Extreme heat and heat waves have been established as disasters which can lead to a great loss of life. Several studies over the years, both within and outside of India, have shown how extreme heat events lead to an overall increase in mortality. However, the impact of extreme heat, similar to other disasters, depends upon the vulnerability of the population. This study aims to assess the extreme heat vulnerability of the population of four cities with different characteristics across India. This cross-sectional study included 500 households from each city across the urban localities (both slum and non-slum) of Ongole in Andhra Pradesh, Karimnagar in Telangana, Kolkata in West Bengal and Angul in Odisha. Twenty-one indicators were used to construct a household vulnerability index to understand the vulnerability of the cities. The results have shown that the majority of the households fell under moderate to high vulnerability level across all the cities. Angul and Kolkata were found to be more highly vulnerable as compared to Ongole and Karimnagar. Further analysis also revealed that household vulnerability is more significantly related to adaptive capacity than sensitivity and exposure. Heat Vulnerability Index can help in identifying the vulnerable population and scaling up adaptive practices.

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Eradication of rural poverty has been a continuing quest of the planning-led development process in India. A plethora of development delivery institutions has emerged over the years to benefit the poor and the disadvantaged groups of the society, and thereby to promote inclusive growth of the economy. The Central government and different state governments have introduced a number of such development delivery institutions to alleviate rural poverty in the country. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), conceptualised and enacted as an Act of Parliament by the Government of India in September 2005, is one of such development delivery institutions which aims at promoting inclusive and pro-poor economic growth by enhancing sustainable livelihood opportunities for the rural households along with conservation of natural resources. While most of the earlier poverty alleviation programmes have failed, it is expected that the MGNREGS will deliver the desired outcomes. Given that success of any developmental scheme depends on how it is implemented, the present paper is an attempt to identify the factors that have influenced execution of the MGNREGS and understand the socioeconomic changes across the Indian states following its implementation. It is found that implementation of the MGNREGS has varied widely across the states and has been influenced significantly by the caste composition, literacy and economic conditions of rural population and structure of rural workforce. It is also found that there has been considerable increase in monthly per capita consumption