Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South Asia A new report by the World Bank states that Nine out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South Asia. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South Asia, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...

The Telegraph Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture Research of trying to ‘silence the voices’ of public sector scientists Sections of scientists on Monday asked India’s apex agricultural research agency to revoke what they described as a “gag order” intended to prevent former government researchers from articulating concerns about genetically modified mustard. Over 60 scientists have signed a statement accusing the Indian Council of Agriculture...

-Scroll.in The Indian government will have to take serious note of the structural problems and bottlenecks to work on improving the production-linked incentive scheme. On December 20, the Indian government approved a Rs 357.17-crore incentive for Foxconn India, under the Production-Linked Incentive scheme for the Large-Scale Electronics Manufacturing sector. According to government think tank Niti Aayog, Foxconn India is the “first global company” approved under the scheme for mobile phones and to receive...

-Mercom India The Union Cabinet has approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial outlay of Rs.19,744 crore ($2.38 billion). The policy decision is meant to facilitate demand, production, utilization and export of green hydrogen. The largest portion of the outlay, Rs.17,490 crore, has been earmarked for strategic interventions in the transition to green hydrogen. Also called SIGHT, this sub-component envisages financial incentives for the domestic manufacture of electrolyzers and...

-Factchecker.in/ Scroll.in Minister of New and Renewable Energy RK Singh has informed Parliament that 95% of India’s clean energy target set in 2015 has been achieved. India is short of its installed renewable energy target for 2022 by 32%, as per latest data from the Central Electricity Authority. India’s renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro power) has increased by about 66% since 2018. In fact, its non-fossil fuels’ installed capacity has been growing...