The launch of Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) in November 2015 gave new hope to the ailing distribution companies (DISCOMs) in India. Karnataka signed up for UDAY with a view to improve its operational efficiency. The DISCOMs under the scheme have to reduce Aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses to 14.2% , and bring down the gap between average cost of supply (ACS) and average revenue realisation (ARR) to zero by 2019.

In India, 75% of dispensaries, 60% of hospitals and 80% of doctors are in urban areas, serving just 28% of the population. Meanwhile, 72% of the population, who reside in rural areas, face a chronic lack of medical facilities

Reuse of industrial wastewater has been in practice for a long time in India, and this water is mainly used for agriculture purposes in nearby areas. However, this has led to high levels of heavy metal concentration in vegetables grown with industrial wastewater.

While DISCOMs are working towards bringing down the AT&C loss through several initiatives, streamlining the current energy audit process in DISCOMs could be a game changer.

In light of India's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) commitments, we conducted an analysis to understand the contribution of energy efficiency to India's climate targets.  This policy brief provides insights into the role of energy efficiency in reducing India's emissions. The study found that in order to achieve the NDC pledge, ongoing efforts in energy efficiency (along with efforts in alternate fuels and renewables) need to be rigorously implemented at the sub-national level as well.

The Proof of Concept (PoC) Urban Observatory for Bengaluru and Karnataka developed under this study provides the basic architecture for an Urban Observatory. It further demonstrates how a complete data story can be presented by collecting, integrating, analysing and visualising data from multiple sources around a specific theme. This PoC can be expanded to explore other urban themes and can be replicated to create similar observatories for other cities in Karnataka.

Recognising the need for implementing more forward-looking approaches in Bengaluru’s key urban sectors, the Government of Karnataka has introduced a number of new policy guidelines relating to water, sanitation and transport sectors. However, addressing urban sustainability challenges require the consideration of varying geographic contexts as well as the difference in the pattern of urbanisation experienced by cities.

Karnataka is the second most arid state in India, after Rajasthan. The decline in rainfall in recent years has seen an increased reliance on groundwater for fulfilling agricultural water needs in Karnataka. This requires significant power consumption because a majority of irrigation pump (IP) sets, used to pump groundwater, are electrical. Most of the existing pump sets operate at a very low efficiency, leading to a high electricity consumption for the same unit of productivity.