Next Census to conclude by March 2027, says govt.

India will count its population by March 1, 2027, in a Census to be held after an unprecedented 16-year gap, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Wednesday. This will be the country's first digital Census, and the first in Independent India to include an enumeration of castes as well. 

No diesel, petrol delivery fleets in NCR from 2026

In a major push towards clean mobility, the Com-mission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) announced on Wednesday that from January 1 next year, no new diesel or petrol vehicles can be added to the fleets of e-commerce companies and vehicle aggregators operating in the Delhi-NCR region. 

Expedition to study ecological impact of Kochi shipwreck

Fishery Oceanographic Research Vessel (FORV) Sagar Sampada, operated by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute here, will carry out an expedition to investigate the potential ecological and biogeochemical impacts caused by the Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3 that sank off the Ko-chi coast on May 24. 

Falling short

On June 2, India took a turn for the better in its transport electrification journey by offering a concessional import duty of 15% on completely built-up units. This is contingent on the EV manufacturer investing a mini-mum of about 4,150 crore over three years to localise manufacturing in India, with a base domestic value add of 25% in three years, going up to 50% in another two years. The notification, under the Scheme to Promote Manufacturing of Electric Passenger Cars in India (SPMEPCI) announced in March 2024, allows for a maximum import of 8,000 completely built units annually for each manufacturer for five years. The SPMEP-CI adds to the bouquet of policies that attempts to boost EV adoption and manufacturing. However, these policies put together fall short of addressing a pressing issue in India's journey to decarbonise and transform mobility - technology transfer. India began this journey in 2015, about five years later than most large economies. An outlay of ₹895 crore for the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme, for five years, expanded to ₹10,000 crore in 2019. China announced its ambitious New Energy Vehicle subsidy programme in 2009, which, coupled with mandatory joint venture manufacturing of EVs until 2022, enabled technology transfer. In addition, a reduced import duty on EVs (25% in 2010 to 15% in 2018), and cumulative incentives of about $230 billion in the past 15 years - the most by any country -enabled China to achieve the highest global EV adoption rate. This also supported rapid charging infrastructure deployment, making China the largest producer and consumer of EVs.

Exposomics for better environmental health

The focus for World Environment Day in 2025 (June 5) is on ending plastic pollution. Micro-plastics represent one of the many thousands of chemical, physical and biological hazards that lurk in the air, water and living spaces for which we have neither the sensory capabilities nor sensing technologies to measure exposure and assess health risks. Thus, reducing the environmental disease burden continues to be a daunting challenge for public health.

In India, rapid economic growth is increasing the scale and the complexity of environmental exposures and the interdependencies between the living environment and lifestyles. With India already accounting for nearly 25% of the global environmental disease burden, there is a need to develop newer paradigms for environmental management that rest on integrated health risk assessments.

Aiming for an era of 'biohappiness' in India

Recently, on a trip to Arunachal Pradesh, we were amazed by the diversity of greens in the diet all freshly plucked from the forest and fields. Similarly, across rural and tribal areas of our country, one can find many varieties of millets, beans, legumes, tubers, wild fruits and green leafy vegetables, which the urban Indian is hardly aware of. The Nyishi and Apatani tribal communities in the State are knowledgeable about the nutritional and medicinal properties of many of these local plants.

BESS in India's clean energy transition

The climate crisis has changed the idea of energy security. A country's energy sources must stand firm on four planks: availability, accessibility, affordability, and environmental acceptability. Environmental acceptability focuses on the tradeoffs policymakers and the public are willing to make in terms of pollution, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. In this context, renewables have strengthened their position as an energy source that provides affordable power with lower emissions. They are important for the fulfillment of Sustainable Development Goal 7, which focuses on access to clean energy.

The case for integrating green energy into power systems is further strengthened by looming climate risks and geopolitical tensions. However, increasing renewable energy capacity may not have the desired results due to the intermittent nature of the resource. Energy storage technologies, such as Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), offer a crucial solution to mitigate the variability of renewable energy while enhancing grid stability.

