India, Nov. 23 -- Every harvest season, northern India is forced to confront a policy failure that repeats itself with clockwork regularity. Fields are cleared through fire, the air thickens, and governments return to familiar debates over what could have been done. The science is settled. Crop residue burning is a preventable source of pollution that damages soil fertility, burdens public health systems and pushes air quality far beyond safe limits. What is less settled is the question of state capacity, political will and administrative discipline. In this context, Haryana stands out for having moved the problem from lament to solution. The state has shown that when governance systems are designed with clarity and executed with consiste...