NEW DELHI, March 20 -- The Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati and Mandi and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru have decided to collaborate on a pan-Indian, multi-institutional initiative to develop a 'Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment for the Indian Himalayan Region Using a Common Framework.' The assessment exercise is unique because for the first time all the 12 Indian Himalayan region (IHR) states have used a common framework resulting in the production of comparable state level and within state, district level vulnerability maps. Such comparable vulnerability assessments are useful for the government officials, implementers, decision makers, funding agencies and development experts, to have a common understanding on vulnerability, enabling them to assess which state in IHR is more vulnerable, what has made them vulnerable and how they might address these vulnerabilities....