Structure:-
1) Introduction
2) Concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI)
3) Definition of Emotional Intelligence
4) What Emotional Intelligence ‘is’ and is ‘not’
5) Historical Development of Emotional Intelligence
6) Components of Emotional Intelligence
7) Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence: Relationship between IQ and EQ
8) Benefits of Emotional Intelligence
9) Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
Emotional intelligence (EI) reflects the current view in modern neuroscience wherein emotions are framed as sources of useful data about our environment, rather than hindrances or disruptors in rational thinking.
Using emotions intelligently can provide competitive advantage in a world where technical knowledge and “booksmarts” may be in abundance, but the ability to deal with uncertainty, frustration, conflicts and interpersonal relationships may be scarce.
In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) social reality, being attuned to one’s own and others’ emotions can help us tap into a unique kind of resource to navigate the world.
While many of us are already familiar with general or cognitive intelligence given the emphasis placed on Intelligence Quotient (IQ) in academic and professional contexts, emotional intelligence is a relatively new concept that is still under development and research.
Here we will introduce the construct and provide context and background for its emergence. And also examine why IQ is not sufficient to ensure success in today’s world and why EI is receiving so much attention across domains.
CONCEPT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The term emotional intelligence can be broken down into two concepts- emotions and intelligence. If one is asked about emotions in general terms, the first responses are likely to constitute a perspective on emotions that is inherently restrictive. Most commonly, emotions are seen to make us inefficient, are a sign of weakness, a distraction and obstacle to good judgment and decision making.The two words in the term emotional intelligence can then be seen to contradict each other, if viewed from this lens.
However, modern neuroscience has served to debunk these myths and highlighted several important functions that emotions serve. We now know that emotions provide vital feedback and information about our world, spark creativity, aid decision making, enhance reasoning and strengthen trust and connection- all of which are crucial if we are to not just function but thrive as human beings.
In fact, the word emotion itself derives from the Latin word “motere” or “movere” meaning “to move”, to stir up, to agitate or to excite. Emotional intelligence leverages and expands on these ideas by proposing that thinking (including memory, judgment, reasoning) and emotions go together.
Emotions assist thinking and thinking can be used to analyse and regulate emotions. For example, anger signals the presence of an obstacle and gives one energy to fight. Fear is a survival emotion that protects from danger by taking our attention to possible threats. Trust flags the presence of a sense of safety and motivates one to open up to connections.
Thus, while emotions may be seen to disrupt thinking in some situations, they also signal where one’s attention needs to be directed in a given situation.
Some basic principles about emotions that are relevant to emotional intelligence are :
1. Emotions are information and present useful data about our worlds.
2. Decisions must incorporate emotions in order to be effective and lead to intended outcomes. For example, Reinhard & Schwartz have found that people in a less positive or even negative mood perceive truthful information more effectively than those in a positive mood.
3. We can try to ignore emotions but it doesn’t work, especially over long periods of time. Suppressing and hiding emotions takes up valuable mental energy that could have been directed at an important task and is highly stressful when continued for long.
4. We can try to hide emotions but are not as good at it as we might think. Most people are able to read tiny, fleeting changes in emotional expressions and interpret them correctly, such as identifying a fake smile by noticing the lack of movement of the eye muscles while smiling.
Given the above, dismissing or ignoring emotions may not be a realistic goal if we are to function healthily. Instead, it may be worthwhile to consider how we might use emotions intelligently so that they help us thrive.
Definition of Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence (EI) is a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way. Several definitions of emotional intelligence have been proposed over the years.
One of the most popular definitions is “Emotional intelligence is the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships”
Just as intelligence is quantified and measured through Intelligence Quotient (IQ) emotional intelligence is indicated by Emotional Quotient or EQ.
Over decades of research, it has been established that EI is a distinct ability that does not share attributes with either personality or intelligence. Having certain personality traits does not automatically predispose one to have high or low emotional intelligence.
For example, while extroverts may feel energised by interacting with people and introverts share a preference for solitude, it does not automatically imply that extroverts are more emotionally intelligent than introverts. Similarly, having an ability to process information cognitively or intelligence, does not indicate one’s level of EI.
In addition, while personality and intelligence are relatively stable and resistant to change after the age of 18-20 years, EI comprises a dynamic component that has the potential to evolve and grow over time, as well as with targeted interventions.
“Emotional intelligence is learned. Unlike IQ, which is essentially fixed within narrow parameters at birth, EQ can be developed and enhanced. In other words, temperament is not destiny. Empathy and the capacity to understand the emotions of others can be nurtured.” In fact, several studies have shown that older participants tend to score higher on EI measures and may indicate that EQ increases with age and maturation.
