India Last Week #74
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment:
“Carbon dioxide concentrations hit a record high in 2025. The planet neared the 1.5 Celsius warming threshold, causing extreme heatwaves, floods, droughts and wildlife globally. Biodiversity loss, of course, continued unabated… Today, as the world fragments again, what lies in store for global biodiversity and the world’s fight against climate change? The answer to that question, as team CarbonCopy concluded, lies in how the tussle between six emergent processes — some good, some bad — plays out… In effect, much of the developed world is decoupling from climate action. With that, as COP29 AND COP30 have shown, funds for adaptation and mitigation have been hard to raise. Spigots financing climate change activism are drying up as well… Even as these trends roil the world, renewable energy continues to get cheaper. In 2024, solar photovoltaics were 41% cheaper than their nearest fossil fuel alternative. At 53%, onshore wind projects were even cheaper. As energy storage projects — like BESS or Pumped Storage — added scale, old concerns about the unpredictability of renewable energy are easing as well… 2025 was not a good year for the Earth… In 2025, scientists reported that humanity has breached seven of the nine planetary boundaries — including climate change and ocean acidification — pushing the Earth’s life‑support systems into dangerous uncharted territory.” Read more: M. Rajshekhar and Archana Chaudhary, CarbonCopy
“Washington’s intervention to depose Maduro and take control of Venezuela’s energy resources has opened the door for Indian refiners to regain access to the world’s largest crude reserves, which they had largely stopped buying because of US sanctions… Indian refiners, including Reliance Industries, controlled by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, were major buyers of Venezuelan crude in the past, before Trump tightened sanctions on Maduro’s regime in 2019… Caracas has long looked to India as a destination for its energy exports. Venezuela’s heavy crude sells at a cheaper rate than the international Brent benchmark due to its lower quality, making it especially appealing to some Indian refiners as they seek to diversify supply and replace discounted Russian oil… After Maduro’s extradition to New York, India’s government said “recent developments in Venezuela are a matter of deep concern”, but has otherwise remained muted.” Read more: Andres Schipani, Krishn Kaushik, and Chris Kay, Financial Times
“Reversing several years of losses since unbundling and corporatisation of State electricity boards, India’s power distribution utilities — namely, Distribution Companies (DisComs) and power departments — posted a net profit or positive profit after tax (PAT), primarily led by State-run DisComs trimming their losses by approximately 80% from FY 2023 to FY 2025, a senior official in the Power Ministry told The Hindu. “One of the main reasons behind this [the overall industry being in net profits] is that the State DisComs’ after-tax losses have come down sharply in these three years, by about 80%,” they stated.. Officials also expressed confidence that the Electricity Amendment Bill (2026), set to be tabled in Parliament during this Budget Session, would further help spur the trend toward profitability… The Ministry further held that distribution utilities have also accrued an improved show across all performance indicators. The Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, which is an indicator of losses because of technical inefficiencies, theft, billing inefficiencies, and commercial losses combined, has reduced to 15.04% in FY 2024-25 from 22.62% in FY 2013-14.” Read more: Saptaparno Ghosh, The Hindu
“As governments search for ways to make irrigation cleaner, cheaper and less risky, one question remains unanswered: Can a model designed in one State travel to others? The pressures are similar everywhere — agriculture dependent on erratic power and costly diesel; distribution companies burdened by subsidies; and farmers in need of reliable daytime water without a bill they fear. Any scalable solution must address all three. Maharashtra’s solar pump programme is among the clearest attempts to do so. What began as a way to stabilise irrigation and reduce farm power subsidies has evolved into a structured model that other states — and even other countries — are now adapting. Under the Magel Tyala Saur Krishi Pump Yojana (MTSKPY), Maharashtra set out to install five lakh solar pumps over five years. The PM-KUSUM scheme (Component B) added another 2.75 lakh sanctioned systems. Together, these pumps — expected to be largely in place this year — are projected to irrigate about 10.45 lakh hectares and save roughly INR4,980 crore annually in avoided subsidies… Decentralised solar irrigation organised along these lines offers a credible, scalable path forward for governments tackling water stress, energy inefficiency and farm income risk.” Read more: Dilip Chenoy, The Hindu BusinessLine
“Coal based power accounts for nearly 35 % of all electricity production globally, making it the largest source of electricity among fuels. Burning coal to produce electricity and heat also represents the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. However, if the world is to meet global climate targets, its dependence on coal must sharply decline… Yet, studies also show that this type of sharp reduction in coal production and use could leave millions of people and communities around the world stranded, by leading to job losses and decreased local revenues. This is a justice issue, but also a political economy issue, requiring interventions in order to ensure that workers and communities support the much-needed clean energy transition… [W]hile the above studies make significant contributions, they do not provide empirical detail regarding the current status of coal value chain repurposing efforts in major coal producing countries such as India, South Africa, and the United States (US)… We define systems-level coal value chain repurposing as the transformation of two or more components of the coal value chain – such as coal mines, power plants, rail networks, trucking, and port terminals – into new industrial applications. This approach involves considering the value chain as a whole to generate new interlinked opportunities and applications that span the various elements of the value chain.” Read more: Sandeep Pai, Joey James, Deeksha Pande, Jennifer Broadhurst, Savannah Carr-Wilson, and Jackson Ewing, The Electricity Journal
