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This blog post originally appeared on WRI.org.

Anand Mahindra, chairman of the India-based $19 billion Mahindra Rise conglomerate, told a World Economic Forum crowd that climate action is “the next century’s biggest business and financial opportunity.”

“Everything that our group of companies has done to try to improve energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has given us a return,” Mahindra Rise chairman...

Locals around Aberdare National Park say that the Kenyan Defence Forces hold a gun in one hand to protect the country from external threats and a seedling in another to protect an internal enemy - hazards of deforestation. Green Belt Movement (GBM), since its inception in 1977 by Nobel Laureate Prof. Wangari Mathai, has worked with locals and Kenyan Defence Forces to plant over 51 million trees in Mount Kenya, Aberdare and Mau complex - three of five major mountain ecosystems of Kenya.

WRI India's...

Devanahalli, a small municipality outside Bangalore with a population of 30,000 people, has successfully set up a faecal sludge treatment plant (FSTP) to provide end-to-end solutions for faecal sludge management (FSM). The Devanahalli Town Municipal Council (TMC) partnered with the Bangalore-based not-for-profit Consortium for DEWATS Dissemination (CDD) Society and the German NGO Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association (BORDA) for this project.

The entire municipality of Devanahalli is unsewered, and most households use onsite collection systems such as septic tanks...

Bangalore is one of the fastest growing cities in the world, and has become a poster child for the problems confronting urban India. Rapid, and often unplanned urbanisation has led to stressed urban infrastructure and lack of basic service delivery. Whilst this pattern of urbanisation brings many challenges, wastewater, or sewage management remains one of the most critical yet neglected areas. As in many Indian cities, Bangalore’s urban wastewater management systems presents a grim picture...

India has set out some of the world’s most ambitious renewable energy policies, including a target to ramp up solar installed capacity to 100 GW by 2022. Strong and clear policy signals, especially in the clean energy sector, demonstrate India’s leadership and continue to fuel optimism on sustained climate action. In 2015, India committed to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33...

India’s National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 aims to bring about a paradigm shift in the transport sector, estimating close to seven million hybrid or electric vehicles (EVs) in the next three years. By 2030, the Power Ministry hopes to get to full vehicle electrification. Examples from other countries have shown that with the right interventions, the transition to electric mobility is not only possible, but also comes with significant benefits.

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For some time now, there has been an ongoing tussle between the Government of Delhi and the National Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs about increasing fares for the Delhi metro. Under the existing law, a fare fixation committee reviews the fares for the Delhi metro and periodically suggest revisions. This committee is an apolitical body, includes representatives from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and the Delhi government and is, typically, chaired by a retired judge. It considers the operating costs, possible revenues at different fare levels, and then makes...

This blog post originally appeared on WRI.org.

Ten years ago, Sashiram was a job-seeker with a limited education and uncertain employment prospects. Today, he is a solar technician who supervises the installation of solar home systems in multiple locations and is a four-time winner of “Best Employee” at an off-grid energy enterprise in Kundapur, near Manipal, India. People in the villages he serves respect him because he provides a basic need: He electrifies...

This blog post originally appeared in The Hindu.

In 2015, India made a Bonn Challenge commitment to place into restoration 13 million hectares (Mha) of degraded land by 2020 and an additional 8 Mha by 2030. India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) have also pledged to sequester 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent additionally by 2030 through...

This piece was originally published on scroll.in.

Friday’s stampede at the Elphinstone Road railway station in Mumbai was a tragedy waiting to happen. I speak from my own horrifying experiences of being stuck in dense queues at Lower Parel and Currey Road stations in midtown Mumbai. Around 30,000-40,000 people alight at Elphinstone Road and Lower Parel during peak hours. The numbers are similar for Dadar, Parel and Currey Road. But the...