Mr. Pavan V Muttepawar will present his APS as per the details below:

Date: 24th of February 2026

Time: 0830 - 0930 hrs.

Venue: C-TARA Conference Room No.1

Title: Symbiotic Development of Villages through Circularity

Supervisor: Prof. Pennan Chinnasamy

External Supervisor: Dr Gauranga Das (Director, Govardhan EcoVillage)

RPC Members: Prof Vishal Sardeshpande, Prof. Milind Rane and Prof. Ganesh Ramakrishnan

Abstract: 

The study investigates how rural villages in the Palghar district, Maharashtra, can meet fundamental human needs—food, water, energy, shelter, sanitation, and a healthy environment—through locally appropriate, symbiotic, circular systems rather than linear “take–make–waste” pathways. India’s emerging circular economy discourse highlights large national‑level opportunities in agriculture and rural systems, but there is still limited understanding of how circularity can be operationalised at the village scale in concrete, livelihood‑relevant ways. Building on this gap, the study proposes developing and validating a Symbiotic Resource Circularity Framework grounded in detailed case studies of Palghar villages. 

Conceptually, the work synthesises circular economy thinking with socio‑metabolic village studies and the Resource Symbiosis Model (RSM) developed for a rural Maharashtrian village using the idea of bricolage—“making do” with resources already at hand. Within this framing, individual interventions such as biogas, composting, agroecology, solar pumping, nature‑based wastewater treatment, or decentralised solid‑waste management are treated as potential nodes in larger symbiotic loops, and Government schemes and plans will act as enhancers for development. 

Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed‑methods, participatory and metabolism‑oriented approach. A cluster of 10 villages in Palghar will be selected to represent tribal, inland agricultural and rural contexts. In each village, household surveys, participatory rural appraisal (resource mapping, transects, problem ranking, seasonality diagrams), and key‑informant interviews will be used to characterise livelihoods, infrastructures, and existing circular practices, following and extending the RSM study’s village‑level design philosophy. These data will be converted into qualitative and semi‑quantitative stock–flow diagrams for key subsystems (food/biomass, water, energy, waste), allowing identification of “loose ends” where resources are currently lost and of existing or potential loops. Together with literature‑derived options, villagers and local institutions will prioritise a small set of symbiotic intervention bundles per cluster using multi‑criteria assessment. 

The first APS focuses on conceptual refinement, detailed literature review, and pilot scoping in Palghar; on these foundations and outlines the planned fieldwork, modelling, and framework‑development phases for subsequent years.

Keywords: Rural Circular economy, rural symbiosis, WEF nexus, PRA-based resource symbiosis, village metabolism, resource bricolage, agroecology