Economy:
“What is different for the Indian Rupee this cycle has been a drying up of foreign capital inflows. Importantly this is happening despite strong reported real GDP growth, low and contained inflation, and a current account deficit within historical comfort levels… More crucially, India’s net direct investment position has swung from a US$40bn inflow a couple of years back to essentially zero today, creating a hole in India’s balance of payments which must be filled in other ways.. Our analysis that shows one important contributor to Indian Rupee weakness has been the strong IPO market in India, with rising exits from PE/VC funds taking profits on existing investments, while also reflected in increasing gross FDI repatriation… Indications from public estimates and corroborated by our own bottom-up compilation suggests IPO issuance could rise to between US$20-25bn in 2026 from US$20bn last year, and with sale of shares by existing investors (so-called “offer-for-sale”) likely to remain elevated… The Indian Rupee has endured a difficult and more volatile spell over the past 18-24 months, with USD/INR rising sharply towards the 88 handle in Feb 2025, before aggressive RBI intervention and a change in the FX flow dynamics brought it down towards the 84 handle in May 2025.” Read more: Michael Wan, MUFG
“India's central bank has proposed that BRICS countries link their official digital currencies to make cross-border trade and tourism payments easier, two sources said, which could reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar as geopolitical tensions rise. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recommended to the government that a proposal connecting the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) be included on the agenda for the 2026 BRICS summit, the sources said. They requested anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly… The initiative could irritate the U.S., which has warned against any moves to bypass the dollar… The RBI, India’s central government and the central bank of Brazil did not respond to emails seeking comment. The People’s Bank of China said it had no information to share on the subject in response to a Reuters request for comment; the South African and Russian central banks declined to comment… The RBI’s proposal builds on a 2025 declaration at a BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, which pushed for interoperability between members’ payment systems to make cross-border transactions more efficient… While none of the BRICS members have fully launched their digital currencies, all five main members have been running pilot projects.” Read more: Jaspreet Kalra and Nikunj Ohri, Reuters
“If we were to call 2021 and 2022 as statistically dream years of hiring, the period since has not been that bad either. January 2023 began with 2,72,000 active job openings, and 2024 opened at 2,65,000. Then 2025 started string with a promising 3,10,000 active talent demand. But January 2026 has opened with the second lowest active talent demand since Jan 2021 — 2,00,000 openings… Along with a record low start of active openings, 2026 is also showing sings of being an expensive year for enterprises to hold and expand talent. The recently announced labour code reforms are a great start to formalising and strengthening and securing the workforce in the long term. However, the new salary structure amendments have hit enterprises at a not-so-appropriate time in the market. The top five IT service companies have already, between them, declared about INR5,000 crore increase in salary costs… For the one crore-plus fresh talent that will graduate into the job market later this year, there just aren’t enough jobs getting added.” Read more: Kamal Karanth, The Hindu Businessline
“Last year was not a good one for the Indian rupee. It weakened steadily, even against a soft US dollar, ending 2025 as Asia’s worst-performing currency. Some argue that the rupee’s slide will be a blessing in disguise, giving long-struggling exporters a much needed boost. Perhaps it will. But before taking comfort, it is worth asking a more fundamental question: Why is the rupee falling in the first place? The puzzle is sharpened by the apparent strength of the Indian economy. Growth remains brisk, and inflation has fallen to multi-decade lows… Ordinarily, such performance would attract foreign capital, as investors chase returns, lifting the currency in the process… What makes the decline more striking is the modest current account deficit (CAD) — around 1 percent of GDP in April-September 2025. A weakening rupee suggests that even financing so small a gap has become difficult. The reason lies in persistent imbalance: Demand for rupees has lagged supply, reflecting pressures on both the trade and capital accounts. Merchandise imports averaged about $62 billion a month in 2025, far exceeding imports of roughly $37 billion and leaving a $25 billion trade deficit… Normally, such a shortfall would be easy to finance — if capital inflows were behaving as they usually do. Last year, they were anything but normal. In 2025, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew about $19 billion from Indian equities on a net basis — the worst outflow on record.” Read more: Rajeswari Sengupta, Business Standard
Foreign Policy & Security:
