Changes in the climate system over tens of thousands of years brought about ice ages and interglacial warming periods. Science confirms that climate change, which is a large-scale and long-term change in the earth’s weather patterns, is human-induced and not due to natural causes.

Globally, the past five years have been the hottest on record, extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, and droughts have gone up five-fold, and economic losses have increased seven-fold over the past 50 years.

Synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements on powder 2H-MoTe2 (P63/mmc) up to ~46 GPa have been performed along with first-principles based density functional theoretical analysis to probe the isostructural transition in low pressure regime and two electronic topological transitions (ETT) of Lifshitz-type in high pressure regime. The low pressure isostructural transition at ~7 GPa is associated with the lattice parameter ratio c/a anomaly and the change in the compressibility of individual layers.

Nearly 4 million commercial vehicles in India are expected to ride into the sunset soon. The much awaited vehicle scrappage policy, expected to be notified shortly by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), aims to scrap older commercial (more than 15 years) and private vehicles (more than 20 years). Currently, the total number of vehicles older than 15 years in the country is around 28 million (including all categories), of which nearly 4 million are commercial.

Electrification is a key solution to growing levels of vehicle pollution in metropolises and is of particular importance to India today. The automotive industry is already feeling the effects of electrification, both globally and in India. As environmental regulations become more binding, many fleets have started to recognize the need for electrification. Integrating electric or hybrid electric vehicles into the fleet portfolio helps address sustainability and environmental goals.

Batteries are commonly employed as energy storage systems for PV stand-alone microgrid. The instantaneous, diurnal, and seasonal variation in load and PV generation degrades the battery rapidly. This affects the life cycle cost of the system. This paper aims to combine battery storage with supercapacitor (short term) and hydrogen storage (long term) and investigate and compare the reliability and annualised life cycle cost of the system with manufacturers given life and by incorporating battery degradation. 

The deluge of recent calamities including Cyclone Amphan, floods in Assam, Maharashtra, and Karnataka, and the wildfires in California and Oregon bears testimony to the recurrence of climate crises in rapid succession. In fact, the year 2020 has underscored the uncertainty and unpredictability of such catastrophes. The regularity of such incidents calls for the immediate application of resilience thinking.

With cities gradually exiting from COVID-19 restrictions and economic activities resuming, travel in cities has also resumed. However, in view of the contagion risks that public transport (PT) might pose, our travel patterns are undergoing a sea change. The new 'normal' in terms of travel is being redefined by factors, such as vehicle ownership, distance to the destination, accessibility to PT, work-from-home policies of organisations, online classes for students, temporary relocation to native places, and government travel guidelines.

Think tanks play a critical role in influencing policy discourses through evidence-based analysis and ideation. Since 2005, the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) has been working with various governments to address long-term issues in key areas such as energy, climate, and health. CSTEP has developed a wide range of computational tools using inter-disciplinary methods to assist governments in examining and improving the efficacy of policies, especially in the energy sector.

Global warming due to the greenhouse effect mostly stems from increased fossil-fuel consumption, and the resultant CO2 emissions. This is a matter of global concern, making it difficult for India to follow the fossil fuel-heavy development path adopted by the developed world. Historically, industrialization and development have been driven by the power sector. Adopting a new development model will be a challenge for India.

A comprehensive energy policy is vital to India meeting its developmental goals; however, it has fallen short. India's extant Integrated Energy Policy (IEP), which was prepared in 2006 by the Planning Commission, is dated. Renewable power, electric vehicles, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) goals, etc., have meant that a fundamental rework of the energy policy is warranted.