Policy Brief
Bundling Improved Cooking and Lighting Technology for Energy Access
08 Jun 2015
| Mr S Arun
There is no definitive understanding of what energy services are entailed in 'access to energy' for a household. The Global Tracking Framework of SE4All1 provides a comprehensive definition of energy access-positing that a household in the basic 'tier' of energy access has 'task lighting and phone charging' and a 'manufactured solid-fuel cookstove with conformity, convenience, and adequacy'. India has 75 million households without access to electricity.2 The situation with regard to cooking energy is more overwhelming-166 million households depend on solid fuels3 for their cooking needs.
Discussion Paper : Mainstreaming Gender in Improved Cookstove Value Chains
03 Jun 2015
| Mr S Arun
Lack of convenient, reliable, and affordable access to clean cookstoves risks the lives and livelihoods of millions of women in rural India. In the patriarchal rural society, cooking and collection of fuel are tasks typically performed by women (Dutta 2003). Household air pollution, primarily from inefficient cookstoves, leads to 1.04 million premature deaths in India annually (Balakrishnan, Cohen and Smith 2014), disproportionately affecting women and young children. Women spend a considerable amount of time, effort, and money collecting fuel wood (Sehjpal et al. 2014), which can otherwise be spent gainfully on productive activities.
Discussion Paper : Organic Agriculture: An option for fostering sustainable and inclusive agriculture development in India
02 Jun 2015
| Dr Shilpanjali Deshpande Sarma
Land scarcity, degraded ecosystems and climate change are pressures that the agriculture sector confronts in the 21st century whilst needing to meet demands for food, feed and fibre, preserve natural resources as well as ensure profitability, economic and social equity (FAO, 2015). Industrialized agriculture,1 which is capital intensive, substituting animal and human labour with machines and purchased inputs (IAASTD, 2009) has been the favoured model for agriculture development due to its tremendous success in increasing food production.
Selecting the Appropriate Improved Cooking Technology: What Matters?
11 May 2015
| Mr S Arun
Improved biomass cookstoves projects are being prioritized, nationally and internationally, for development funding in India. While the Government of India’s National Biomass cookstoves Programme1 is the largest of its kind, there are many other national and regional improved cookstoves projects being implemented by multilateral and bilateral agencies. A review of cookstove projects reveals the poor state of adoption of improved biomass cooking technology2 and a multitude of inadequately understood factors that drive adoption.3 The type of improved biomass cookstove technology purchased by the households is recognized as a significant determinant of adoption.
Supply-side Financing of Improved Biomass Cookstoves in India
11 May 2015
| Mr S Arun
Even as India rapidly emerges as a global centre of technology development, around 780 million of its citizens are estimated to cook food on traditional stoves that burn solid fuels.1 Smoky as these cookstoves are, the household air pollution resulting from them is attributed to cause 1.04 million premature deaths annually, from cancer, respiratory problems, and other ailments.2 Currently, the dominant biomass energy technologies, for cooking in households, are traditional chulhas, i.e., mud stoves along with some cement and pottery or brick stoves, normally with no operating chimneys or hoods.
Can Subsidies be a Tool for Strengthening the Improved Cookstoves Market?
20 Apr 2015
| Mr S Arun
The Unnat Chulha Abhiyan (National Biomass Cookstoves Programme) has set an ambitious target of deploying 2.75 million improved biomass cookstoves in the 12th Five-Year Plan Period, with a plan outlay of `294 crores.1 One of the financial provisions of the programme is to subsidize up to 50 per cent of the cost of the stove2, with an additional 10 per cent of the total cost paid to masons for construction of earthen stoves. Subsidies have an undeniable role in supporting the nascent improved biomass cookstoves market, with majority of the buyers having low paying capacities.
Capacity Needs of Government Officials for Integration of Energy and Human Development
09 Apr 2015
| Mr S Arun
Achieving Sustainable Energy for all (SE4ALL) is one of the fundamental needs for attaining development goals while ensuring economic growth and safeguarding the environment. Access to energy is a necessary precondition for achieving many development goals that extend far beyond the energy sector-eradicating poverty, increasing food production, providing clean water, improving public health, enhancing education, creating economic opportunity, and empowering women. Despite this, ground realities are starkly different in India. Around 600 million Indians do not have access to electricity and about 700 million Indians use biomass as their primary energy source for cooking.
Biofuel Promotion in India for Transport: Exploring the Grey Areas
07 Feb 2015
| Dr Kaushik Ranjan Bandyopadhyay
India happens to be the world's fourth largest energy consumer and a consumer of crude and petroleum products after the United States,China, and Japan. The net oil import dependency of India rose from 43 per cent in 1990 to 71 per cent in 2012 that resulted in a huge strain on the current account as well as the government exchequer. Transport sector accounts for the largest share (around 51 per cent) in terms of consumption of petroleum products in India. Nearly 70 per cent of diesel and 99.6 per cent petroleum are consumed by the transport sector and the demand is expected to grow at 6-8 per cent over the coming years in tandem with the rapidly expanding vehicle ownership.
Crisis in India's Electricity Distribution Sector: Time to Reboot for a Viable Future
22 Jan 2015
| Mr Shyamasis Das
In many developing countries including India, energy pricing is a subject that involves political economy and engages the interests of different stakeholders. The governments in these countries often exert their discretions to regulate energy commodity prices and provide direct subsidies to realize certain social and economic objectives. This can bring distortion in the market and incur revenue losses without realizing much the desired outcome as can be seen in case of the power sector in India.