India Last Week #77
A round-up of research & reportage on India across climate, energy, foreign policy, politics & more over the last week
Climate, Energy & Environment:
“The village of Hansda’s childhood does not exist today because in the late 1950s, the Bihar government displaced its residents to set up the Chandrapura Thermal Power Station, now situated in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district. The power station is spread over 1,800 acres of land in Chandrapura, of which around 1,200 acres was acquired from locals… Today, Hansda lives in an informal settlement that bears the same name as his original home, and where many other displaced families were also resettled. But unlike the idyllic village surrounded with lush green fields that he remembers, present day Jhinjirguttu is a small settlement of makeshift houses covered in fly ash… Hansda noted that Adivasis who were displaced were not asked for informed consent, which would have entailed allowing them to first consider various options and weigh their risks… In many instances, he noted, the money was transferred from the company to the state government treasury, but not further to the displaced people… By 2017, the first set of thermal power units that were set up in the 1960s were retired. In February 2025, the corporation announced that it would set up a new 1600-MW supercritical thermal power plant in collaboration with Coal India in Chandrapura.” Read more: Nolina Minj, Scroll
“India’s electricity demand continues to rise rapidly, driven by sustained economic growth, urbanisation and the electrification of transport, industry and emerging digital infrastructure… The transition, however, is unfolding differently across states, shaped by variations in resource endowments, development pathways, and institutional capacities. While some states are already leading in renewable energy deployment and grid readiness, others are building momentum, presenting significant opportunities for accelerated progress through targeted, state-specific policy interventions… Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala have showcased consistent leadership in the decarbonisation dimension of the SET 2026 and SET 2024 analysis, emerging as strong performers. Karnataka continued to lead, supported by relatively lower power sector emissions intensity and a renewable energy share of around 37% in its power procurement mix… Delhi and Haryana continued to perform strongly in terms of their preparedness and overall well-functioning power ecosystems. The states’ progress was supported by robust distributed solar adoption (76% and 73%, respectively, of total renewable installed capacity), alongside reliable power supply and relatively sound DISCOM performance…. Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan did well under market enablers, reflecting regulatory initiatives that accelerated renewable energy adoption. Their performance was supported by updated renewable energy policies, adoption of green tariffs and green open access mechanisms, and progress on solar-hour-aligned ToD tariffs.” Read more: Vibhuti Garg, Saloni Sachdeva Michael, Tanya Rana & Ruchita Shah, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
“On 27 January 2026, after nearly two decades of negotiations, India and the European Union (EU) finally concluded a free trade agreement (FTA)… Beyond the FTA, the two blocs signed a Joint India-European Comprehensive Strategic Agenda setting out a broad framework for cooperation, including in areas such as sustainability, innovation, and defence. The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), a carbon levy that took effect on 1 January 2026, was a key sticking point during the negotiations. While the brokered outcome reflects compromises from both sides, it does not include CBAM exemptions or flexibilities for Indian firms. However, the parties have agreed to cooperate on CBAM implementation and, beyond CBAM, have identified win-win opportunities to strengthen clean value chain integration… Strengthened EU-India bilateral cooperation should go beyond compliance with CBAM and other EU regulations and serve as a platform to address supply-side obstacles to decarbonising India’s rapidly growing, coal-dependent, heavy industries. Based on 2022 trade data, the World Bank estimates that India exported 7% of its total steel production to the EU, 4% of its aluminium, and 0.12% of its cement. Therefore, from a climate lens, the bigger challenge is establishing enabling conditions to decarbonise India’s hard-to-abate industries beyond the export component.” Read more: Colette van der Ven and Sanvid Tuljapurkar, CarbonCopy
