By Roshna N and Dr Indu K Murthy.

Nineteen extreme weather events in 2019 claimed 1,357 lives, with heavy rain and floods accounting for 63% of deaths in India.

Between 2013 and 2019, there has been a 69% increase in the number of heatwave days. Many Indian states are increasingly experiencing extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, heat waves, and super cyclones. These are projected to increase even further in the future. These changes in India’s climate will be an additional stress to ecosystems, agricultural outputs, and freshwater resources, and could also damage the infrastructure.

Depending on topography and climatic zones, the impacts of climate change differ widely across the states and even within states.Consequently, the action plans of states to deal with climate change should be aligned to these regional concerns, while looking at the big picture. …

By Aniket Baregama and Rishu Garg.

CSTEP launched the Empower series of blog articles to simplify the power sector for non-technical readers. Through the series, we hope to explain how every step of the journey of electricity affects the consumer. In the first article, we introduced you to the many actors involved in the journey of electricity. The second article of the series explains the costs involved in electricity generation. The third article simplifies the electricity bills, while detailing the aspects relevant for the consumers, to enable them to understand their bills better. …

By Aswathy KP.

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. The present scenario provides an opportunity to leverage these behavioural changes to achieve sustainable transport.

Early impact on public…

By Dr Indu K Murthy.

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.

What is resilience thinking?

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries define resilience as “​the ability of people or things to recover quickly after something unpleasant, such as shock, injury, etc”. However, resilience in the context of crises such as global warming cannot be restricted to the above definition. Resilience is also about keeping essential things intact and changing those that are redundant. …

By Murali Ramakrishnan Ananthakumar and Thirumalai N C.

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.

The tools may represent a case to design a policy (before implementation) or examine the intricacies of a policy (during implementation) or evaluate the benefits of a policy (after implementation). This approach provides a suite of solutions to decision makers at any stage of a policy-process cycle. …

By Dr Indu K Murthy.

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.

Touted as one of the world’s largest social protection programmes, MGNREGA provides at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer for unskilled manual work. That aside, the programme aims at rejuvenation of the natural resource base of rural areas to enhance livelihood security. …

By Shravann R S, for CSTEP.

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.

To achieve both developmental aspirations and climate goals, India needs to look at long-term solutions that can help in the deep decarbonising of her energy sector. Numerous opportunities exist for India to make the transition from fossil fuel-based technology to energy-efficient technology.

To study these opportunities, the Swiss Development Agency and Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation set up the India Energy Transformation Platform (IETP) in 2020, with CSTEP as its Secretariat. The Platform identifies innovative, game-changing ideas, and analyses their strategic applications in policy, aiming to inform India’s long-term energy policy — beyond 2030. …

By Hanumanth Raju G V, CSTEP.

This is the 3rd 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. In this, the 3rd article of the series, the author explains different components of your monthly electricity bill to help consumers make informed decisions.

Every month, a piece of paper listing the charges for the electricity used up for lighting our homes, running appliances, and charging our laptops and phones, arrives at our doorstep. It is the consumer electricity bill. …