COVID-19 has definitely put the brakes on public transport. With physical distancing being the norm, many people who can afford to, are likely to avoid it, at least for a few more months.

But public means of transport such as the bus and metro will continue to be an efficient and affordable mode of transport for most commuters. Therefore, there is an urgent need to revamp and restructure the services with safety and sanity checks.

Reams of newsprint have been spent on the devastating blow to the job market and economy during the current pandemic. Amid this pall of gloom, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) brought comfort to 55 million households by ensuring livelihoods from April to August 2020. Many of those who got jobs under the scheme were the ones who had reverse migrated from cities due to complete shutdown during the pandemic.

•The study estimated the investment required to meet new emission standards for coal power plants in India till 2030.

•The cost of electricity generation from coal power plants will increase by 9–25% with pollution control technologies.

•Study also highlighted the challenges in implementing emission standards and provided suitable policy recommendations.

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Energy access is a critical challenge in the Indian power sector. The last-mile connectivity to a household or any other consumer is the responsibility of distribution companies (DISCOMs). The remoteness of some locations and the ailing finances of most DISCOMs make achieving 100% electrification in India, challenging. Grid connectivity, power supply reliability, and affordability are the three pillars of energy access. Over the past five years, Government of India's ambitious policies and schemes have supported grid connectivity.

'Back to basics' is the mantra of Zero-Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF), a radical indigenous farming technique gaining mass acceptance in some parts of India. Even the Union Budget 2019-20 referred to it as a practice to "double farmers' incomes". States such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh have already jumped on the bandwagon. While the practice is gaining momentum, the question is: can ZBNF really be the way forward for sustainable agriculture?

In India, one of the world’s fastest growing economies, most industries still run on fossil fuels. However, the importance of renewable resources for sustainable development is now well-acknowledged, calling for a prompt policy push to make India’s energy sector renewable energy (RE)-driven.

This is the third article in the Empower blog series that CSTEP initiated to breakdown the power sector for a non-technical audience. In the first article, we began decoding the journey of electricity and in the second article we explained the costs incurred in generating electricity — the first step of the journey.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that industrial heat forms about two-thirds of the industrial energy demand and about one-fifth of the global energy demand. Being heavily reliant on fossil fuels, the industrial sector currently accounts for about one-fourth of India’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and it is estimated that industrial heat would alone account for a quarter of the global energy-related CO2 emissions by 2040.

The roads have been cleared for a surge in two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles (EVs). On August 12, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) published a notification allowing the sale and registration of EVs without batteries. The move is expected to increase their adoption rates by dropping the vehicles’ price. In fact, delinking batteries from EVs reduces the upfront purchase cost by 30-40%, making their price comparable to or lower than conventional internal-combustion-engine vehicles.