India Last Week #72
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment:
“Delhi’s air pollution crisis is reminding us that the shift towards full electric mobility at scale for India is not just desirable, but an immediate imperative… Over the past decade, India has made early strides in EV manufacturing — battery innovation, and the development of affordable electric two- and three-wheelers. But the pace of global change has accelerated dramatically. China has used electric mobility as a springboard for industrial dominance, controlling major parts of the global EV supply chain… India cannot afford to be a spectator in this race. If we do not aggressively scale electrification across all vehicle segments, we risk losing not only domestic markets but also the opportunity to become a global export hub… A clear regulatory mandate for 100% electric two- and three-wheeler sales by 2030 will send an unambiguous signal to industry… Towards this, we need to ensure that our Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency norms are in pace with global advancements… A major barrier to EV adoption, especially in urban India, is not price or performance, but access to reliable charging at home and at work… India urgently needs a national right to charge, a legal framework that guarantees EV buyers the ability to install charging points in their parking spaces, subject only to basic electrical and safety norms.” Read more: Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Hindustan Times
“India’s capital recorded its worst pollution in nearly a decade this winter, sparking rare public protests and criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party over its handling of the air quality emergency. In November and December, when pollution in New Delhi typically peaks, the air quality index was above 300 on 88% of days, according to Bloomberg calculations based on official data. That’s the highest percentage since at least 2017… The worsening air quality this season has been an early test for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in its first year governing the capital after nearly two decades… Lawmakers failed to prioritize a discussion on pollution during the recent parliament session which ended about two weeks ago… Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has blamed the previous administration for failing to do enough to tackle poor air quality. She’s said her government needs at least 27 months to deliver results… The pollution crisis has sparked visible public anger this year, with residents staging rare protests against pollution in the capital.” Read more: Swati Gupta and Shinjini Datta, Bloomberg
“India’s power sector is experiencing rapid change as renewable energy deployment accelerates year after year. India added 41 GW of renewable energy in the first eleven months of 2025, already making a record for capacity additions during a full year, and raising the share of renewables to 40% of the country’s installed capacity… Despite the rapid acceleration of renewable energy, the government intends to add 100 GW of new coal-based capacity over the next seven years. However, India’s existing and under-construction coal fleet is already exceeding the coal capacity requirement projected by multiple resource adequacy assessments for 2030… Sustaining annual clean energy additions of around 50 GW, as required to meet the government’s 500 GW non-fossil capacity target by 2030, is sufficient to absorb incremental electricity demand over the remainder of the decade, based on the Central Electricity Authority’s (CEA) projection of power demand and supply.” Read more: Manojkumar N, Medha Mary Mathew, and Lauri Myllyvirta, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
“India's competition watchdog has found market leaders Tata Steel, JSW Steel, state-run SAIL and 25 other firms breached antitrust law by colluding on steel selling prices, a confidential document shows, putting the companies and their executives at risk of hefty fines. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has also held 56 top executives, including JSW’s billionaire Managing Director Sajjan Jindal, Tata Steel CEO T.V. Narendran and four former SAIL chairpersons, liable for price collusion over varying periods of time between 2015 and 2023, according to a CCI order dated October 6, which has not been made public and is being reported for the first time… The CCI investigation - the most high-profile case involving the steel industry - started in 2021 after a group of builders alleged in a criminal case brought to a state court that nine companies were collectively restricting the supply of steel and increasing prices… The CCI investigation has “found the conduct of the parties to be in contravention” of Indian antitrust law and “certain individuals have also been held liable,” the order stated.” Read more: Aditya Kalra and Neha Arora, Reuters
“Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL) will set up a greenfield 10 GW ingot and wafer manufacturing plant - the largest in the country - with an investment of INR 6,675 crore at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. Ingots and wafers are key raw materials used in production of semiconductor chips, solar cells and modules… The project is in line with the Centre’s policy to promote domestic manufacturing of solar equipment to reduce dependence on China for critical components… Andhra Pradesh will also allot TPREL a site for developing a captive 200 MW plant to supply the facility with green energy. Access to green energy was the key differentiator for the project, a senior government official told ET… Nellore is emerging as a hub for solar manufacturing, with leading manufacturers - including Premier Energies, Websol and Voltsun - planning projects there.” Read more: Nidhi Sharma, Economic Times
Economy:
“The government has cleared 22 new proposals under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) involving Rs 41,863 crore in investment, with projected production of Rs 2.58 lakh crore and 33,791 direct jobs, marking the largest tranche of approvals under the scheme so far, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology announced on January 2… The newly approved projects span 11 target segment products with applications across mobile phones, telecom, consumer electronics, automotive, strategic electronics and IT hardware… Unlike earlier batches that were concentrated in a few states, the latest approvals are spread across eight states — Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan… The scheme has seen strong industry response, with the ministry earlier disclosing that it had received 249 applications involving proposed investments of Rs 1.15 lakh crore, nearly double the scheme’s original investment target of Rs 59,350 crore.” Read more: Aryaman Gupta, Moneycontrol
“The World Bank uses either consumption or income surveys for a country to estimate how much a household would need to spend in order to afford a minimum standard of living, as well as the number of households who are below the poverty line… The Bank traditionally used India’s Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES) in estimations of poverty. However after conducting a survey in 2011-12, the Indian government conducted no new household survey for over a decade. In this period, the World Bank used estimates from older CESs for years up to 2011, and the Consumer Pyramid Household Surveys from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy between 2012 and 2021 to generate consumption aggregates for Indian households. India’s National Statistics Office conducted a new Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) between August 2022 and July 2023. The Bank’s June 2025 update uses the data from this survey… One of the biggest changes in the new HCES was in the way reference periods were used… India’s Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) records data on all domestic consumption of households and is used by the Bank. But not all household expenditure is welfare-enhancing.” Read more: Abhishek Waghmare, Data For India
“Domestic economic activity remained robust despite an unfavourable global backdrop. The real gross domestic product (GDP) growth surprised on the upside in both Q1:2025-26 and Q2:2025-26 at 7.8 per cent and 8.2 per cent, respectively, supported by strong private consumption and public investment… Another potential source of vulnerability is the growth of private credit. From a simple intermediation chain - where investors put money into a private credit fund or business development company (BDC) that then lends to businesses – the system has evolved in recent years into more complex chains that now include more leveraged institutions like banks and insurers. Since they are private in nature and unregulated, there is considerable opacity regarding the size and riskiness of the private credit industry… FPIs remained net sellers of Indian equities cumulatively for the fifth year in a row as India has been a relative underperformer vis-à-vis EM peers in terms of risk-adjusted dollar returns during the last two years. However, India has performed better over a longer-term horizon.” Read more: Reserve Bank of India
“Reflecting an uptick in sentiment, fresh investments plans unveiled in the first nine months of 2025-26 (FY26) have risen 11.5 percent to INR 26.62 trillion, with the private sector accounting for nearly 90 percent of this tally, according to a Bank of Baroda report on the investment climate. Over a quarter of these investments are planned in Andhra Pradesh, which has emerged as the biggest magnet for new investment proposals so far this year, followed by Odisha, which has secured 13.1 percent of planned outlays… A significant chunk of these investments, worth INR 10 trillion, were announced in the just-concluded October-December 2025 quarter, marking a 16.2 percent increase on a quarter to quarter basis… About half of the new investments in the first nine months of this fiscal are in the infrastructure sector, led by electricity that accounted for 22.6 percent of outlays, most of it in the renewable energy space.” Read more: Himanshi Bhardwaj, Business Standard
Foreign Policy & Security:
