Adapting to Flood Risk in India: Firms, Industrial Policy, and the Geography of Resilience

Mudigonda Sarath Chandra's dissertation focuses on how firms and industrial policy adapt to flood risk in India, a question central to understanding the interplay between climate change and industrial development in emerging economies. His work asks two connected questions. First, how do firms protect themselves when floods threaten their suppliers? Drawing on detailed records of transactions between Indian firms, he studies whether firms hold larger inventories and buy from a wider set of suppliers as a form of self-insurance, and how these private responses shape the ripple effects of floods through the economy. Second, where should governments locate new industrial hubs in a world of rising climate risk? Studying a large place-based Industrial Policy in India, close to 70% of which sit in flood-prone coastal areas, he shows that the relationship is bi-directional: flood risk influences where economic activity locates, but building industrial zones also transforms the land in ways that can reshape local flood risk itself. During his visit, Sarath will build the analytical framework needed to determine where such zones are best placed once their effects on flood risk and firm decisions are taken into account. Together, these projects speak to how the geography of economic activity can be harnessed to build resilience to climate change.