Recent reports about the residents of Chhattisgarh’s Kundru village being compelled to consume drainage water due to the non-availability of hand-pump water shouldn’t shock us. Villagers in other districts of the state have been through similar harrowing experiences for years. In the absence of piped water supply, these villages depend solely on hand-pump water for drinking and other domestic uses.

Riding on its vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat, the government of India recently announced a slew of projects in the budget to reboot the economy, which went slack because of COVID. These projects, including the National Infrastructure Pipeline to 7,400 projects, the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), and Smart Cities Mission, offer an opportunity to mainstream climate risks and nature-based solutions (NbS) into infrastructure.

In this study, projected changes in mean northeast monsoon (NEM) rainfall and associated extreme rainfall and temperature events, over peninsular India (PI) and its six subdivisions are quantified. High‐resolution dynamically downscaled simulation of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model driven by the boundary conditions from Community Climate System Model version 4 (CCSM4) model (WRF‐CCSM4) is compared with statistically downscaled simulations of NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX‐GDDP). 

• PM2.5/PM10 ratio characteristics over India using multi-site and multi-year data.

• Suppressed PM2.5/PM10 ratio variations compared to that observed in PM concentrations.

• MERRA-2 derived PM2.5/PM10 ratio found to be overestimating during colder months.

• Weak relationship between the PM2.5/PM10 ratio and meteorological parameters.

A monthly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

A monthly newsletter featuring CSTEP commentary, publications, events, and other developments.

The proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, for the Electricity Act, 2003, intends to bring major reforms in the Indian power sector. One of the proposed amendments is in Section 65 of the principal Act.

According to Section 65 of the Act, state governments should pay subsidy to electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) in advance for electricity consumption by domestic consumers who are below poverty line (BPL).

The proposed Electricity (Amendment) Bill, 2020, for the Electricity Act, 2003, intends to bring major reforms in the Indian power sector. One of the proposed amendments is in Section 65 of the principal Act.

The proposed amendment is intended to replace this provision with a Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. Under this scheme, state governments transfer the subsidy directly to consumers, and DISCOMs then charge the consumers based on the tariff determined by the SERCs.

In 2018, a group of academic institutions initiated a project to build capacities of the 12 Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) states through robust assessments of climate change vulnerability, adaptation planning, and implementation. A standardised assessment of vulnerability allows stakeholders to compare vulnerability across states, probe what has caused their vulnerability, and investigate how they might address these vulnerabilities.