“Long identified as a wind turbine manufacturer, Suzlon Energy Ltd is looking to move beyond its core business by launching DevCo — a standalone project development vertical — that will anchor its ambitions across wind, solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS)… The DevCo unit will focus on identifying high-potential wind and hybrid sites 3-5 years in advance using proprietary resource data, securing land parcels, obtaining regulatory approvals and arranging grid connectivity through State and Central transmission utilities… The move signals a transition from order-led growth to pipeline-led planning. By incubating projects well before construction begins, Suzlon can engage customers early — typically after about 25 per cent of land aggregation is complete — allowing clients to enter at a pre-construction stage, lower their interest during construction (IDC) burden and accelerate financial closure… Strategically, DevCo enables Suzlon to participate more deeply in the value chain as India’s renewable energy market shifts toward hybrid and firm, dispatchable renewable energy (FDRE) solutions that combine wind, solar and storage.” Read more: Avinash Nair, The Hindu Businessline
Economy:
“Over the last week, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has made public the reports of various sub-committees tasked with looking at specific ways to upgrade the national accounts data. These upgrades include better methodologies, and the inclusion of new data sets, such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) data… The Sub-Committee on Methodological Improvements proposed several sector-wise improvements that have been implemented. For instance, for the non-financial private corporate sector, the currently-used 2011-12 series of data deals with companies that operate across sectors by allocating that entire company’s GVA to the sector in which the bulk of its activity is. The new series, the activity-wise revenue share for a company is being used to calculate the value added in each business activity. This will help capture all the activity in each sector… For households, the new series will use the Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) and Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) on an annual basis instead of extrapolating data as was done in the 2011-12 series. This will mean that the household sector, which has a significant contribution to the economy, is directly estimated each year… The new series of national accounts data will also include new data sources and will use existing sources better. For example, GST data was so far being used in the quarterly accounts of GDP and GVA, and only for some sectors in the annual data.” Read more: T. C. A. Sharad Raghavan, The Hindu
“India’s central bank is likely to start buying dollars to bolster its foreign-exchange reserves once the rupee strengthens to around 88—89 per dollar, according to Citigroup Inc.’s local markets head. “In the short-term, we see the rupee in a band of 90 to 91.25 per dollar,” Aditya Bagree, head of markets for India and the subcontinent, said in an interview in Mumbai. The currency closed 0.1% higher at 90.88 on Monday… The central bank sold dollars heavily in 2025 — a net $49.5 billion as per Nomura estimates — to support the rupee as it slid to record lows. Still, reserves have climbed to a record $725.7 billion, helped by a weaker greenback, a surge in gold and the RBI’s foreign-exchange swaps… Greater stability could channel more foreign flows into the nation’s bonds, which offer relatively attractive yields compared with regional peers, he said. The rupee was Asia’s worst performer in 2025, falling nearly 5% amid high US tariffs and record equity outflows… Recent tax changes and revised mandates for large investors like pension funds have curbed demand for long-tenor debt, widening the gap between short- and long-term yields, he said.” Read more: Bhaskar Dutta and Subhadip Sircar, Bloomberg
“National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. has issued a request for proposals to investment banks, inviting them to pitch for roles on its long-awaited initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter. The exchange plans to select advisers by mid-March, according to some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. The company didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment… The move signals renewed momentum for what could rank among India’s largest-ever share sales. The IPO had been stalled for several years amid regulatory and legal challenges. The exchange operates the world’s busiest derivatives market by number of contracts traded. The planned share sale will be entirely an offer for sale, with existing shareholders expected to divest about 4% to 4.5% of the company’s equity, Bloomberg News has reported. Based on prices in the unlisted market, the IPO could raise approximately $2.5 billion ( Rs 22,700 crore).” Read more: Economic Times