Empowering women in green business

Union Minister Piyush Goyal's recent call for greater innovation among Indian start-ups highlights an important challenge - and opportunity that often gets overlooked: the need to support green innovation and increase the number of women-led green businesses in a world with an increasingly erratic climate.

The seeds of sustainability for India's textile leadership

Even as one of the world's largest manufacturing hubs, the Indian textile industry faces challenges in sustaining its global presence due to geopolitical tensions, fragmented supply chains, and product price volatility. Climate change or evolving consumer demands are not the only causes, but also the fundamental values that influence business decisions. 

Is global warming becoming a distraction?

A global mean temperature rise of 2°C is enshrined in the Paris Agreement as a safe level of global warming by 2100 with respect to the pre-industrial baseline. This threshold was reduced further to 1.5°C due to the demand from the Alliance of Small Island and Developing States. The climate community has since been trying to quantify climate change and its consequences relative to these warming levels. Unfortunately, the models scientists use for climate projections aren't perfect, which affects the uncertainties in global mean temperature rise estimates. To make predictions for years far beyond 2050, the models need to know the greenhouse gas emissions at the time. Modellers create these figures by imagining energy sources of the future, population growth, and climate actions and policies by then. However, it is anything but easy to simulate societies of the distant future. Thus, projections of global warming in the distant future depend heavily on uncertainties inherent to these speculative scenarios. 

Has the environmental crisis in India exacerbated?

As we observe June 5 as World Environment Day, one takes stock of how the previous decade has exacerbated/mitigated existing environmental crises.

Finding purpose, meaning, and a connection in life through travel

There is little denying that the world is divided between different ways of understanding and interacting with reality. Whether we think deeply about it or not, we end up siding either with tradition or modernity, science or religion, superstition or reason, rationality or empiricism, logic or faith. In the process, we create a dynamic landscape where different beliefs, practices and values compete for recognition and influence. 

Govt. to bring new national policy on senior citizens

A new national policy on senior citizens is in the draft stages with the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, government officials said, adding that some details of it were discussed on Wednesday at a meeting of the National Council for Senior Citizens, chaired by Social Justice Minister Virendra Kumar.

India, Australia agree to work together in fight against terrorism

India and Australia on Wednesday marked the fifth anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries on Wednesday with an agreement to work together to combat terrorism in all its forms. 

Modi likely to attend BRICS summit in Brazil next month; meet closely watched by U.S. govt.

Modi is expected to travel to Rio De Janeiro in July to attend the BRICS summit in Brazil, sources said here.  

India 'vehemently opposed' ADB'S funding to Pakistan

In continuation of its efforts in various multinational fora to curb funding to Pakistan, the Indian government has "vehemently opposed" the Asian Development Bank's latest decision to provide additional funding to Pakistan, saying that the neighbouring country's increased military spending cannot fully be explained through domestic resource mobilisation, according to government sources.

Monsoon Session of Parliament likely to be held from July 21

The Centre has start ed reaching out to Opposition parties to build a "unified response" for moving an impeachment motion against the High Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, which is likely to be held from July 21 to August 12.

Centre asks States to ensure | supply of medical oxygen, isolation beds, ventilators

Seven more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the country in the 24 hours till 8 a.m. on Wednesday, taking the death toll this year to 44, show data from the Union Health Ministry. Maharashtra reported four deaths, while Delhi, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu reported one each. 

West Asia crisis could delay IMEC, says MEA official

The ongoing crisis in West Asia could pose an obstacle to the completion of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which was announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit hosted by India in 2023, according to a senior External Affairs Ministry official. 

Stainless steel industry seeks policy support

India's stainless steel industry has called for a National Stainless Steel Policy to unlock its full potential in manufacturing, innovation, and global competitiveness.

'Most India next-gen HNWIs will add 10% more offshore assets'

By 2030, some 98% of next-generation High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs) in India are planning to in-crease offshore assets by more than 10%, reported Capgemini on Wednesday. 

'Extremely hard' to make a deal with Xi, says Trump as steel tariffs double

Donald Trump said on Wednesday that it was "extremely hard" to reach a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but the EU touted progress in its own trade talks with Washington even though the U.S. Presi-dent doubled global metal tariffs.