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Assessing vulnerability to climate change and variability is an important first step in evolving appropriate adaptation strategies to changing climate. Such an analysis also helps in targeting adaptation investments, specific to more vulnerable regions. Adopting the definition of vulnerability given by IPCC, vulnerability was assessed for 572 rural districts of India. Thirty eight indicators reflecting sensitivity, adaptive capacity and exposure were chosen to construct the composite vulnerability index. Climate projections of the PRECIS model for A1B scenario for the period 2021–2050 were considered to capture the future climate. The data on these indicators were normalized based on the nature of relationship. They were then combined into three indices for sensitivity, exposure and adaptive capacity, which were then averaged with weights given by experts, to obtain the relative vulnerability index. Based on the index, all …