“As India marks its emergence as the world’s fourth-largest economy, the country’s ascent to upper middle-income status is likely to be influenced by a slew of interacting forces: political governance, institutional independence, and the rights of economic agents… The middle class is defined as a household earning between INR 5 lakh and INR 30 lakh annually and is projected to reach 715 million people by 2030 — an increase from 14 percent of the population in 2004-05 to 46 percent in 2030… Equally, a country the size of India can ill afford to neglect the economic wellbeing of its citizens at the bottom of the pyramid. The government bears a moral obligation to enforce the social contract through the sustained provision of welfare measures aimed at improving their living standards… Finally, the role of India’s private sector in bolstering the economy cannot be overstated. As India remains relatively well insulated from ongoing geopolitical gyrations, the timing could not be more propitious for the private sector to unleash its animal spirits and adopt a risk-on approach. There is only so much the public sector can achieve in stimulating investment and consumption without incurring the costs associated with crowding out.” Read more: Ullas Rao, Observer Research Foundation
Foreign Policy & Security:
“But now, even as it seeks to thrash out the detail of a trade deal with President Donald Trump’s administration, New Delhi is seeking to hedge its bets. The mercurial president has frayed nerves in Narendra Modi’s government through his trade brinkmanship and his warm relationship with its regional rival, Pakistan, and its military leader Asim Munir. India’s response has been to rapidly deepen its ties with “middle powers” — countries including Japan, Brazil and Canada — as well as the EU, with which the world’s most populous nation concluded a long-sought free trade accord last month… India has been weathering an ugly and public showdown with the White House for much of Trump’s second term, its exporters buckling under the 50 per cent tariff imposed at the end of August by Washington to force India to reduce its purchases of Russian oil… “Resilience” is a buzzword in New Delhi right now, as India looks to deepen ties with a range of so-called middle powers including Japan, Canada, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and the EU in what analysts say is a direct response to the volatility of the US administration. In the process, the Modi government’s long-standing boast of being “friends with everybody” is being put to the test.” Read more: John Reed and Andres Schipani, Financial Times
“Marking a stark change from its concerns of recent years, the federal government now believes India is no longer linked to violent crimes in Canada, a senior official said Wednesday… “We have a very robust diplomatic engagement, including between national security advisers, and I think we can say we’re confident that that activity is not continuing,” one of the senior officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday. It’s a new tone that India — which continues to reject allegations its government is linked to violent crime in Canada — will welcome. But it clashes with the concerns from Sikh activists like Moninder Singh, a religious leader in British Columbia… On Wednesday, officials went further, stating previous concerns about active foreign interference and repression in Canada by agents linked to the Indian government no longer apply… The prime minister’s office, however, said in a subsequent statement that the government will continue to combat transnational repression, organized crime and criminal acts on Canadian soil. The statement did not retract the official’s remarks but noted respect for the law is key to Canada’s efforts with India.” Read more: Alex Ballingall, Toronto Star
“The US Department of Commerce has imposed a 126 per cent tariff on Indian solar products after two Adani Group companies, Mundra Solar Energy and Mundra Solar PV, withdrew from the investigation proceedings, a preliminary anti-subsidy investigation report reviewed by The Indian Express shows. The Adani Group companies were ‘mandatory respondents’ in the proceedings, and their non-cooperation triggered ‘Adverse Facts Available’ penalty, the toughest methodology used by the US Department of Commerce. The order dated February 20 has resulted in steep tariffs being slapped on the sector… The US Department of Commerce concluded that “Mundra Solar Energy and Mundra Solar PV shipped solar cells in ‘massive’ quantities during a relatively short period” and the companies benefited from the Advance Authorisation Program/Advance License Program, Duty Free Import Authorisation Scheme Program, Duty Drawback Program, and Export Promotion of Capital Goods Scheme… The document showed that the US Commerce Department initiated the countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on August 6 last year after it received a petition from Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, a coalition of US solar manufacturers.” Read more: Pratyush Deep & Ravi Dutta Mishra, Indian Express
