India Last Week #45
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment –
“The Environment Ministry’s ambitious Green Credit Programme (GCP), which aims to enhance the country’s forest and tree cover and encourage “pro-planet actions”, was rolled out despite apprehensions from the Law Ministry, records obtained by The Indian Express under the Right to Information (RTI) Act show. A week before the Environment Ministry notified the Green Credit Rules on October 12, 2023, the Legislative Department under the Ministry of Law and Justice cautioned that provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, “perhaps” did not support the business model envisioned under the programme… Responding to the queries by The Indian Express on whether it got the GCP rules examined by the Legal Affairs department, the Environment Ministry said, “LD, MoLJ (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice) had suggested for examination of the legality of the proposed GCR in consultation with DoLA (Department of Legal Affairs). It is to be noted that the observations of LD, MoLJ were duly considered and fully addressed.” The ministry did not expand further… Officers in the Law Ministry, who did not wish to be named, told The Indian Express that irrespective of what mechanism was operational for the waste sector under EPA, the Environment Ministry ought to have addressed concerns regarding the legal examination of the Green Credit Rules.” Read more: Nikhil Ghanekar, Indian Express
“NTPC, India's top power producer, is seeking global partners to build large nuclear reactors with about 15 gigawatts (GW) combined capacity, according to a tender, the first major one since the country moved to open up its much-guarded sector. The state-run company, which mainly runs coal-fired plants, is looking for partners to help set up pressurized water reactor technology-based nuclear power plants and also commit to a lifetime supply of nuclear fuel, the tender said. The partner should have clearance from concerned authorities in their country of origin as well as comply with Indian policies, including having or getting a license for the offered technology, NTPC said in the tender published last week. India's Atomic Energy Act of 1962 currently bars private investments in nuclear power plants, while stringent liabilities under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010 deter foreign firms such as GE and Westinghouse. However, in early February, India said it would amend its nuclear liability law to boost foreign and private investments. Currently, state-run Nuclear Power Corp of India is the sole operator of the country's nearly 8 GW capacity, with the aim to increase to 20 GW by 2032. India is aiming to hit at least 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047.” Read more: Sethuraman N R, Reuters
“The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said India added a record 25 GW of renewable energy capacity in fiscal 2024-25, a 35% increase over the previous year’s 18.57 GW. Solar power led the growth, with capacity additions rising 38% from 15 GW in fiscal 2024 to nearly 21 GW in fiscal 2025. India also surpassed 100 GW of installed solar capacity this year. As the country pushes for self-reliance in solar manufacturing, module production capacity nearly doubled from 38 GW in March 2024 to 74 GW in March 2025, while PV cell manufacturing capacity tripled from 9 GW to 25 GW. India’s first ingot-wafer manufacturing facility, with 2 GW of capacity, also began production in fiscal 2025.” Read more: Uma Gupta, PV Magazine
Economy –
“Foreign investors sold the most in the financial year 2024-25, barring 2022, when the outgo was led by Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from NSDL. Foreign institutional investors sold Indian equities amounting to ₹1,27,041 crore. The net investment position in the previous fiscal was ₹2,08,212 crore. Foreign investor interest in Indian markets has been on the wane since October 2024, if the net investment position is any indication. In the fiscal 2025, foreign investors were net sellers of Indian equities in 7 out of 12 months. The relentless selling, however, slowed in the last three months, with the March figure of ₹3,973 crore being the lowest. Analysts have been citing lower than expected earnings, currency depreciation, higher valuations, and relatively more attractive U.S. bonds among others as reasons behind the outflow.” Read more: Ashokamithran T, The Hindu
“The RBI Act (1934) stated in its preamble its function “to regulate the issue of bank notes and keeping of reserves with a view to securing monetary stability in India and generally to operate the currency and credit system of the country to its advantage”. The new central bank needed monetary instruments to act on the preamble. Given its familiarity with the term, the RBI also adopted the bank rate as its major policy rate. The RBI Act (1934) specified the bank rate as a standard rate “at which it is prepared to buy or re-discount bills of exchange or other commercial paper eligible for purchase under this Act”. The new bank rate will determine the overall interest rate structure in the economy… Ninety years later, the bank rate and the CRR have gave given way to the repo rate. The developments in financial markets pushed central banks to manage interest rates and infuse liquidity by using repo rates rather than discount rates and reserve ratios.” Read more: Amol Agrawal, Financial Express