Thus, in order to consider ‘the whole person’, emotional intelligence must be considered alongside personality and intelligence.
What Emotional Intelligence ‘is’ and is ‘not’
What emotional intelligence ‘is’:
- Being aware of oneself
- Being able to manage emotions
- Being socially aware
- Ability to manage interpersonal relationships by using emotions
- A field of scientific study
What emotional intelligence is ‘not’:
- Ignoring or suppressing emotions
- Allowing emotions to dominate thinking and decision making
- A permanent trait
- An indicator of cognitive and academic intelligence
- A person’s aptitude or interest
- Avoidance of conflict
- Best predictor of success in life
As Aristotle has put it, “ Anyone can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy”. Hence, getting aware of the emotions, and knowing proper ways to express emotions are crucial for success in life.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The concept of emotional intelligence has its roots in early psychologists’ conceptualisation of intelligence. Thorndike in 1920 proposed that intelligence is comprised of three distinct domains or classes:
(i) Abstract, analytic or verbal;
(ii) Mechanical, performance and visuo-spatial;
(iii) Social or practical.
Thorndike, thus, expanded on the traditional view of ‘intelligence’ as being purely cognitive by identifying several other kinds of intelligences. Specifically, his social/practical intelligence component indicates emotional intelligence aspect.
Howard Gardner (1983) further identified eight different abilities: musical-rhythmic, visual-spatial, verbal- linguistic, bodilykinesthetic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, interpersonal and naturalistic.
Here, the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences are related to aspects of emotional intelligence. Another psychologist, Sternberg (1985) talked about three types of intelligence such as analytical, creative and practical intelligence.
In all these notions of intelligence, we can see the building blocks of emotional intelligence – social intelligence, intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences, and practical intelligence can all be said to reflect emotional intelligence abilities.
Salovey & Mayer are widely credited with first using the term ‘emotional intelligence’ in 1990. However, they themselves acknowledge that the term was used much earlier in passing in the 1960s in literary criticism and psychiatry and eventually in a dissertation by Payne in 1986.
The construct remained largely unknown until it attained popularity when Daniel Goleman published his book on the subject in 1995 and argued that ‘people with the highest levels of intelligence (IQ) outperform those with average IQs just 20 percent of the time, while people with average IQs outperform those with high IQs 70 percent of the time’.
His assertion that EI could predict job performance and success held intuitive appeal and since then, the concept has become extremely mainstream and received international attention among several domains such as mental health, business, education etc.
COMPONENTS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Broadly, emotional intelligence can be viewed as having four interrelated components:-
1. Perceiving emotions: This is the basic ability to register and recognise emotions in ourselves and other people. People who are high in emotional intelligence are able to identify when they are experiencing a particular emotion and able to use their vocabulary to label the feeling.
For example, experiencing the sensation of “butterflies in the stomach” and knowing that they are feeling nervousness or anxiety. They are also sensitive to other people’s emotions and are able to see when someone is feeling angry, sad, happy or a range of other feelings by reading their facial expressions and body language. This is a fundamental skill because without recognising the experience of an emotion, it is very difficult to understand it or change it in any way.
2. Understanding emotions: This component refers to using the specific information that various emotions provide and knowing how that might affect their behavior. As discussed earlier, each emotion conveys distinct data to individuals about their environment and energizes one for action in a particular direction.
Emotionally intelligent people are able to ‘read’ this information and use it to guide their behaviour. For example, understanding that one’s anger at their friend may be a result of feeling unfairly treated by them. Understanding emotions in others is similar- observing that a sibling is hanging their head low and has reduced their interactions with others might indicate they are upset or sad about something
3. Managing emotions: When one recognises their emotions quickly and understands their meaning, it becomes relatively easier for them to think about the next steps regarding how to change them. This applies to the self as well as others. Recognising that one is feeling low and wanting to change that emotion may encourage one to make plans to go out for a movie or meet a friend they enjoy talking to or just talk to the person over phone.
A desire to reduce one’s anger may also lead to the use of deep breathing and relaxation strategies to calm oneself down. Similar tools may be used to help change emotions in others as well. For example, saying sorry or apologising to an angry friend may reduce anger or sadness. Listening to a sibling who is feeling sad may improve their mood.
4. Using emotions: The ability to use one’s emotions is more than just dealing with or managing emotions. It involves the skill of leveraging emotions to enhance our thinking, decision-making and relationships.