“The contours of Indian foreign policy vis-à-vis the great powers have remained largely stable since the early 21st century: engage with the U.S. on common interests vis-à-vis China, and reassure Russia for legacy (mainly defence), bargaining, and geostrategic reasons. This framework was intended to hold for the foreseeable future, with strong calibration unnecessary until clear warning signs indicated its rupture. However, 2025 has greatly destabilized this framework and its assumptions… The U.S.-India strategic convergence also experienced significant dilution amid U.S. flexibility toward China and the inadequacy of India-U.S. strategic cooperation. Present ties are now bottlenecked by a growing set of divergences – from trade to leadership ties (equality vs subordination), sanctions on Russian oil, and India’s commercial choices regarding the same… In turn, Europe, Russia, and China’s disposition towards India also exhibited considerable continuity. With Brussels, relations have improved significantly, as seen in the India-EU summit in Jan 2026. With Russia, assurances have been reinforced despite decisions to reduce oil purchases. Meanwhile, India has continued its efforts to enhance ‘trust-building’ with China (initiated since 2023) and has worked toward further normalization of ties, based on the Depsang-Demchok disengagement agreement of Oct 2024.” Read more: Sidharth Raimedhi (Editor), Council for Strategic and Defense Research
People & Politics:
“In an unprecedented intervention, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (February 24) authorised the deployment of judicial officers from Odisha and Jharkhand to oversee the special intensive revision (SIR) in West Bengal. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi expanded the judicial pool to include civil judges (senior and junior division) with at least three years of experience, alongside district and additional district judges. This decision follows the “trust deficit” between the state government and the Election Commission (EC) observed by the highest court… The court’s order addresses a critical resource shortage, noting that with only 250 local judicial officers, it would take 80 days to clear the backlog, well beyond the February 28 deadline… The court also clarified that Aadhaar cards, madhyamik (Class X) admit cards and pass certificates must be accepted if submitted by the February 14 cut-off… Hailing the order as a “decisive victory for Bengal”, the Trinamool Congress has termed it as a stinging rebuke to the EC.” Read more: Joydeep Sarkar, The Wire
“Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has lent his weight to the long-debated proposal of transferring fertilizer subsidy directly to farmers’ bank accounts. Stating that it “can be done, it is possible,” he instructed officials to begin designing a functional mechanism for the transition… Highlighting that urea bag is available at ₹266/bag (of 45 kg) and that of Di Ammonium Phosphate (DAP) at ₹1,350/bag (of 50 kg), he asked the gathering of farmers, staff of ICAR and others, to guess the market rates of these fertilisers and went on to add that the Centre had paid over ₹1.70 lakh crore of subsidy to farmers to ensure they receive fertilisers at cheap rates… The minister pointed out that complaints were received from many quarters that farmers did not receive fertilisers despite so much of supplies and huge susbidy. At some places, the subsidised urea, meant for the farmers, also got diverted… According to an official study, it was found that 65 per cent of farmers in the country had purchased 5-7 bags of urea in the whole year during 2024-25. But, 163 districts out of 330 where fertiliser is used, were found to have consuming 22 lakh bags of urea or 1 lakh tonnes (lt) to 1.8 lt, each.” Read more: Prabhudutta Mishra, The Hindu BusinessLine
“Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday expressed regret over the NCERT textbook row, saying that “accountability will be fixed” for the incident. The remarks comes after the Supreme Court took strong objection to controversial portions in a Class 8 NCERT book, which included a chapter on “corruption in judiciary.” After the SC ordered a blanket ban on the textbook, Pradhan said that action would be taken against those involved in drafting the chapter on judicial corruption, PTI news agency reported… A day after taking suo motu cognisance of the portions in the social science textbook, the SC on Thursday said it expects the Centre to fix accountability. “We expect the government to issue takedown orders. The State will have to take that responsibility,” the court said… “They have fired the gunshot and the judiciary is bleeding today. The judges say their morale is down and people are talking about it,” the court noted. It emphasised that this would not remain confined to the students, and said that this would also be reaching the teachers and the parents. “It is a deep-rooted conspiracy to malign the judiciary,” the SC said.” Read more: Arya Mishra, Hindustan Times