“Manufacturing activity in India surged in March 2025, with the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rising to 58.1, marking its highest level in eight months. According to the data released by HSBC and compiled by S&P Global, the manufacturing industry reflects a strong recovery from February's 56.3, which was lowest in last 14-months. The improvement was attributed to sharp increase in new orders, which reached their highest level since July 2024. Companies cited increased customer interest, favourable demand conditions, and effective marketing strategies as key factors behind the uptrend, as per the report… As a result of rising demand, manufacturers ramped up production volumes significantly, marking the strongest expansion in output in eight months. Despite this, the international sales growth decelerated slightly, reaching a three-month low. Export gains were reported from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.” Read more: Ritesh, CNBC TV18
Foreign Policy & Security –
“The US has once again raised objections to India’s trade policies, including key initiatives meant to support local manufacturing, casting a shadow on ongoing negotiations between the two nations for a bilateral trade agreement. The 2025 National Trade Estimate report, published by the US Trade Representative, has flagged several trade barriers, including high tariffs, digital restrictions, and other policy decisions, urging India to make changes. The report, which covers 59 countries including Australia, Canada, the European Union, the UK, and Japan, comes at a crucial time as New Delhi and Washington continue discussions on a bilateral trade agreement. A US delegation led by assistant US trade representative Brendan Lynch concluded their in-person talks in India last week, and the negotiations are set to resume virtually in the coming weeks... The US Trade Representative has criticized India’s ‘Make in India’ policy, which reserves contracts for domestic suppliers. While the US claims these exclusions disadvantage foreign firms, for India, the policy is a crucial tool for encouraging and supporting local manufacturing and job creation.” Read more: Dhirendra Kumar, Mint
“China also plans to lend $400 million to modernize Bangladesh's second-largest port at Mongla. Beijing is considering enhanced cooperation in water resource management, and again pledged to support Bangladesh in its effort to repatriate over a million Rohingya refugees currently living in crowded refugee camps after fleeing persecution in neighboring Myanmar… India had been the biggest benefactor of Hasina's government, and her departure sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus deciding to make his first state visit to China, rather than India. But Yunus had reportedly wanted to visit India before traveling to China… "Anti-Indian sentiment has been rising in Bangladesh, owing to the Modi government's close relations with the former autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina and because the Modi government has not responded to Bangladesh's requests to extradite her for trial," said Lorch.” Read more: Arafatul Islam, DW
“While India was among the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with the erstwhile European Economic Community in the early 1960s, it was only in 2004 that the two decided to upgrade their relationship to a “strategic partnership.” But before that, India had decided to establish a strategic partnership with France in 1998 and Germany in 2000… At the seventh India-EU Summit in Helsinki in 2006, both sides recognized that “stronger economic engagement” would be “mutually advantageous” and agreed to aim for “a broad-based bilateral trade and investment agreement.”… After fifteen rounds of negotiations in Brussels and Delhi, the talks were effectively suspended by 2013… That said, it is the author’s view that India lost more by not signing an FTA with the EU in 2013 than vice versa. It is undeniable that bilateral ties, especially when it comes to trade, are well below potential. This is because, at present, the only legal basis for bilateral trade and services between India and the EU is the most-favored-nation (MFN) principle ordained under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which is part of the World Trade Organization.” Read more: Mohan Kumar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
