Blogs

Over the past two decades, extreme temperature events have increased in frequency and severity around the world. The number of people exposed to heat waves has increased by approximately 125 million across the globe. It is estimated that 39% of the global work hours lost due to acute heat were in India alone amounting to 118 billion hours. In fact, cities like Singapore have developed a...

Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a global epidemic. Every year over 1.35 million people across the world lose their lives due to road traffic incidents. According to the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018, RTIs are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5-29. They continue to be a major developmental issue in India as well. As per the Accidental...

This blog was originally posted on NIUA.org

The air quality in most Indian cities is quite poor with a high concentration of PM 2.5. 21 of the most polluted top 30 global cities are in India. In recent decades, increasing urbanization, vehicle population growth, insufficient infrastructure to support municipal solid waste management, and biomass burning for cooking have aggravated the situation further in urban areas. Presently...

This blog was originally posted on NIUA.org

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit health, livelihoods, and the economy across India. It is an added threat to the risk that climate change poses to development and shared prosperity. Similar to the pandemic, the impacts of climate change, especially extreme weather events, are also felt disproportionately by the poor and the marginalized. During the lockdown, when Cyclone Amphan hit the east coast of India and Cyclone...

Tamil Nadu has the highest installed capacity of wind energy in India, with 9.3 GW as of March 2020. The state has witnessed major strides in wind energy generation, with large scale project development commencing from the mid-90s. These Wind Power Plants (WPPs), installed at the outset of wind tapping, were located at wind-rich sites. These have now reached the end of or close to the end of their stipulated lifecycles. Most of these early machines are of low capacities (<500kW) and smaller hub heights (25-30m), resulting in underutilization. These aging turbines often result in low...

This blog was originally posted on NIUA.org

United Nations’ data shows that the gradual shift in residence of the human population from rural to urban areas, combined with the overall growth of the world’s population could add another 2.5 billion people to urban areas by 2050. The data further adds that close to 90% of this increase will take place in Asia and Africa (Nations, 2018). As more people are now living a city-based life, challenges of...

This blog was originally posted on NIUA.org.

According to World Road Statistics 2018, out of the 199 countries analyzed, India has the maximum number of road accidents and accounts for 11% of the world’s road accident related deaths, 84.7% of which occurred in the “economically productive” age group of 18-60 years....

This blog was originally posted on NIUA.org.

Fear of infection from COVID-19 and the lack of adequate bus services has forced many choice riders to shift to private modes. Cities across India including Delhi, Mumbai,...

On 25-March-2020, India went into a lockdown of historically unprecedented proportions. The energy sector felt the sting of the lockdown with a year-on-year total power consumption decline of 23.2% in April throughout India.

On 5-April-2020 India held a 9-minute blackout at 9 PM alongside a candle-light vigil to express a collective will to fight the pandemic. This event was a testament to how power...

Electric buses (e-buses) are steadily coming into focus as an answer to clean public transport. Currently, about 18 lakh buses are plying on Indian roads of which 92% are privately owned and just 8% publicly owned. At the existing ridership India requires about 460,000 buses by 2031 and COVID-19 social distancing norms will further bump up the...