India’s Future Energy Business Plan — Shop the World for More Coal
BOKARO, India — The men who work at Bokaro Steel City (there are few women) behave as though they are in the Wild West. Some are slick and charming with their words. They stand in air filled with fine coal dust that gets into every crevice of the skin and upper respiratory system, while saying [...]
Read MoreA roaring economy is hitched to a galloping coal addiction
JHARIA, India — Night falls here by 5 p.m. and people stream into the open-air market to catch the latest political news. They have much to discuss, because elections are currently on in the state of Jharkhand, which is famous for three things: corruption, a home-grown terrorism threat called Naxalism, and this area’s economic life, [...]
Read MoreAutomakers Hit Pay Dirt in Rural India
Rickshaws and bullock carts may be anachronisms elsewhere, but they are the standard means of transportation in rural India. But with government incentives and aggressive salesmanship by manufacturers, cars are making inroads into these untouched markets.
India is currently the 11th-largest passenger car market, and in the next five years it will become the seventh-largest, according to Ernst & Young. By 2030, the nation is expected to be the third-biggest after China and the United States. The country adds 1.5 million cars every year to its roads, and experts say sales could explode, a move that could greatly inflate India’s greenhouse gas emissions.
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