Bengaluru has been ranked as the most congested city in India, as per the TomTom Traffic Index 2023. Severe congestion has led to a loss in productive hours and a frequent disruption of emergency services, in addition to economic impacts. Further, rapid urbanisation in the city leading to urban sprawl has strained the transportation infrastructure and resulted in increased accidents, traffic congestion, and air pollution.

In the Interim Budget 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the construction of two crore additional houses over the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Gramin (PMAY-G) and the introduction of a new housing scheme for the middle class. This is a commendable step towards realising the goals of the ambitious ‘Housing for All’ initiative and builds on the success of the PMAY scheme, which has facilitated the construction of nearly three crore rural and 80 lakh urban affordable houses since 2015.

The 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP28) in Dubai underscored the need for scaling up and strengthening adaptation and resilience activities to protect the vulnerable sections of society, such as farmers, from the adverse impacts of climate change. Escalating rural migration and diminishing local production in rural areas due to climate impacts markedly influence the Indian economy, which is essentially agrarian and predominantly rainfed.

Established in 1988, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been bringing out climate change assessment reports on a periodic basis. So far, it has produced six assessment reports, three special reports, as well as methodology reports that provide guidelines for estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removal.

In a welcome move, the Interim Budget 2024 provides great impetus to the rooftop solar segment through the ‘Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana’. Under this scheme, the current rooftop solar subsidy rate of 40 percent has been increased to 60 percent. Allocation for the solar power sector has seen an increase of 48 percent compared to the last year. At present, India has 11 GW of rooftop solar installations, but the major potential remains untapped.

With vehicle electrification picking up pace, the winds of change are sweeping the automotive industry. Electric vehicles (EVs) have become the buzzword in the climate space today, playing an important role in emission reduction and in achieving net-zero targets worldwide. Although EVs may seem to be a new-age technology, they indeed have a long-standing history. Here, we take a closer look at the historical twists and turns that shaped the electric mobility sector.