-Press Release from India Resource Center New Delhi: A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India is being welcomed by public health advocates. The proposal to increase sin taxes on aerated drinks is part of the recommendations made by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the parliament of India. Taxation to reduce consumption of tobacco has been successful when used...

-The Hindu New Delhi: Even as countries negotiate to arrive at a new global accord to counter the climate change crisis in Paris, an audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday showed that the government had failed to meet its targets for scaling up the use of renewable energy sources under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The NAPCC had envisaged raising renewable energy sources to 8 per cent...

-The Hindu The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has announced a slew of measures to address the very poor air quality and pollution in the nation’s capital. It is, in principle, a largely welcome move that could push the needle for anti-pollution measures to be adopted by other Indian cities as well. These are possibly the most significant steps taken after the introduction of Compressed Natural Gas-powered vehicles in the...

-Hindustan Times Delhi is staring at chaos as its already stretched public transport system -- especially the DTC and metro -- will have little room for millions of vehicle owners who will be barred from driving once road rationing kicks in. The city has 2.7 million private cars and 5.8 million two-wheelers, official data shows. Come January 1, half of these -- around 4.3 million vehicles -- will be off the road...

-Livemint.com A key condition for the success of road rationing is that alternatives are easily available A big debate on urban transport policy has been triggered by the decision of the state government of Delhi to restrict automobile usage according to the licence plate number. The plan is to significantly reduce vehicular traffic by allowing odd and even numbers to ply the roads on alternate days. Given the city’s atrocious air...