“From upgrade plans for the T-90 tanks to certain projects under development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), a host of confidential defence ministry documents are being sold on the dark web. A hacking group called Babuk Locker 2.0, which was originally a Thai group and is now run by a different set of hackers, claimed responsibility on 10 March for infiltrating DRDO’s systems, and pilfering classified defence documents and a vast repository of credential logs… Sources in the defence and security establishment told ThePrint that a review of the released documents did not show any actual intrusion into the Indian system. They said that the files and documents seemed to have been hacked from an internet-linked computer belonging to an IAS officer, who worked as a former joint secretary of the department of defence production… “The presence of defence-related documents on a personal system indicates potential lapses in endpoint security, inadequate data handling policies, and the risks posed by officials storing sensitive information outside secured networks,” it said in its report.” Read more: Snehesh Alex Philip, ThePrint
“A U.S. media report that claimed state-run defence major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) supplied items sourced from a British company to Russia is “factually incorrect and misleading”, the External Affairs Ministry said on Monday (March 31, 2025). The Ministry came to HAL’s defence after a report in The New York Times (NYT) alleged that Techtest, part of British aerospace manufacturer H. R. Smith Group, sent critical components to HAL, which, in turn, sent them to the Russian arms agency Rosoboronexport. While Russia attracted Western sanctions in the aftermath of the Ukraine war, India’s defence trade with Moscow continued given its dependence on Russian military hardware. “The said report is factually incorrect and misleading. It has tried to frame issues and distort facts to suit a political narrative. The Indian entity mentioned in the report has scrupulously followed all its international obligations on strategic trade controls and end-user commitments. India’s robust legal and regulatory framework on strategic trade continues to guide overseas commercial ventures by its companies,” the Ministry said. The NYT report said the British company sold sensitive technology worth almost $2 million to HAL during the period 2023-24.” Read more: Kallol Bhattacherjee, The Hindu
People & Politics -
“The Supreme Court has directed the Prayagraj Development Authority to pay Rs. 10 lakh each in compensation to six individuals whose houses were illegally demolished, calling the action “inhumane and illegal.”… A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled that the demolition was carried out in violation of due process and the right to shelter under Article 21 of the Constitution… The Court recorded its disapproval of the manner in which demolition notices were served, stating that merely affixing them was not sufficient. “This affixing business must be stopped. They have lost their houses because of this,” Justice Oka further remarked, referring to the authorities' practice of affixing notices rather than serving them in person or by registered post.” Read more: Amisha Shrivastava, Live Law
“The government suffered a loss of Rs 1,757.56 crore as state-owned telecom firm BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for 10 years since May 2014 as per their agreement on passive infrastructure sharing, Comptroller and Auditor General of India said on Tuesday. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a statement said that BSNL incurred a loss of Rs 38.36 crore as it failed to deduct the share of licence fee from the revenue share paid to the Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs). "BSNL failed to enforce the Master Service Agreement (MSA) with M/s. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) and did not bill for the additional technology used on BSNL's shared passive infrastructure, resulting in loss of Rs 1,757.76 crore and penal interest thereon, between May 2014 to March 2024 to the government exchequer," CAG said. CAG also noted that there was a short billing of passive infrastructure sharing charge by BSNL.” Read more: Economic Times
In Kunal Kamra case, Navi Mumbai banker had to cut short trip after police served him notice: Report
“A banking professional from Navi Mumbai’s Kharghar, who was on a trip to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, was forced to return early after receiving a notice to appear before the Mumbai Police for questioning as a witness in a defamation case against comedian Kunal Kamra, The Times of India reported. The man, who was on a 17-day trip and was supposed to return on April 6, had to come back to Mumbai on Monday after he got a call from the police on March 28, followed by a notice the next day on his WhatsApp. The notice asked him to be present for questioning on 30 March under section 179 of CrPC, the report added… After the comedian released his new special ‘Naya Bharat’ on YouTube on March 24, it sparked an uproar among the workers of Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, who went and vandalised the venue where the show took place… So far, three cases have been filed against Kamra, who was granted interim relief from arrest by the Madras high court.” Read more: Hindustan Times