For example, concealing one’s nervousness about public speaking by using body language and hand gestures to show excitement instead so that the audience is more engaged. Channelizing anger at perceived injustice towards fighting for one’s legitimate rights is another example of using emotions and has been used extensively to bring about social changes and reforms for centuries.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN IQ AND EQ
When we use the word “intelligence”, usually we refer to cognitive intelligence or academic intelligence. However, there are other types of intelligences also such as social and emotional intelligence.
The most well known and referenced definition of intelligence is probably that of Wechsler’s – “intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment”.
The highest level of cognitive mental abilities is called general mental ability or ‘g’, which is thought to predict learnability and performance across domains. ‘g’ is further classified into fluid and crystallised forms of intelligence.
Fluid intelligence is a measure of the abilities of information processing and reasoning. Crystallized intelligence has to do with acquiring, retaining and organising information and is different from information processing.
Furnham, have explained this with the help of an analogy. If cognitive intelligence is a computer, fluid intelligence would be the information processor (computer chip) while crystallised intelligence is analogous to the information stored in memory (hard drive).
Having a high IQ does not automatically indicate a high EQ, while having a high EQ may indicate a high or average IQ at least and predict success at work better than IQ alone. While IQ can predict academic success, it may not necessarily lead to success in life; whereas EQ predicts success and effectiveness in life. Given the importance of emotional intelligence, it may be noted here that unlike intelligence, emotional intelligence can be increased through training at any age.
IQ can therefore be considered a minimum requirement or “threshold competence”, for example, in getting into an academic institute through an entrance exam or a job in an organization on the basis of degrees and certifications attained.
Success thereafter, is determined by many more varied skills that must be built upon this. Emotional competence needs to supplement intellectual competence. A sub-set of emotional intelligence, emotional competence is defined as “a learned capability based on emotional intelligence that results in outstanding performance at work”
For example, one may have adequate baseline emotional intelligence but will still need to learn the specific competency of empathy to influence relationships with peers or superiors for success. Goleman has proposed five emotional competencies such as Self awareness, Motivation, Self-regulation, Empathy and Social skills.
BENEFITS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The concept of emotional intelligence has become very popular and is steadily gaining traction because of the many benefits it purports to offer to these who have this capacity. Some of these benefits are:
1. Allows individuals to tap into not just thinking capacities, but also leverage information and strengths that emotions bring.
2. Takes a realistic and practical view of emotions as opposed to traditional notions that encourage leaving emotions out of certain contexts and encourage unhealthy suppression.
3. Facilitates understanding of self and others, beyond superficial information.
4. Encourages and enables empathy so that the quality of interpersonal interactions improves.
5. Adds competitive advantage over just cognitive intelligence and technical skills so that individuals are able to pursue excellence and success using a range of intelligences.
6. Allows individuals more agency and control over which emotions they would like to experience more of and which ones they consider undesirable in a given situation and would like to switch from.
Conclusion
Emotional intelligence has emerged as an exciting domain of study over the last 30 years or so, even though usage of the term and recognition of related skills has been around for several decades. The term is composed of two units- emotion and intelligence and arises out of the synthesis of these seemingly incompatible domains. Emotions can influence thinking and in turn, thinking can be used to make sense of and employ emotions effectively.
It is now well established that the abilities that comprise emotional intelligence and are concerned with recognising, regulating and using emotions to drive effective decision-making are crucial to adaptive functioning and optimal performance. There has been much debate about its distinctiveness as a construct and mixed evidence for its exponential impact on performance when compared with cognitive intelligence.
However, when taken together with cognitive intelligence, especially in social tasks, emotional intelligence can boost the impact of the former and yield tangible results.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.
Globally, around 80% of wastewater flows back into the ecosystem without being treated or reused, according to the United Nations.
This can pose a significant environmental and health threat.
In the absence of cost-effective, sustainable, disruptive water management solutions, about 70% of sewage is discharged untreated into India’s water bodies.
A staggering 21% of diseases are caused by contaminated water in India, according to the World Bank, and one in five children die before their fifth birthday because of poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, according to Startup India.
As we confront these public health challenges emerging out of environmental concerns, expanding the scope of public health/environmental engineering science becomes pivotal.
For India to achieve its sustainable development goals of clean water and sanitation and to address the growing demands for water consumption and preservation of both surface water bodies and groundwater resources, it is essential to find and implement innovative ways of treating wastewater.
It is in this context why the specialised cadre of public health engineers, also known as sanitation engineers or environmental engineers, is best suited to provide the growing urban and rural water supply and to manage solid waste and wastewater.
