two dozen Harvard faculty, affiliates, and climate philanthropists spent two days on an extreme heat immersion trip in the city of Ahmedabad, India. The two days provided unique opportunities to dive more deeply into heat adaptation policies and practices in India, both centuries-old and modern.
April 3, 2025 | India 2047: Four-day convening in New Delhi brings together 180 scholars to advance climate resilience in India and beyond
From March 19-22, more than 180 scholars and experts from Harvard and around the world gathered in New Delhi, India, for one of the largest events Harvard has ever hosted outside the United States. Leading experts in climate science, public health, medicine, labor, business, agriculture, and urban planning convened for “India 2047 – Building a Climate-Resilient Future,” a series of interdisciplinary dialogues on advancing climate resilience.
March 12, 2025 | Harvard Researchers Broaden Study on Extreme Heat’s Effects on Health and Livelihoods
Members of the Mittal Institute climate team returned to Ahmedabad, India, to work with SEWA to expand the Community HATS study to include more participants from various trades.
Feb 6, 2025 | Announcing the Inaugural Recipients of the Mittal Institute Faculty Climate Research Grants
The Mittal Institute announced its first eight recipients of the Faculty Climate Research Grants. These grants are designed to foster deeper scholarly engagement on climate change, catalyze the creation of new knowledge, and contribute to the development of sustainable solutions across South Asia.
Feb 4, 2025 | 17 Harvard Faculty Join Climate Platform as Affiliates
This academic year, 17 Harvard faculty have joined the Mittal Institute Climate Platform as new affiliates, greatly increasing the platform’s reach and expertise.
Jan 17, 2025 | Mittal Institute Hosts Faculty Dialogues Centered on Climate Change in South Asia
In the fall semester of 2024, the Mittal Institute started hosting Climate Dialogues, a series of closed-door events centering South Asia in the climate change conversation. The talks feature Harvard faculty speakers from across the University in an informal environment that includes a dinner. They enable affiliates of the Mittal Institute Climate Platform and other scholars to engage in interdisciplinary dialogues and forge connections and research collaborations.
Jan 10, 2025 | Column in Business Today Magazine: “How To Adapt To Extreme Heat”
In a column in the Business Today Magazine, Prof. Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School and faculty director of the Mittal Institute, highlights the challenges of extreme heat and how awareness, information, and experimentation are needed to address the problem.
Sep 4, 2024 | New Faculty Grants for Climate Research on South Asia
The Mittal Institute is excited to announce a new funding opportunity for faculty research on climate change in South Asia in the academic year 2024-2025.
Aug 1, 2024 | Harvard Project Tracks Heat’s Impact on India’s Most Vulnerable
Members of the Mittal Institute climate team traveled to Ahmedabad City in Gujarat, India, to work with SEWA in deploying sensors to collect temperature data from poor working women and their environments. Their work occurred concurrently with one of the most extreme heatwaves India has ever faced.
June 23, 2024 | Op-ed in The Indian Express: “First, understand that this is no ordinary heatwave”
In an op-ed in The Indian Express, members of the Mittal Institute climate team + partners working on climate change adaptation in South Asia write on heatwaves and the need for a detailed understanding of how different communities are impacted by and react to the heat.
May 23, 2024 | Look Back: One Year of Mittal Institute’s Climate Platform
In 2023, the Mittal Institute launched a new Climate Change in South Asia Platform, bringing together researchers from different disciplines including medicine and public health, climate science, and economics.
May 14, 2024 | Bridging Social Justice and Climate Action: A Q&A with Biraj Patnaik
In this third installment of a new interview series with Mittal Institute’s Climate Change Platform collaborators in South Asia, we delve into a compelling conversation with Biraj Patnaik, the Executive Director of the National Foundation for India, who offers unique insights into the intersection of climate change and social inequality.
April 16, 2024 | On Community Engagement for Climate Resilience: A Q&A with Mihir Bhatt
In this second instalment of a new interview series with Mittal Institute’s Climate Change Platform collaborators in South Asia, we spoke with Mihir Bhatt, the director of the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute about the challenges faced by the affected poor and vulnerable populations in South Asia.
Feb 13, 2024 | On Climate and Health in Bangladesh: A Q&A with Sabina Faiz Rashid
In this first installment of a new series of interviews with Mittal Institute’s Climate Change Platform collaborators in South Asia, we spoke with Sabina Faiz Rashid, Professor and Chair of Health and Poverty at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Dec 11, 2023 | PBS NewsHour on Extreme Heat’s Impact on Human Health
Watch the PBS NewsHour clip from Dec. 11, 2023, to learn more about the work of Professors Satchit Balsari and Caroline Buckee
Dec 6, 2023 | Policy Brief: Climate Change in South Asia: Requisites for a Sustainable Future
Coinciding with United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28 in Dubai, the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute just released a new policy brief, “Climate Change in South Asia: Requisites for a Sustainable Future.”
Nov 29, 2023 | Researchers from Global South probe climate adaptation strategies
Nov 29, 2023 | The Gazette: Harvard CID announces recipients of 2023 GEM Incubation Fund
“The Center for International Development at Harvard University, in collaboration with Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, announced the 2023 Global Empowerment Meeting Incubation Fund recipients”.
Oct 11, 2023 | Applying Pandemic Lessons to Climate Data
Apr 19, 2023 | Reema Nanavaty on the Climate Challenges Faced by Working Poor Women in South Asia
Apr 1, 2023 | The Print India: With focus on improving adaptation, Harvard launches climate change platform at Delhi event
“New Delhi: The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University launched the Harvard Mittal Climate Platform here Friday, following a two-day workshop on climate change it held with government officials, researchers, policymakers, and civil society organisations.”
March 22, 2023 | Previewing Mittal Institute’s Inaugural Climate Change Workshop in New Delhi
Mittal Institute Director Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, spoke about the Institute’s climate focus, and previewed the workshop on Climate Change in March 2023 in New Delhi.
Feb 15, 2023 | South Asia, “Ground Zero” of Climate Change, Subject of New Multi-Year Harvard Award
Experts, including three Mittal Institute faculty, embark on ambitious interdisciplinary projects as recipients of Salata grants.
Feb 13, 2023 | The Gazette: Combining forces to accelerate climate action here, there, now
Experts from Harvard and around the world embark on ambitious interdisciplinary projects as recipients of Salata grants
Oct 26, 2022 | On Climate Justice for All: Ajmal Khan Areethala, Mittal Institute’s Raghunathan Fellow
Ajmal Khan Areethala, the Mittal Institute’s Raghunathan Fellow, works at the intersection of the environment, development, and climate change. His current research looks at how universal frameworks of climate justice negotiate with local and specific experiences of climate change in regions of South Asia.