“Only 5% of students enrolled in the top 30 private universities in India are from Scheduled Castes (SC), according to a Parliamentary Standing Committee report on Education, Women, Children, Youth. and Sports. Tabled in the Lok Sabha on March 26, the report notably said that the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, had zero students from the SC, Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) categories… It shows social category-wise enrolment and faculty figures in the private universities that found a place among the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)’s top 100 overall university rankings. Less than 1% of students in these universities are from ST, while 24% are from OBC. Overall, only 4% of the faculty in the 30 private universities are from SCs.” Read more: The News Minute
“The Haryana government on Wednesday declared that Eid-ul-Fitr, which falls on March 31 this year, will be a restricted holiday and not a gazetted one. While a restricted holiday means that government employees can take paid leave for the day at their discretion, a gazetted holiday means that government offices and institutions are closed for the day. The Haryana government’s human resources department said that the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr will be observed as a restricted holiday because March 29 and March 30 are weekend off days and March 31 is the closing day of the financial year 2024-’25. Congress leader and Nuh MLA Aftab Ahmed said on Friday that the state government’s decision “exposed the mindset” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.” Read more: Scroll
Tech –
“The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to remove allegedly defamatory content about Asian News International from the news agency’s page, Live Law reported. Justice Subramonium Prasad passed the order in response to an interim application by ANI seeking that the content be removed. The plea was part of a Rs 2 crore defamation suit filed by the news agency… The page about ANI says that the news agency has been criticised for serving as a “propaganda tool” for the current Union government. ANI, in its suit, alleged that Wikimedia Foundation published false and defamatory content with malicious intent to tarnish the news agency’s reputation, according to Live Law.” Read more: Scroll
“The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) registered 21,042 consumer grievances against online food delivery apps in the last five years, B.L. Verma, Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, disclosed in the Rajya Sabha… In response, Verma noted that the complaints received by the FSSAI concerned food safety issues such as adulterated, unsafe, or substandard food, labeling defects, and misleading claims and advertisements. Customers lodge complaints via channels like the web portal, mobile app, FSSAI helpline, X, and Facebook, which are later directed into the Food Safety Connect Portal, the minister stated… These statistics follow a December 2024 FSSAI advisory to e-commerce food business operators, directing them to adhere to specific regulatory requirements. The advisory outlined topics such as last-mile delivery personnel training, accuracy in product claims (to prevent misleading claims), mentioning minimum shelf life, and displaying the FSSAI license. Previously, the body had also met with quick commerce platforms like Zomato’s Blinkit, Swiggy’s Instamart, and Zepto to discuss food safety violations.” Read more: Ishika Gupta, Medianama
“The Union Cabinet on March 28 approved a production-linked incentive scheme for passive or non-semiconductor electronics components with an outlay of Rs 22,919 crore, Union Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. It is the first scheme that focuses on promoting the manufacturing of passive electronic components. The minister said that the scheme will create direct employment for 91,600 people and attract investment of around Rs 59,350 crore… According to electronics component makers body Elcina, non-semiconductor components production in India was around $13 billion in 2022 which is projected to reach around $20.7 billion by 2026 and around $37 billion by 2030 if the business continues as usual thereby leading a deficit of $248 billion in the segment in the next six years. The deficit is met through imports.” Read more: Money Control
Bonus –
“The politics of Assam, for example, has been defined by the movement of people from Bangladesh prompting the anti-foreigner, anti-Bengali sentiment there. Even today, the Citizenship Act and the National Register for Citizens, which have been central to the Indian state’s contract with its own people, is being defined by the historical movement of people in India's Near East… Over the past few years, we have had the Hindu nationalist BJP in power. And I think even within the BJP, there was a realization that in Manipur something failed… India is insecure about how China and Pakistan will exploit the situation. That is exactly the kind of concern India had in 1975. India is insecure about the rise of serious Islamist politics in Bangladesh. That was exactly the concern in 1975, where India felt that Bangladesh might convert from being a constitutional republic to an Islamist theocracy.” Read more: Avinash Paliwal & Rohan Venkat, Center for the Advanced Study of India