Traditionally, engineering and public health have been understood as different fields.
Currently in India, civil engineering incorporates a course or two on environmental engineering for students to learn about wastewater management as a part of their pre-service and in-service training.
Most often, civil engineers do not have adequate skills to address public health problems. And public health professionals do not have adequate engineering skills.
India aims to supply 55 litres of water per person per day by 2024 under its Jal Jeevan Mission to install functional household tap connections.
The goal of reaching every rural household with functional tap water can be achieved in a sustainable and resilient manner only if the cadre of public health engineers is expanded and strengthened.
In India, public health engineering is executed by the Public Works Department or by health officials.
This differs from international trends. To manage a wastewater treatment plant in Europe, for example, a candidate must specialise in wastewater engineering.
Furthermore, public health engineering should be developed as an interdisciplinary field. Engineers can significantly contribute to public health in defining what is possible, identifying limitations, and shaping workable solutions with a problem-solving approach.
Similarly, public health professionals can contribute to engineering through well-researched understanding of health issues, measured risks and how course correction can be initiated.
Once both meet, a public health engineer can identify a health risk, work on developing concrete solutions such as new health and safety practices or specialised equipment, in order to correct the safety concern..
There is no doubt that the majority of diseases are water-related, transmitted through consumption of contaminated water, vectors breeding in stagnated water, or lack of adequate quantity of good quality water for proper personal hygiene.
Diseases cannot be contained unless we provide good quality and adequate quantity of water. Most of the world’s diseases can be prevented by considering this.
Training our young minds towards creating sustainable water management systems would be the first step.
Currently, institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) are considering initiating public health engineering as a separate discipline.
To leverage this opportunity even further, India needs to scale up in the same direction.
Consider this hypothetical situation: Rajalakshmi, from a remote Karnataka village spots a business opportunity.
She knows that flowers, discarded in the thousands by temples can be handcrafted into incense sticks.
She wants to find a market for the product and hopefully, employ some people to help her. Soon enough though, she discovers that starting a business is a herculean task for a person like her.
There is a laborious process of rules and regulations to go through, bribes to pay on the way and no actual means to transport her product to its market.
After making her first batch of agarbathis and taking it to Bengaluru by bus, she decides the venture is not easy and gives up.
On the flipside of this is a young entrepreneur in Bengaluru. Let’s call him Deepak. He wants to start an internet-based business selling sustainably made agarbathis.
He has no trouble getting investors and to mobilise supply chains. His paperwork is over in a matter of days and his business is set up quickly and ready to grow.
Never mind that the business is built on aggregation of small sellers who will not see half the profit .
Is this scenario really all that hypothetical or emblematic of how we think about entrepreneurship in India?
Between our national obsession with unicorns on one side and glorifying the person running a pakora stall for survival as an example of viable entrepreneurship on the other, is the middle ground in entrepreneurship—a space that should have seen millions of thriving small and medium businesses, but remains so sparsely occupied that you could almost miss it.
If we are to achieve meaningful economic growth in our country, we need to incorporate, in our national conversation on entrepreneurship, ways of addressing the missing middle.
Spread out across India’s small towns and cities, this is a class of entrepreneurs that have been hit by a triple wave over the last five years, buffeted first by the inadvertent fallout of demonetization, being unprepared for GST, and then by the endless pain of the covid-19 pandemic.
As we finally appear to be reaching some level of normality, now is the opportune time to identify the kind of industries that make up this layer, the opportunities they should be afforded, and the best ways to scale up their functioning in the shortest time frame.
But, why pay so much attention to these industries when we should be celebrating, as we do, our booming startup space?
It is indeed true that India has the third largest number of unicorns in the world now, adding 42 in 2021 alone. Braving all the disruptions of the pandemic, it was a year in which Indian startups raised $24.1 billion in equity investments, according to a NASSCOM-Zinnov report last year.
However, this is a story of lopsided growth.
The cities of Bengaluru, Delhi/NCR, and Mumbai together claim three-fourths of these startup deals while emerging hubs like Ahmedabad, Coimbatore, and Jaipur account for the rest.
This leap in the startup space has created 6.6 lakh direct jobs and a few million indirect jobs. Is that good enough for a country that sends 12 million fresh graduates to its workforce every year?
It doesn’t even make a dent on arguably our biggest unemployment in recent history—in April 2020 when the country shutdown to battle covid-19.
Technology-intensive start-ups are constrained in their ability to create jobs—and hybrid work models and artificial intelligence (AI) have further accelerated unemployment.