“Why has India not yet concluded a bilateral trade deal with the United States (US), even as the two countries have quickly signed agreements with other countries?… Two main reasons: One, most countries that have concluded rapid trade deals with the US depend heavily on Washington for their security. India does not. Two, the US-India trade talks go far beyond trade and extend into strategic and policy areas of interest to Washington. These two factors make the negotiations complex and explain why a deal is taking longer than many expect… Washington is pushing India to reshape key domestic policies to suit US interests — ranging from regulation and technology to energy and geopolitics… On trade access, India has shown flexibility. It is willing to eliminate tariffs on nearly 95 percent of US industrial exports and lower duties on products such as almonds, apples and avocados. Yet Washington continues to push for unrestricted access for dairy and genetically-modified crops, including corn and soy-beans — an issue deeply sensitive in India due to environmental, political and social concerns… India has already made many concessions. It should avoid offering more before an agreement is reaching — otherwise, these will be absorbed and followed by new demands.” Read more: Ajay Srivastava, Business Standard
“The Indian Embassy in Washington reached out to three senior officials of the Trump administration on May 10, 2025, the day a ceasefire following Operation Sindoor was announced. It approached White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and Ricky Gill at the National Security Council to discuss “media coverage” of the conflict, says a filing by a U.S. lobby firm with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ). While the filing, including 60 entries made in December 2025 on the DoJ’s Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) website doesn’t divulge whether the calls were made before or after the ceasefire, they indicate close interaction on the day… The Filings by U.S. lobby firm SHW LLC raised eyebrows amongst diplomats in Delhi as the firm also claimed that it set up meetings for several Indian officials- from External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, to Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, Dy NSA Pavan Kapoor and even Indian Ambassador Vinay Kwatra with top Trump administration officials over the past year… While the Embassy has always contracted 2-3 lobbyists at a time, to consult them on working with the Democrat and Republican parties, this is the first time a lobby firm has been asked to set up meetings with US officials, as also to schedule calls with government officials.” Read more: Suhasini Haidar, The Hindu
“New Delhi’s foreign policy ambitions are often couched in high-sounding, cryptic language. But, evidently, it increasingly envisions a world order dominated by a few great powers, including itself. The issue has come to the forefront in the last few months owing to the US President Donald Trump’s bullying tactics in the ongoing Indo-US trade dispute. The squabble has pushed New Delhi to proclaim its quest to become a great power all the more loudly… Although India is better positioned than most countries to stake a claim to become a pole in a multipolar world, it is not preordained to do so. The pursuit of great power status is a choice. And one that India does not need to make. Great power status would likely end up costing the country more than it would be worth. To become a pole is economically pricey, diplomatically challenging, and will place India at the frontline of geopolitical power competition… Rather than promote multipolarity, its best bet may be to lead a collective charge against polarity altogether. To do so requires boldness of vision and shedding the infatuation with the doctrine of realpolitik.” Read more: Sandeep Bhardwaj, The India Forum
“Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday “tensions between India and Pakistan” were among issues “mediated” by Beijing this year, a claim that went against New Delhi’s assertion that a conflict in May ended following talks between Indian and Pakistani military officials. Wang made the claim while speaking at the “Symposium on the International Situation and China’s Foreign Relations” in Beijing… There was no reaction from Indian officials to Wang’s remarks, though people familiar with the matter said China played no role in the cessation of hostilities between India and Pakistan in May… “The claim by the Chinese side is bizarre,” one of the people cited above said. The people reiterated that talks between senior military officials of India and Pakistan alone led to the understanding to end military actions on May 10… China’s role in the conflict between India and Pakistan in May has come under scrutiny, with numerous reports suggesting that Beijing provided real-time surveillance and other assistance to Islamabad. Chinese-origin weapon systems, including combat jets, missiles and radars, also played a key role in the conflict.” Read more: Rezaul H. Laskar, Hindustan Times
People & Politics:
