India, June 24 -- In the wake of the Iran war and surging energy prices, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed last month for personal restraint, asking citizens to work from home, pool car-rides, buy less gold, and defer foreign travel as a patriotic duty. A similar reflex drove Mission LiFE in 2022, with its call for mindful consumption. While governments try to avoid backlash for top-down mandates such as "no PUC (pollution under control certification), no fuel" through such appeals to individual virtue, behavioural change is impossible without institutional support. In India's cities, that support is largely missing. For citizens constantly struggling to cope with air pollution, extreme heat, and flooding, the gap between what is dema...