Philanthropic plan for Climate Action Alliance to connect stakeholders across sectors

Climate change is actively impeding the progress made across all SDGs, reveals a Dasra note:

***

Dasra, a strategic philanthropy organisation, during the 14th edition of Dasra Philanthropy Week organised at Godrej One, Vikhroli in Mumbai, introduced its vision to collaborate with various sector experts, funders, civil society organisations and institutions to form Climate Action alliance to enable intersectional climate action in India. The aim of the Alliance is to bring together stakeholders across sectors to build resilient systems and to secure the welfare of marginalized communities.
The Climate Action Alliance, supported by the Rainmatter Foundation, will help build consensus and collaboration between diverse stakeholders, including the government and civil society organisations, to help shape an India view and common narrative against climate issues. The Alliance will also build partnerships with global and national institutions to leverage expertise, disseminate knowledge and hold convenings. In addition to this, The Alliance will also aim to facilitate philanthropy for climate related aspects.
Dasra also announced its plan to present a first-of-its-kind landscape and research report, to demystify the intersectionality of climate change in India. The Climate Intersectionality Report, in collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), would delve into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, namely, SDG 2 – Zero Hunger, SDG 3 – Good Health and Well-being, SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities, SDG 15 – Life on Land, and SDG 5 – Gender Equality and SDG 17 – Partnerships for the Goals, as the cross-cutting SDGs. It would spotlight the need to approach climate change with an intersectional lens, which will help in devising suitable interventions via linkage with other sectors. The Climate Intersectionality Report will be launched in the coming months.
Speaking at the Dasra Philanthropy Week, Sameer Shisodia, CEO, Rainmatter Foundation, commented, “The climate crisis is a result of every bad trade-off we made in the last 10,000 years and, in an accelerated pace, for the past 100 years. Unless we link responsibility of our places, and link the future of our places as our responsibility, we would not have anywhere to run to.”
Sameer further added, “Climate is a place problem, and only the people who live there are aligned with the long-term interest of the place. Hence keeping the communities at the centre of the climate problem and giving them a decision making is an integral part of the fight against climate change.”
The ClimateRISE Day at the Dasra Philanthropy Week, was convened in partnership with the sector leaders including AVPN, India Climate Collaborative, Foundations Platform F20, Observer Research Foundation, and the Rainmatter Foundation as the anchor partner.
“There is a need to switch to a response mechanism to understand the needs on the ground and realize that our work should catch up with the real world and engage with an intersectional approach”, says Neera Nundy, Co-founder, Dasra at the ClimateRISE Day. “Climate is a deeply intersectional issue, and its impact cuts across almost all sectors and requires a shift across knowledge and action. It is important therefore, to not see climate change as an isolated issue. An intersectional approach towards it can help us as country to address the climate crisis while also fulfilling the aspirations of our youth.” Says Neera.
Speaking about the Climate Intersectionality Report, Dr. Nilanjan Ghosh, Director, Observer Research Foundation, said, “Climate action needs a trans-disciplinary approach and knowledge systems. On one hand, we have climate science to understand the scientific processes causing global warming and climate change, and on other hand, we need social science to understand the drivers and effects. Climate crisis emerges from unbridled human ambitions growing at the cost of depleting natural resources and its impact is felt across the various development indicators including human health, productivity and even ecosystem services. From that perspective, climate change is not an environmental problem but a development problem. While climate action has been taken as a separate goal, every SDG has to endure the threat of climate change. We are delighted to join hands with Dasra for this project that stands upon the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response Framework (DPSIR). The project also intends to bring out the global best practices of adaptation against climate change across various sectors.”
India is the fifth most vulnerable of 181 countries to the effects of climate change, with our poorest and marginalized communities being the most at risk. 75% of India’s districts are vulnerable to increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather events, and India might be one of the first places in the world to break the human survivability limit, with extreme heatwaves. Dasra, along with its partner organisations, aims to identify measures where policymakers can ensure synergy between climate change and the respective SDGs.
Dasra Philanthropy Week witnessed participation from thought-leaders, non-profit experts, funders and intermediaries in specially curated sessions including Sameer Shisodia (CEO, Rainmatter Foundation), Stefan Schurig (Secretary General, Foundation Platform F20), Bijal Brahmbhatt (Director, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust), Jarnail Singh (Deputy Director-India, MacArthur Foundation), Huda Jaffer (Director, SELCO Foundation), Hitesh Vaidya (Director, NIUA), Nilanjan Ghosh (Director, ORF), Chetna Gala Sinha (Founder, Mann Deshi Bank) and Aarthi Sridhar (Founder Trustee, Dakshin Foundation).

Comments

The golden crop: How turmeric is transforming women's lives in tribal India

By Vikas Meshram* When the lush green fields of turmeric sway in the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, it is not merely a spice crop — it is the golden glow of self-reliance. In villages where even basic spices once had to be bought from the market, the very soil today is yielding a prosperity that has transformed the lives of thousands of families. At the heart of this transformation is the initiative of Vaagdhara, which has linked turmeric with livelihoods, nutrition, and village self-governance — gram swaraj.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

The selective memory of a violent city: Uttam Nagar and the invisible victims of Delhi

By Sunil Kumar* Hundreds of murders take place in Delhi every year, yet only a few incidents become topics of nationwide discussion. The question is: why does this happen? Today, the incident in Uttam Nagar has become the centre of national debate. A 26-year-old man, Tarun Kumar, was killed following a dispute that reportedly began after a balloon hit a small child. In several colonies of Delhi, slogans such as “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” are being raised while demanding the death penalty for Tarun’s killers. As a result, nearly 50,000 residents of Hastsal JJ Colony are now living in what resembles a state of confinement.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Search This Blog