India

To paraphrase wit and playwright Oscar Wilde: “To lose one grid, Mr Singh, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness”. For India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, the power collapse of, eventually, three power grids over two days leaving more than 600 million people without electricity, should be the starkest message yet that India and its politicians need to stop pandering to populism, bite-the-bullet on economic reforms and clean up its legal and regulatory act.

India has been hit by one of the worst power cuts in the country's history, with over 300 million people being affected including those in the capital, Delhi.

Terming water pollution as a "national crisis", an Indian parliamentary committee is summoning officials of at least six central ministries to seek their views to find ways to check the problem.

The government of India has set possible renewable purchase targets for all states for the next five years following the completion of a study on the subject by the Forum of Regulators, a statutory body of electricity regulators.

The Asian Development Bank has announced the inclusion of Chinese renminbi and Indian rupees under its Trade Finance Program (TFP).While the move is expected to benefit all businesses, the clean and green tech sectors may find it boosts their sectors disproportionately.The currencies' inclusion will boost intra-regional trade under the TFP. The scheme run by the bank fills market gaps for trade finance by providing guarantees and loans to local banks to support it.