What we need to focus on, therefore, is the labour-intensive micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME). Here, we begin to get to a definitional notion of what we called the mundane middle and the problems it currently faces.
India has an estimated 63 million enterprises. But, out of 100 companies, 95 are micro enterprises—employing less than five people, four are small to medium and barely one is large.
The questions to ask are: why are Indian MSMEs failing to grow from micro to small and medium and then be spurred on to make the leap into large companies?
At the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), we have advocated for a National Mission for Mass Entrepreneurship, the need for which is more pronounced now than ever before.
Whenever India has worked to achieve a significant economic milestone in a limited span of time, it has worked best in mission mode. Think of the Green Revolution or Operation Flood.
From across various states, there are enough examples of approaches that work to catalyse mass entrepreneurship.
The introduction of entrepreneurship mindset curriculum (EMC) in schools through alliance mode of working by a number of agencies has shown significant improvement in academic and life outcomes.
Through creative teaching methods, students are encouraged to inculcate 21st century skills like creativity, problem solving, critical thinking and leadership which are not only foundational for entrepreneurship but essential to thrive in our complex world.
Udhyam Learning Foundation has been involved with the Government of Delhi since 2018 to help young people across over 1,000 schools to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
One pilot programme introduced the concept of ‘seed money’ and saw 41 students turn their ideas into profit-making ventures. Other programmes teach qualities like grit and resourcefulness.
If you think these are isolated examples, consider some larger data trends.
The Observer Research Foundation and The World Economic Forum released the Young India and Work: A Survey of Youth Aspirations in 2018.
When asked which type of work arrangement they prefer, 49% of the youth surveyed said they prefer a job in the public sector.
However, 38% selected self-employment as an entrepreneur as their ideal type of job. The spirit of entrepreneurship is latent and waiting to be unleashed.
The same can be said for building networks of successful women entrepreneurs—so crucial when the participation of women in the Indian economy has declined to an abysmal 20%.
The majority of India’s 63 million firms are informal —fewer than 20% are registered for GST.
Research shows that companies that start out as formal enterprises become two-three times more productive than a similar informal business.
So why do firms prefer to be informal? In most cases, it’s because of the sheer cost and difficulty of complying with the different regulations.
We have academia and non-profits working as ecosystem enablers providing insights and evidence-based models for growth. We have large private corporations and philanthropic and funding agencies ready to invest.
It should be in the scope of a National Mass Entrepreneurship Mission to bring all of them together to work in mission mode so that the gap between thought leadership and action can finally be bridged.
Heat wave is a condition of air temperature which becomes fatal to human body when exposed. Often times, it is defined based on the temperature thresholds over a region in terms of actual temperature or its departure from normal.
Heat wave is considered if maximum temperature of a station reaches at least 400C or more for Plains and at least 300C or more for Hilly regions.
a) Based on Departure from Normal
Heat Wave: Departure from normal is 4.50C to 6.40C
Severe Heat Wave: Departure from normal is >6.40C
b) Based on Actual Maximum Temperature
Heat Wave: When actual maximum temperature ≥ 450C
Severe Heat Wave: When actual maximum temperature ≥470C
If above criteria met at least in 2 stations in a Meteorological sub-division for at least two consecutive days and it declared on the second day
It is occurring mainly during March to June and in some rare cases even in July. The peak month of the heat wave over India is May.
Heat wave generally occurs over plains of northwest India, Central, East & north Peninsular India during March to June.
It covers Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, parts of Maharashtra & Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.
Sometimes it occurs over Tamilnadu & Kerala also.
Heat waves adversely affect human and animal lives.
However, maximum temperatures more than 45°C observed mainly over Rajasthan and Vidarbha region in month of May.
a. Transportation / Prevalence of hot dry air over a region (There should be a region of warm dry air and appropriate flow pattern for transporting hot air over the region).
b. Absence of moisture in the upper atmosphere (As the presence of moisture restricts the temperature rise).
c. The sky should be practically cloudless (To allow maximum insulation over the region).
d. Large amplitude anti-cyclonic flow over the area.
Heat waves generally develop over Northwest India and spread gradually eastwards & southwards but not westwards (since the prevailing winds during the season are westerly to northwesterly).
The health impacts of Heat Waves typically involve dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke. The signs and symptoms are as follows:
1. Heat Cramps: Ederna (swelling) and Syncope (Fainting) generally accompanied by fever below 39*C i.e.102*F.
2. Heat Exhaustion: Fatigue, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps and sweating.
3. Heat Stoke: Body temperatures of 40*C i.e. 104*F or more along with delirium, seizures or coma. This is a potential fatal condition.