“Child malnutrition is a pressing issue in India, with nearly one-third of children under five classified as stunted—a condition that reflects chronic undernutrition and has far-reaching consequences for human capital development. These outcomes are not uniformly distributed: persistent inequalities in child health outcomes exist along lines of caste and religion, reinforcing cycles of disadvantage… While the role of socioeconomic factors in shaping child health disparities is well-studied, there is less clarity on the extent to which these differences can be attributed to structural and historical factors… To what extent do caste-based mechanisms, shaped by geographic patterns, contribute to child health inequalities, particularly in terms of childhood stunting? To address this, we draw on data from the National Family Health Survey-2015-16 (NFHS-IV) for India, and begin by providing a detailed description of the extent and geographical pattern of caste-based gaps in stunting. Our analysis reveals that the gap in child heights is evident across all age profiles (0–60 months) and remains roughly constant at around 0.40 standard deviation units (relative to the world reference median) in favor of UC-Hindu children.” Read more: Ashwini Deshpande and Rajesh Ramachandran, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation
“The untested software deployed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) without written instructions, protocols and manuals, red-flagged 1.31 crore voters in West Bengal and 2.35 crore voters in Madhya Pradesh as suspicious, putting their voting rights in jeopardy… Crores of other voters were earmarked as suspicious across 10 other states that are undergoing voter reregistration as part of ECI’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR), independent sources confirmed… The Reporters’ Collective accessed the suspect list summary of two states, which were drawn up in the first half of December. Data from these records are being made public for the first time. The ECI has kept such details for all 12 states undergoing the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls locked away from public scrutiny… Detailed tests were not carried out in each state to verify the quality of this digitisation – whether computers could read these records and match them with voters’ inputs properly or not. This likely led to software misidentifying voters as suspicious, a senior ECI official in the state confirmed to The Reporters’ Collective. ECI’s regulations require that whenever doubts are raised about a voter’s rights, these are resolved by a ground verification and a formal hearing by election officials at the constituency level.” Read more: Ayushi Kar and Nitin Sethi, The Reporters’ Collective
“Two days after the Enforcement Directorate accused Satat Sampada Private Limited of misusing foreign funds to influence government policies and undermine India’s energy security, its director and climate activist Harjeet Singh has denied all the allegations against him and his outfit. Singh was arrested and later granted bail in an excise case on Tuesday after the ED claimed to have found “excess liquor” at his home in Ghaziabad during searches… The agency alleged that the company had received Rs 6 crore in foreign funds from international NGOs such as Climate Action Network and STAND.EARTH since 2021. It also claimed the funds “were actually intended to promote the agenda of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty within India”… A climate activist for over 25 years, he rejected the ED’s allegation that he influenced government decision-making. “I have never worked with the government,” he said, adding that the government had failed to understand civil society’s position on climate change.” Read more: Shivnarayan Rajpurohit, Newslaundry
“On December 8, 2023, a Friday infused with the chill of early winter, Pabitra Naik received word that a police battalion was headed towards his village. Like many others in Bundel, located in the verdant Sijimali hills of southern Odisha, the 35-year-old fled into the forests. A bauxite mine had been proposed nearby, and police often detained anyone who vocally opposed it, Pabitra said… The next day, their phones buzzed with calls and messages. Local media had reported that the district administration had “successfully” conducted Gram Sabhas (village councils) across 10 villages, including Bundel… “There was no notice of a Gram Sabha, and no one in the village attended it. Only the women were in the village, and they told us that the police had brought people from Kashipur who were holding posters. Police and officials clicked photographs and videos,” Pabitra said. Documents obtained from the district administration through the Right to Information Act show that these Gram Sabhas—whose approvals are mandatory under law to grant mining permissions—had “unanimously consented” to the diversion of large tracts of forest land for the proposed bauxite mine. The documents also show that Pabitra participated in the Bundel Gram Sabha and consented to the project. Pabitra saw his signature for the first time in mid-2025 when this reporter showed him the “official Gram Sabha resolution”.” Read more: Mahmodul Hassan, Frontline
