Policy Brief

Moving towards Aggregation: Freight Forwarder Scheme of Railways

15 Feb 2022
| Ms Palak Passi

One of the key strategies in the Union Budget 2022 for increasing rail freight market share, aims at facilitating the integration of smaller goods through seamless solutions and multimodal logistics facilities at cargo terminals. Despite an increase in railways' market share to 45% by 2030, a key transport decarbonization strategy for India, it continues to exhibit a gradual decline due to a variety of reasons.

Developing Rail Freight Terminals: Energizing Private Partnerships

15 Feb 2022
| Ms Viral Joshi

Railways has often been termed as the "backbone of the economy", facilitating passenger and freight transportation to the length and breadth of the country. In recent years, railways has experienced a constant decline in the freight business, resulting in a growing concern for railway finances and National Decarbonisation Targets.

Contamination of Heavy Metals in India

25 Nov 2021
| Ms Vidhu Gupta
| Dr Kanhaiya Lal
| Ms Mahima Uttreja

Heavy metal pollution is a great concern for the environment and human health, especially in developing countries like India. Owing to their toxic, non-degradable and bio-accumulative nature, health burden on the population has increased significantly.

Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) and Indian Aviation Industry

02 Nov 2021
| Mr R R Rashmi
| Ms Sachi Vohra

The Indian aviation market is on a high growth trajectory. This growth will eventually lead to a significant environmental challenge, the most important being the increase in GHG emissions. Based on the current emissions, India’s airline industry is projected to emit around 50 million tonne of CO2 in 2035 (domestic and international) at 5% annual emissions growth rate. Remarkably, this number is equivalent to the current emissions of the United States sourcing from international operations alone. Within the total share of emissions projected for the Indian aviation industry in 2035, 24.4% (around 12.2 million tonne) will come from international operations.

Emerging Role of Blue Finance in the Asia-Pacific Region

29 Oct 2021
| Ms Mani Juneja

The policy brief critically examines pathways in which the funding gap for implementing SDG 14 targets can be bridged, using tools such as well-defined regulatory framework and collective partnership.

Green Steel through Hydrogen Direct Reduction: A Study on the Role of Hydrogen in the Indian Iron and Steel Sector

18 Aug 2021
| Mr Will Hall
| Mr Robert Millner
| Mr Johannes Rothberger
| Mr Amar Singh
| Mr Chirag K Shah

The policy brief analyses the role of steel production through low carbon hydrogen technology as India moves on the path of balancing its development goals with its climate action targets.

Co-innovation of low-carbon technologies for SMES: A framework for strengthening technology cooperation between Japan and India

11 Aug 2021
| Mr Girish Sethi
| Mr Prosanto Pal
| Mr Nandakumar Janardhanan
| Mr Eric Zusman
| Mr Kentaro Tamura
| Prof. Eri Ikeda

Co-innovation can enhance cooperation with Japanese firms and facilitate the successful transfer of low carbon technologies in small and medium enterprises in India to further the country's energy transition

Resolving the Crisis in Power Distribution in India

05 Aug 2021
| Mr Ajay Shankar
| Ms TCA Avni

The discussion paper on 'Resolving the Crisis in Power Distribution in India' explores possible ways to address the challenges faced by the distribution sector.

Food and Land Resources: Incorporating Watershed-Based Approaches for Better Sustainability-Productivity Balance

04 Aug 2021
| Dr Lasya Gopal
| Dr Yogesh Gokhale
| Dr Mini Govindan

The overall purpose of watershed programmes is to enhance incomes, provide food security through sustainable agriculture and prudent management of natural resources. This directly corresponds to SDG 1 and 2, i.e. No poverty and Zero Hunger respectively. Cross-cutting issues such as gender and social equity in watershed management are pertinent to address SDGs.

Potential for electrifying Indian MSMEs

09 Jul 2021
| Mr Prosanto Pal
| Mr William Patrick Hall

Switching to electricity-based systems can conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions among MSMEs Despite barriers, electrification of MSMEs is a 'low-hanging fruit' in the decarbonisation of Indian industry.