“At a gleaming three-storey outlet of Reliance Trends in the town of Sangli in western India, Alka browses through a collection of Indian ethnic-wear kurtas in an array of vibrant colours. A geriatric care worker in her late 50s, she is looking for a design in a particular shade of baby pink with a dull gold paisley motif… Like most Indians, she has only ever hunted for white label bargains in street-side bazaars all her life. However, budget brands like Trends - run by Isha Ambani, heiress to the Reliance Industries retail empire founded by Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani - and Tata’s Zudio are now offering goods at the same price point as the bazaar, but with a vastly improved shopping experience. In these outlets, most merchandise costs between $4 (£2.90) and $15… This explosion in the number of value-conscious yet aspirational consumers, especially in smaller towns, is driving extraordinary bottomline growth in the country’s organised fast-fashion industry, led by brands such as Max, Vishaal Mega Mart, Trends and Zudio… Consider these figures: in 2018, Zudio had merely seven stores across the country and clocked $12m in revenue. Westside was a much bigger brand, with 125 stores bringing in around $220m. Today, the tables have completely turned. Zudio’s seven stores have expanded to 765, with revenues crossing $1bn by the middle of 2025 - making it the only Indian clothing brand to hold that distinction.” Read more: Nikhil Inamdar, BBC
Tech:
“The event promised to be a global coming-out party for India’s artificial intelligence aspirations. The India A.I. Impact Summit has been a whirl of more than 300 exhibitors and 500 sessions, sprawled across 120 acres of New Delhi this week. The organizers expected 250,000 participants and visitors… This summit is the fourth in an annual series on A.I. that began at Bletchley Park in Britain in 2023, before moving to Seoul and then to Paris… India’s version is draped in announcements about business deals and billions in investment, as well as entrepreneurs touting clever fixes to real-world problems… Ashwini Vaishnaw, the cabinet minister in charge of India’s A.I. policy, said $200 billion worth of A.I. investment was expected in India, much of it flowing from abroad. The American A.I. company Anthropic, represented at the summit by its chief executive, Dario Amodei, announced a deal with Infosys, a giant among India’s first-generation tech firms. The two companies said they would integrate the services they offered to clients, such as regulatory compliance reporting and precision engineering… The American A.I. company Anthropic, represented at the summit by its chief executive, Dario Amodei, announced a deal with Infosys, a giant among India’s first-generation tech firms. The two companies said they would integrate the services they offered to clients, such as regulatory compliance reporting and precision engineering.” Read more: Alex Travelli and Hari Kumar, New York Times
“For a quarter-century, software services have been India’s calling card. No longer. The next 25 years belong to tokens — the Lego bricks of the artificial-intelligence era. As AI agents require quintillions of them to supplant human effort, India is pitching its tent there. But is that wise? New Delhi has offered a 20-year tax holiday to any foreign company setting up inference hubs — token factories that convert electrons into intelligence — to meet AI agents’ 24/7 workload. Given that these algorithms will be empowered to act autonomously, writing their own programs, where will this leave the country’s 6 million coders?… By promising cheap electrons, India has written itself into this energy-intensive vision of the AI future. Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Amazon.com Inc. — the three largest Western cloud services providers — have all announced big plans for factories that will churn out tokens… But consider the problem from the point of view of fresh graduates. Ever since India burst onto the global software services scene with the Y2K scare, programming has been a vaunted career option… The software industry has strong linkages with domestic consumption and property demand in cities.” Read more: Andy Mukherjee, Bloomberg
“On February 4, the $300 billion Indian IT sector faced a moment of reckoning. The country’s benchmark IT stocks index slumped nearly 6%, reacting to Anthropic’s release of its Claude Cowork agentic plugin. The new plugins are designed to automate precisely the high-volume, repetitive knowledge work that has been the bread and butter of Indian IT: contract reviews, regulatory compliance tracking, and sales forecasting, among other things… This was the first concrete sign of AI’s long-feared threat to the industry, which makes for 10% of India’s GDP and directly employs 5 million people. Indian IT firms have been preparing for this eventuality. Still, experts who have observed the industry closely believe many of these companies and their services will soon become obsolete. AI won’t kill the entire sector, they said, but only the companies that innovate and adapt to AI quickly will thrive in the future… Typically, IT services companies rely on billable hours — charging clients for the amount of time spent on projects. With a smaller workforce and more AI, “the timelines of engagements will massively shrink further, impacting billing,” Yugal Joshi, partner at global research firm Everest Group, told Rest of World.” Read more: Ananya Bhattacharya, Rest of World