“Placing personality at the centre of politics is not new in India. Supporters of Indira Gandhi, an autocratic prime minister, famously conflated her with the nation itself, claiming that “India is Indira and Indira is India.” But Mr Modi’s party has perfected the art. And other politicians are catching on. Supporters of Subrahmaniam Jaishankar, the foreign minister, promote their man on social media as a no-nonsense negotiator with lasers shooting from his eyes. Nitin Gadkari, the minister for roads, is projected as the only thing standing between a national infrastructure buildout and a return to bullock carts on rutted tracks… Such behaviour is not restricted to the bjp and its allies. In states run by the opposition, the local satrap is usually as inescapable as Mr Modi is in the rest of the country. In West Bengal it is impossible to get away from Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister, whose image is plastered across walls and public spaces with a devotion usually reserved for Bengali mothers… With 1.45bn people, 28 states, vast economic disparities and weak public services, India is too complex to be run by a handful of well-recognised individuals, no matter how energetic or gifted they might be. Personality politics comes at the cost of building up institutions and state capacity that can survive bad leaders and incompetent officials.” Read more: The Economist
Tech:
“India’s first wave of OSAT facilities is moving from capacity announcements to competitive positioning, with some domestic players now benchmarking themselves against established backend hubs rather than solely against local peers. Gujarat-based Suchi Semicon has indicated that it has reached price parity with established OSAT providers in Southeast Asia, while acknowledging that China’s high-volume manufacturing still offers lower costs. “Excluding China, we are highly competitive on pricing,” said Shetal Mehta, director of Suchi Semicon. “Compared with Malaysia, Singapore, and even Taiwan, several customers have told us they find our pricing attractive and are keen to move forward.”… Suchi’s initial OSAT manufacturing focused on SOIC packaging. The facility, which began processing wafers from December 2024, is currently operating at what the company describes as low-volume manufacturing and qualification levels… When asked about pricing competitiveness against OSAT providers in Malaysia and Vietnam, Mehta pointed to both operational and policy factors… The company did not quantify the relative contribution of structural cost advantages versus government support. Mehta also acknowledged that China’s backend ecosystem remains more cost-competitive.” Read more: Aby Thomas, DigiTimes
“Two Hyderabad-based space tech start-ups — TakeMe2Space and EON Space Labs — have completed testing and integration of a 14-kilogram Earth observation satellite and a miniature space telescope in Ahmedabad and shipped the payload to Sriharikota for launch later this month. The satellite, which will be placed in low Earth orbit at around 500-kilometre altitude, is designed to beam back data for both commercial and defence purposes throughout its projected three-five year lifespan… The satellite and telescope gear will now join around 18 other co-passenger payloads on ISRO’s PSLV mission… MOI-1 is the start-up’s first satellite from TakeMe2Space’s planned constellation for an orbital data centre. EON Space Labs, with its space telescope MIRA — developed to meet NASA-equivalent standards for thermal-vacuum testing — is the electro-optics partner.” Read more: Avinash Nair, The Hindu BusinessLine
Bonus:
“This is a truly fascinating time to be an educator, particularly in India. During the past year, in India, the first batch of universities that adopted the new, four-year undergraduate programme under the National Education Policy 2020 scheme (I belong to one such university) welcomed its first-ever fourth year. India continued a string of rapid strides in technological development in the international arena. And worldwide, large language model-driven AI tools challenged every aspect of education as we know it, with widespread disruption in Indian institutions at all levels. Unusually for Indian university education, this final year has the option of an original research thesis. This has been a practice that has been followed at a handful of elite institutions such as IITs and IISERs for a while now, but now, for the first time, all universities in the country adopting the NEP are asked to implement this option… Slowly but inexorably, AI has shown the capacity for pushing students up the cognitive ladder. In the coming years, they will no longer be graded on the capacity for retrieving information, but on curation, critique, debate and interpretation.” Read more: Somak Raychaudhury, The Telegraph
Watch/listen:
What India’s Economy Looks Like in 2026 | Neelkanth Mishra in conversation with Sameer Shetty | Open Dialogue by Axis Bank
A Call for an Indian Political Theory | Lecture by Yogendra Yadav | JNU Lecture Series