Corporate Conclave: Mobility Talks

The transport sector is often referred to as an ‘engine of growth’ for an economy, which is true for India as well. At the same time, the demand for energy from India’s transport sector has been increasing rapidly. During 2005–15, the energy consumption in India’s transport-related activities increased at a CAGR of 8.3% – a much higher rate than the fuel consumption in the transport sector globally (CAGR of 2%) during the same period (IEA 2019). While the transport sector generates massive positive externalities, it also contributes to India’s import burden, GHG emissions, and air pollution.

Emissions from vehicles, passengers, and as freight, are major roadblocks in India’s climate change targets to reduce GHG emissions. Well cognizant of the growing economic and environmental burden of transport activities and driven by the commitment under NDCs, the government of India has taken numerous steps towards mitigating the transport-related externalities and shifting towards low carbon mobility.

Need for Clean Mobility: Exploring the Options Available Towards Cleaner Future

Agenda: It is expected that the future policy will be strongly guided by climate change, air pollution, and related health concerns. The same is visible in the policy and regulatory actions being undertaken by the government. To this end, various alternative low carbon vehicle technologies (BS-VI standard, inspection, maintenance, etc.) and fuels (biofuels, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cell, electric, etc.) are being promoted by the government. It is critical to understand the relative advantages and disadvantages of these different low carbon transport options available in terms of their economic, environmental, and social impacts on the economy.

Inroads into E-Mobility – Enabling Environment to Encourage EV Penetration

Agenda: Taking forward the electrification policy as chalked out in the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2013, the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises rolled out Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME)-I scheme in April 2015. This scheme, inter alia, focused on increasing the adoption of electric vehicles (EV) through purchase subsidy. FAME-I was extended and FAME-II scheme was launched in March 2019 with 10 times the financial budget of FAME-I – at Rs 10,000 crore. Additionally, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) constituted a group of experts under the National Energy Storage Mission, 2018, with the primary objective of creating an enabling policy and regulatory framework to promote the energy storage sector. Moreover, several state governments, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Delhi, drafted an electric vehicle policy to accelerate the uptake of EVs.