Despite falling costs, the solar EPC industry in India has hit a roadblock with multiple duties and land acquisition problems, and the answer for EPC companies may be to focus on captive projects like rooftop installations and scale up from there, feels Rahul Kamat.

India has taken a big leap in energy efficiency, with significant improvement in both supply-side and demand-side management in the past five years; the challenge now is to increase storage capacity and reduce T&D losses, says Renjini Liza Varghese.

India's state utility companies make losses of $9 billion annually. While raising tariffs for consumers or farmers is an option - it remains unlikely given upcoming elections or political pressure.

The Indian power equipment industry aspires to become a $100-billion industry by 2022, and its golden days have begun with programmes like rural electrification under the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojna

Electric Vehicles (EVs) offer a promising technology pathway for cutting down oil use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on a per-kilometre basis. EVs can achieve 50 g of CO2 emission per kilometre compared to the conventional, internal combustion engine (ICE) cars, which emit between 100 and 150 g of CO2 per kilometre.

With the regulatory landscape for automotive industry transforming globally, India is incentivising the shift to electric mobility.

EV is the most talked about topic in the energy industry today, because two energy sectors are involved - electric supply and oil and gas. On the supply ecosystem, the government is working on a policy as to who should be responsible for setting up the charging infrastructure.

The country is witnessing a continuous trend of plummeting energy costs due to consistent decrease in the generation prices of renewable energy. Prices of renewables over the last few years have seen all-time lows, such as Rs 2.44 per unit of solar power and Rs 2.43 per unit of wind power in tariff-based competitive bidding.

Concern about climate change and concerted action to reduce green house gas emissions are powerful drivers for renewable energy.