Recommendations to the Government on India's Official GHG Emission Estimation Process
To increase the reliability of India's national emissions inventory, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) must consider developing 'country-specific' emission factors using real- time measurements across all sectors. At present, many of the employed emission factors are either defaults or global estimates.
Decarbonising the Cooking Sector
The optimal approach to decarbonise cooking is to start using a clean and low-carbon fuel. It is essential to ensure that the shift to modern, clean cooking fuels and the use of energy-efficient technologies go hand-in-hand. Transition to electricity-based cookstoves will offer similar or higher decarbonisation outcomes and lower the risks on energy security.
CSTEM PV 2
The Version 1 (V1) (which can be accessed here) of the CSTEP’s Solar Techno-Economic Model for Photovoltaics (CSTEM PV) was built under the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R) for the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS). This initiative was jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and the Government of India through the Department of Science and Technology.
From Temples to Turbines: An Adventure in Two Worlds
CSTEP Discussion Series on the 'Role of Science and Technology in Society' kickstarted with a discussion on From Temples to Turbines: An Adventure in Two Worlds. The book discusses Dr VS Arunachalam's journey from scientist to scientific advisor to the Defence Minister (under 5 Prime Ministers). His experience eventually led to the founding of CSTEP - an organisation that combines technology and policy for social impact development.
Data Smart Strategy
CSTEP has been engaged with the Smart City initiative at the national level too. We have been part of the working group for creating the data strategy and have contributed to the policy document.
Urban Observatory
Our upcoming Urban Observatory is envisaged to be the first state level Urban Observatory in the country. This pilot observatory will support government agencies and officials in identifying policy issues, making better decisions and initiating appropriate actions. Our design is guided by the philosophy that the observatory should be more than a command and control platform or a simple visualisation platform. It will help in enabling easy access to information, meaningful insights, and ensuring transparency of action.
Spoorthi
As a pilot project based in a city slum, Spoorthi, a community-owned-and-managed spatial data system, attempts to explore how an urban poor community in Bengaluru can be part of an IT initiative that can serve their interests best. Using our digital platform, Spoorthi, community facilitators from the slum created a spatial database of the community's water, sanitation and health (WASH) infrastructure and their access to it.
SNEHA Vision
As part of our multipronged strategy to fight malnutrition, CSTEP is working on a state-of-the-art computer vision project, SNEHA Vision, for image-based height detection, baby-length detection, BMI calculation, among others. The focus is on keeping the technique simple, so that officials at the grassroots level can detect the nutritional status of children with mobile phone images.
SNEHA Samanvay
SNEHA Samanvay is a data-science project, which seeks to synchronise child and mother data across departments. A massive project, it will integrate the data of around 3 million children and 1.1 million women in Karnataka. To keep the data consistent in the future, we have created additional solutions such as the Family Survey App.