Blogs

This blog first appeared on NIUA.org on August 4, 2021.

India’s buildings were responsible for 31% of all electricity consumed in 2017-18 (MOSPI 2020) and by 2040, this is expected to rise to half of all power consumed in the country. By 2040, India is expected to add 270 million people to its cities (IEA 2021). What is more, ongoing rapid urbanization would mean that over half the country’s population would be living in cities in less...

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report released on 9 August 2021 warns, “India will see increased heat waves and heavy rainfall events, while glaciers will melt further, along with more compound events from rising sea-levels like flooding.” The report further states “the unequivocal human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land”. As per the report, “continued global warming is projected to further intensify the global water cycle, including its variability, global monsoon...

This blog first appeared on WRI Insights on August 26, 2021.

The start of the 2021 monsoon season was a promising time for India’s farmers and water users. Heavy rains in June and the beginning of July filled the country’s reservoirs in states like Maharashtra and...

This blog first appeared on NIUA.org on July 28, 2021.

Adapting to climate risks is imperative for cities. Cities are the epicentre of life-shortening pollution, dwindling water supplies, deadly heatwaves, natural disasters, and climate change. Indian cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and...

This is the second in a series of blogs on hydrogen, which will involve discussions around range of electrolysis technologies currently available at commercial and laboratory levels. Given the rising global consensus towards the transition towards a green hydrogen economy in coming decades, availability of commercially operable electrolysis technologies will act as a backbone of hydrogen deployment across sectors. Maturity of electrolysis technologies would also be critical in facilitating India’s 450 GW RE target, given electrolysis’s ability to manage duck curve challenges through...

This is the first in series of blogs on hydrogen, which will involve discussions spanning across the value chain from production through to the cross-sectoral applications of hydrogen and its ability to decarbonise array of sectors. The announcement of the launch of National Hydrogen Mission by the Prime Minister on India’s 75th Independence Day, further solidifies the strong momentum hydrogen is gaining across the country....

This blog first appeared on The News Minute on June 22, 2021

Pedestrians, the most vulnerable and oft-ignored of road-users, suffer the most in road crashes. Between 2015 and 2018, nearly 73,000 pedestrians were killed in crashes across India. In 2019,...

With the pandemic a state of all pervasive geographical immobility has prevailed for a while now. There has also been an increased dependence on delivery of essentials goods. The pandemic has adversely impacted the workforce, testing capacities of the existing systems. During this ongoing crisis, home delivery options have become the “new normal” in domains like healthcare, food, grocery, and logistics services delivery, and are expected to grow further in 2021. As per reports, online food and grocery retail...

This article first appeared in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs on April 23, 2021.

Persistent issues in urban India’s water infrastructure have necessitated the rollout of the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM-U), a comprehensive and holistic approach to achieve a water-resilient future for India.

Rapid urbanization in India poses extreme water risks, including scarcity and pollution, creating obstacles...

This is third in the ongoing series of blogs on Urban India Going Underwater. Read the first and second blogs here.

In the last few years many Indian cities have started working on interventions aimed at flood-proofing and stormwater management at various scales. Bhopal’s green-blue smart city plan, Delhi’s...