Narendra Modi is not the first Chief Minister to have gone on to become Prime Minister. But given his well-known disdain for the erstwhile Planning Commission’s control-and-command approach towards States and his oft-repeated emphasis on ‘cooperative federalism’, there were great expectations from the successor organisation, the NITI Aayog. The Five Year Plans — the last one ended on March 31 — were relegated to history, to be replaced by a three-year action plan. This was to be part of a seven-year strategy that would in turn help realise a 15-year long-term vision.

Publication: The Hindu

Are electric cars ready to stand on their own? If you took a spin down to the New York International Auto Show last week and saw the $37,500 Chevy Bolt (electric) parked next to the strikingly similar $17,000 Chevy Cruze (gasoline), the answer is probably a hard no. The Bolt is arguably a better car than the Cruze—but not $20,000 better. Edmunds, the car-research company, recently weighed in with a hard no of its own, warning that the elimination of a  7,500 US tax credit is “likely to kill [the] US EV market.”

Publication: Live Mint

The Uttar Pradesh government is planning to revise the state’s solar power policy to align it with the policies of other states. Minister of Additional Sources of Energy Brajesh Pathak said, “The Uttar Pradesh New & Renewable Energy Development Agency has been acting as a project execution functionary till now. We are looking to increase the ambit of the agency and seek budgetary allocation to operate standalone.” Meeting targets “The previous government was not focussed on renewable energy and not been able to meet even 10 per cent of the state’s targets for renewable energy. This year, we will come closer to the targets set till now,” he told BusinessLine in an interview.

Publication: The Hindu Business Line

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday said its Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre has developed an android app for computing the solar energy potential of a place. Developed at the behest of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the app is considered to be a “very useful” tool for installation of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels that is used for tapping solar energy, it said. The ISRO said the app provides monthly and yearly solar potential and the minimum and the maximum temperatures at any location.

Publication: The Hindustan Times

Edmunds, the car-research company, warned that the elimination of a $7,500 US tax credit is “likely to kill (the) US EV market.“ Edmunds pinned its argument on what happened in Georgia, a state that became an unlikely leader in electric cars thanks to an extra $5,000 incentive. At one point, almost 4% of new cars being sold in Georgia were electric. Then they pulled away the punch bowl. But a very illuminating thing happened after Georgia’s incentives expired. Teslas were barely affected by the loss of the tax credit. In fact, more people are buying Teslas in Georgia today than during the subsidy years.

Publication: ET Small Biz

Economic growth data often hides as much as it reveals. For instance, there’s no doubt that India is the world’s 7th largest economy in nominal GDP terms and also the fastest-growing large economy. However, from an environmental point of view, has this growth been sustainable? According to the Global Green Economy Index (GGEI) 2016, it has not. India ranks 68th out of 80 surveyed countries on its movement towards a ‘green economy model’. It lags well behind a host of smaller and lesser-developed nations.

Publication: Huffington Post

Danish wind energy giant Vestas today launched two new turbine variants here. In an exclusive interview with ETEnergyworld two senior executives of Vestas — Clive Turton, Global Senior Vice President, Sales Business Unit for the Asia-Pacific region and Augustin Sanchez, Vice President, Sales — talk about the company’s plans of expanding in India, exploring storage technology and the challenges in the wind energy sector.

Publication: ET Energy World