Meet Arunabha Ghosh
Dr. Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. As the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water, since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of Asia’s leading policy research institutions (seven years in a row); and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2013 and 2016. He conceptualized the International Solar Alliance (the world’s newest intergovernmental organization).
He is the author of four books and dozens of papers and reports. Arunabha’s essay “Rethink India’s energy strategy” in Nature (the world’s most cited scientific journal) was selected as one of 2015’s ten most influential essays. His latest work is Jobs, Growth, and Sustainability: A New Social Contract for India’s Recovery (CEEW, 2020).
Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society, and international organizations around the world. This has included India’s Prime Minister’s Office, several ministries and state governments. He was invited by France, as a Personnalité d’Avenir, to advise on the negotiations for the Paris Agreement on climate change. In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN’s Committee for Development Policy. In 2020, the Government of India appointed him Co-Chair of the energy, environment and climate change track for India’s forthcoming Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP2020). He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, member of WEF’s Global Future Council on Energy, and an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He loves to run, sing, bake and trek, in no particular order.
Get to know him:1. Words I live by… Never stop trying, and make the small things special. 2. Why I like to eat healthy (or why eating healthy is important for our family)? I used to eat a lot of junk until I was 35, and then something snapped and I changed my routine. I switched to daily exercise (now it includes yoga and meditation as well). Along with that came consciousness about what I was ingesting, food, water, and air. It was about quantity and quality, the freshness of produce, the balance of meat and vegetables, of sugar and salt, of solids and liquids — all of it helped to cleanse the inside. This combination of the body (fitness, digestion, and metabolism) and mind (rather, mindfulness) has become central to my sense of self. Regardless of the workday, the work travel, or the weekend, I do not compromise on pursuing this balance. I do not follow any prescribed diet, because in seeking balance I also manage to indulge in some gastronomical sins from time to time. When I see my seven-year-old daughter eat healthy — and want to eat healthy — or when she joins me in my workouts, or when she jumps at my idea of yoga, I feel like I’m giving her a 30-year headstart. And because we’re guilt-free, we also love our joint baking sessions! 3. A dream I’m turning into reality is? Learning to play the piano. 4. What’s that one fun thing you always do with your child/children? Creating anything: baking a cake, making a paper monument, building a robot, experimenting with a new form of painting, writing a song, or acting out a play. My daughter and I always find something to create.
5. What is the easiest and happiest part of being a parent? The tones, melodies, and lyricism in the many ways in which my daughter calls me “Baba” and the many names by which I call her. It costs nothing, not even time. It just comes forth as an expression of unadulterated love and joy. When I am not with my daughter, I often imagine her calling out to me and it makes me feel better instantly. |
