Urban India has taken great strides to improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to its residents with national and state level programs and initiatives such as Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), Swacch Bharat Mission (SBM), Mission Bhagirathi and others. Yet about a 160 million people, one-third of urban populations who live in urban slums, remain deprived of universal, equitable and safe facilities for WASH and healthy spaces. The COVID-19 crisis reinforced the high vulnerability of slum dwellers to communicable diseases as they are forced to manage with limited water supply, use shared facilities for bathing and sanitation and have no access to healthy spaces.

Women and girls are especially vulnerable and their social and economic upliftment impeded, as lack of WASH and healthy spaces affects their livelihoods, education and health prospects. WRI India collaborated with Mahila Housing Trust (MHT) to converse with women in 16 urban poor settlements in 8 Indian cities. The community voices presented in this commentary offer a stark view of the absent, fragmented and intermittent WASH service delivery in urban poor communities.

The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted and emphasized the citywide risks when governments and donors overlook the need to provide adequate and inclusive WASH services and healthy spaces for the urban poor. To accelerate WASH and healthy space access in slum communities, solutions must be knit into existing settlements in ways that cause minimum disruption. New interventions must add to and support ongoing improvements while continuing to be affordable. They must also be cognizant of the climate risks confronting these communities today and in the future.

The Covid-19 pandemic has torn through the Indian economy and society. By the middle of April 2021, over 14 million people were infected, with about 175000 deaths. At the peak of the national lockdown in the first quarter of FY 2020-21, the national GDP had contracted by 23.9%, with high unemployment rates and significant declines in wages, especially in the informal sector.

Covid-19 has strongly demonstrated the deep interlinkages between the economy, environment, and the society, and highlighted the importance of adopting development strategies that address these in an integrated manner. This series of WRI India expert notes outlines sector-specific recommendations through which the country can continue to develop its economy, while improving the environment and strengthening society.

The second note focuses on urban development planning. Urban centres were particularly affected during the pandemic, due to the higher population densities, spatial considerations, and shortfalls in infrastructure and services. This note outlines ways in which urban planning can be reimagined to benefit the economy, environment, and all sections of society.

India has identified electric mobility as a promising pathway to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased energy security. While less than 1% of vehicles in India are electric, state governments have started expressing greater intent in promoting transport electrification. Many states have rolled out electric vehicle (EV) policies with two primary objectives: to incentivize EV uptake among the public and to promote industrial growth in the EV sector.

This review of EV policies of 12 Indian states, with notified or draft policies in place, provides a comprehensive overview of policy incentives and mechanisms being deployed for promoting electric mobility. It shows that disparities exist in the incentives defined by different states, and some states have focused more on demand generation and others on industrial promotion. However, the range of policies provide a good starting point for meaningful state-level action on electric mobility.

As state and city-level policy makers design, revise, refresh and implement tailored initiatives to support the EV ecosystem, this review is expected to be a useful resource for guidance.

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With the diffusion of electric vehicle technology in India, upcoming and established firms have begun launching new products, services and business models to increase their competitiveness. Product development and manufacturing practices are evolving, new players are making a foray into vehicle assembly and allied products, and organizations are being re-structured.

WRI India has identified more than 100 strategic moves made in the Electric Vehicle (EV) industry between 2017 and 2020. Applying a multi-case research methodology, we further analyzed 31 of these strategic moves using the Four-Dimensional Framework of Competitive Advantage. Our goal was to observe how firms are choosing to become more competitive as they race to enter the global EV value chain.

The paper highlights key observations and lists policy pathways that can guide decision makers in state and central governments, and stakeholders in the industry and academia, to chart the way ahead and identify the areas that need policy intervention. We posit that policymakers can play a key role in driving competition, and thereby reap the rewards of economic development – including technological leadership, active participation in the global value chain and developing human capital and resource efficiency.

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