“Undeterred by reports of scores of Indians in Russia being forcibly drafted into the Ukraine war – some of whom have died – Mr Rakesh Shah still wants to travel to Russia to work in construction, underlining the risks Indian workers are willing to take for employment… He feels a little reassured by a yet-to-be operationalised mobility agreement signed between India and Russia in December 2025 that should enable the Indian authorities to track who is going to Russia… During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closely watched visit to India in December 2025, the two countries agreed to ease the movement of Indian workers to Russia. They also pledged to increase bilateral trade. The agreements with Russia “will open up new avenues for collaboration between the two countries”, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal, in response to a question from The Straits Times at a Jan 9 briefing… The deal has brought into focus India’s push for labour mobility deals amid concerns that there are not enough safeguards to protect blue-collar Indian workers, most of whom are less educated and vulnerable to exploitation, going overseas for work… In the absence of extensive efforts from the Indian government, the possibility of more Indian workers being deceived or incentivised into joining Russia’s war effort remains very real. There do not appear to be clear frameworks for the rescue of those who might fall into this trap.” Read more: Nirmala Ganapathy and Kalicharan Veera Singam, The Straits Times
“The relationship between Europe and India is on the cusp of change. Later this month, in a historic first, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will serve as guest of honor, a position reserved for India’s top partners, at the country’s Republic Day ceremony. At the subsequent EU-India summit, the two sides are likely to sign a long-elusive free trade agreement (FTA) and an expansive security and defense partnership… For some observers this momentum is the result of the rocky relationships that Europe and India have with the United States. In a world of fractured alliances and partnerships, Europe and India need each other like never before. But the groundwork for their current ties was laid over the last decade. Structural factors such as competition with China, and India’s policy of diversification that led it to focus on ties with the West, have brought them closer and raised bilateral ambitions… Indian interlocutors interviewed for this piece argued that their efforts started being reciprocated only after certain leadership changes in Europe. Germany, following the departure of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, is seen as one prominent example. But a shift in the European Commission is arguably the most important change. As an Indian official noted, “India had always reached out to the EU”, but the ground “only really shifted under von der Leyen”. Geopolitical changes also played a role.” Read more: Garima Mohan, German Marshall Fund
“Trump’s personality may be an aberration, but his policies are a high point, if not a culmination, of a US trend in the making for some time. The US is abandoning the international system it created because it no longer finds it useful… The post-War order is behind us because its creators no longer need it, and the once-excluded new powers have no love for it. We are in a transition with the debris of a broken system, in the uncertainty that follows the end of anything… How we see the future order depends on our time-frame. More than the debate on a bipolar or a multipolar world, or the likely winner of great power competition, it is more important to focus on the forces shaping the world… The greatest challenge will be to avoid extrapolating past assumptions and choices into the future. Now, focusing on the drivers of the future matters as much, if not more, than simply managing relationships. Disruptions inevitably extract short term costs. For India, preparing for the future order — and help shape it — will require, first, rapid accretion to domestic capacities and social cohesion that impart strength and resilience, as also reframing traditional relationships and diversifying partnerships to mitigate risks and build influence.” Read more: Jawed Ashraf, Hindustan Times
“India’s decade-old, turbulent involvement in developing Iran’s Chabahar port has all but collapsed after US President Donald Trump said on January 12 that any country doing business with the Persian Gulf nation will face a 25 percent tariff “on any and all business being done with the United States of America.” To be sure, the United States crippled India’s strategic play be reimposing sanctions on the port from September 29, 2025. However, based on details provided by India on how it planned to “wind down all activities at the Port of Chabahar, including at the Shahid Beheshti terminal or any other related facilities,” the Office of Foreign Assets Controls (OFAC) under the US Department of the Treasury has granted a six-month exemption from sanctions. The current waiver came into effect on October 29, 2025, and is valid until April 26 this year… Around the time the government sanctioned funds ahead of signing the long-term 10-year deal in May 2024 to run the Shahid Beheshti terminal at Chabahar Port, it was known that the US would reimpose sanctions on the port.” Read more: P. Manoj, Economic Times
People & Politics:
“Just before civic body elections across Mumbai and the wider Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) region, political parties appear to be pulling out all stops to sway voters, with allegations of cash distribution surfacing from multiple neighbourhoods. In one such incident, a resident of New Panvel said two men, estimated to be between 25 and 30 years old, entered a gated high-rise community and went door to door carrying envelopes filled with cash. “I was at home when the doorbell rang,” the resident told India Today TV. “When I opened the door, two men stood there. They took my husband’s name and said they had come to hand over money for the local civic body voting scheduled for January 15.”… She later learnt from a neighbour that the envelopes being distributed contained Rs 2,000 for each household. Similar reports have emerged from other parts of the MMR region and from at least one area in Mumbai city. In another incident shared with India Today TV, residents of a plush high-rise in central Mumbai said party workers attempted to distribute cash-filled envelopes containing Rs 5,000, though most residents turned them away.” Read more: Divyesh Singh, India Today
