13 April 2026; 13:00-14:00 GMT+1
Presenter: Rohit Magotra
Biography
Rohit is the Deputy Director and leads work on Climate Adaptation and Sustainable Urban Development work at Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), which is a reputed think tank in South Asia. He has 23 years plus work experience working on research and action projects related to agriculture, climate adaptation, energy, disaster management and urban climate resilience.
He has been working on climate change adaptation research, policy and communications for the cities in South Asia. He has done pioneering research in the area of Climate change and Heat stress and its socio-economic impacts in South Asia and subsequently worked with stakeholders to develop climate adaptive and gender sensitive heat action plans
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Paper/article to be presented
Title: Improving the effectiveness of Early Warning Systems in India – Heat Index-based Early Warnings in India
India’s current Heat Early Warning Systems primarily rely on maximum temperature thresholds set by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), which often overlook the compounded effects of humidity for early warning. Developing local heat index-based thresholds—factoring in temperature and humidity shall provide a more accurate measure of feels-like heat stress. In 2025, we undertook field surveys in two districts of India, assessing the impacts of humid heat on the low-income vulnerable population. The study aims to identify the heat index-based thresholds for the pilot districts and further push the policy for the adoption of heat index-based early warning systems for India.
Link: Webinar-proceedings.pdf
LinkedIn: Rohit Magotra
Highlights
To be added after the presentation.