This presentation gave an overview of fossil fuel subsidy in India's power sector, and why such a subsidy was necessary to provide the mass population access to affordable electricity. It also discussed the financial, regulatory, and technical barriers in increasing renewable energy share in India, and why energy grid balancing will be a critical factor.

The Access to Clean Cooking Energy and Electricity - Survey of States is a survey carried out in 2015 covering more than 9000 rural households in the six most energy-poor states in India: Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. This presentation discussed some insights from the survey concerning the progress of household electrification, the reliability of electricity supply, and opportunities for a subsidy swap from kerosene to solar.

While it is easy for large developers to access finance, Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) face huge challenges due to their balance sheet and creditworthiness issues. Ernst & Young (EY) is working on large scale solar rooftop deployment project in 17 states in India. Innovative products have been developed to roll out finance to these MSMEs. Access to MSME finance is the only way to roll out roof-tops and distributed generation on a mass scale in the country.

Leaving no one behind is a core theme for the energy access sector and relates directly to the potential for energy access programs to inclusively address rural poverty. This presentation discussed key insights from detailed analysis of at-scale energy access programs in India and Nepal from Poor People’s Energy Outlook (PPEO) 2018. It also highlighted contrasting approaches to program design and propose a set of metrics to assess inclusiveness by gender, remoteness, and poverty.

As of 2018, India claims to have achieved 100% electrification across all states. This does not necessarily translate to the continued supply of power for all and calls for more reliable sources of energy. However, this will result in a shift of consumer demand to grid-connected devices and systems. Therefore, we see the need for loans with larger ticket sizes; from the $50 solar lantern, to the $200 home system and $ 10,000 microgrid for neighborhoods.

Transportation is an essential part of economic growth. But petroleum-fueled vehicles have created serious health problems for citizens in all major Indian cities and many poor people struggle to afford to purchase a vehicle. To address these challenges, SVCL, having a presence in central India, initiated financing E-Rickshaws in FY2016-17. Under this program, low-income group families were targeted who didn’t have enough capital to buy normal auto-rickshaws and were provided credit facilities to purchase E-Rickshaw so that their income generation capacity could go up.

The Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) is an initiative taken by the Government of India to promote energy efficiency in the commercial building sector. The ECBC is a comprehensive code that provides minimum requirements for the energy efficient design and construction of buildings, and is is applicable to new commercial buildings with states defining the scope according to the state’s suitability.

Overview of Asian elephants and tigers in a connected landscape in India