“There were a bunch of conclusions to draw from the horror week at India Open badminton where Delhi’s hosting cred ended up shredded. Whether Delhi ought to host the World Championships in August and subsequent editions of the Super 750 event (it’s the second tier below the top-most Super 1000s) is one of the many intractable questions. India has delivered successful sporting events in the past, including the 2009 Badminton World Championships in Hyderabad and the Commonwealth Games in 2010, where the Siri Fort finale helped the Indian contingent leapfrog England to second place in the medal tally on the back of folks for Saina Nehwal and Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponappa, and cross the 100 mark… A constant criticism of Delhi as a venue, even before the air quality plunged startlingly, has also ben due to how it denies other legitimate contenders, the real badminton hubs Hyderabad and Bengaluru, a chance to host big events.” Read more: Shivani Naik, Indian Express
“On New Year’s Eve, a planned strike by platform and gig workers across the country reopened an ongoing debate about the conditions of platform work in India. At the heart of this debate is a very simple issue: What is the correct way of understanding the relationship between online platforms (such as Uber, Ola, Blinkit, Zomato, and so on) and their workers? The reason why this is important is because labour laws — not just in India, but across the world — are based on a simple premise: The employer and the worker are not equally powerful parties when it comes to setting the terms and conditions of a work relationship… Across the world, platform companies have attempted to evade their obligations under labour law by classifying their relationship with their workers as simply “contractual”, and not as employment relationships. It is no coincidence that Indian platform companies call their workers “delivery partners” instead of “employees”: They do so because they can then claim that the labour law framework does not apply to them… It is the platform that — through the app — sets the terms and conditions of the work (including remuneration), decides who can access the platform (and on what conditions), conducts surveillance, and also has the unilateral power to remove a worker off the platform. All of this, it may be noted, is opaque and non-transparent, as platforms resist any attempts at disclosure by citing competition law and protection of trade secrets.” Read more: Gautam Bhatia, Hindustan Times
“A “Prime Minister Research Chair (PMRC)” scheme to attract top Indian-origin researchers and scientists is in the works, with a proposal to engage 120 research fellows and research chairs over five years. The IIT Council — the apex coordination body of the IITs — was informed of this at its last meeting. An official in the Education Ministry presented the proposal on the Prime Minister Research Chair scheme to “attract and engage global talent of Indian origin” – at the IIT council meeting in August last year, going by the minutes of the meeting, which were released on Monday. The scheme aims to attract top Indian-origin researchers and scientists to “strengthen India’s higher education and research ecosystem,” according to the minutes.” Read more: Abhinaya Harigovind, Indian Express
Tech:
“Tesla Inc. significantly expanded its engagement with Indian auto component manufacturers in calendar year 2025, sourcing parts worth an estimated $4–4.5 billion from the country—nearly double the value procured a year earlier—according to people familiar with the matter. The sharp scale-up came even as US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on a range of Indian exports, creating fresh trade friction between the two countries… Tesla’s procurement from India has risen rapidly over the past three years—from about $1 billion in 2023 to nearly $2 billion in 2024—before accelerating sharply in 2025. Industry executives said India has emerged as one of Tesla’s “fastest-growing” sourcing bases outside North America… Spokespersons of the aforementioned companies could not be reached for comment owing to non-disclosure agreements with Tesla. However, people aware of the development said Tesla steadily expanded both the scale and complexity of components sourced from India during the year. The procurement basket spans wiring harnesses, forged and cast parts, gearboxes, electric motors, suspension systems, sheet metal assemblies, powertrain modules, bearings and advanced electronic components, as per well-informed sources.” Read more: Avishek Banerjee, Fortune India
“The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has delicensed half of the spectrum in the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi networks. This band covers a smaller network area, but offers faster speeds and lower latency, making it a viable option for cloud-based gaming or virtual reality (VR) headsets that require high-speed connectivity… According to the official gazette notification, the use of the 6 GHz frequency band, specifically 5925–6425 MHz, is prohibited on oil platforms and for indoor operations in vehicles such as cars and trains, as well as boats, drones, unmanned aerial systems, and aircraft, except when aircraft are flying above 10,000 feet. Generally, the commercial flying altitude for aircraft ranges from 15,000 to 42,000 feet, depending on the aircraft’s size and the distance between destinations… Industry groups such as the Wi-Fi Alliance argue that governments should allocate this band to Wi-Fi, citing chronic bandwidth shortages and congestion in existing Wi-Fi spectrum, particularly in densely populated areas. Current Wi-Fi operates in unlicensed bands shared with other technologies, such as Bluetooth and remote-controlled devices, which limits performance. These bands cannot reliably support high-throughput, low-latency use cases that the 6 GHz spectrum can.” Read more: Azdhan, Medianama