Dr. Rahul Tongia

Senior Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic progress

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Harnessing Technology for Sustainable Development (mindful of the non-technology aspects)

************* I am interested in harnessing technology for sustainable development, with domain focus on energy/power and telecom/IT.

I enjoy working on interdisciplinary problems at all scales, combining technology, policy, economics, regulation, incentives, etc. I have seeded, led the design and implementation of a number of projects spanning networking, smart grids, energy, RE, education, etc.

A technology has to be right for a "solution" to succeed, but failure often lies outside technology (which is a means to an end). I have interdisciplinary training (a Ph.D. in Engineering & Public Policy) and experience working in the entire ecosystem around technology, viz., stakeholders, incentives, legacy, and risk. I had a faculty appointment at Carnegie Mellon in the School of Computer Science, but couldn't (can't) really code.

My experiences are that one needs a balance of the below for scalable and sustainable change:
1. Top down and bottom up
2. Markets and regulation (a free market needs a regulator!)
3. Disruption and gradualism

I have had the privilege to work with global leaders (government, industry, and academic/NGO/development) on issues of technology and sustainable development. It's a big space where we need to keep innovating and trying - IMHO business as usual just isn't good enough.

Specialties:
* Technology and Policy
* Sustainable Infrastructure Analysis and Design (Energy / Power ; Telecom / IT)
* Emerging regions (aka developing countries)
* Smart Grids
* Renewables
* Sustainable development
* Regulation
* Digital divide