India

China and India, the world's two most populous countries, are beset by stagnation in the production of staples like rice, wheat, soybean and maize (corn), says a new study on crop yield growth. Based on statistics from around the world during the 1951– 2008 period, the study 'Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation', says that for some crops in China and India the spatial extent of yield stagnation is more than half the cropped area.

News from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that coal will catch up with oil as the world's leading energy source by 2022 should come as no great surprise to readers of CleanBiz.Asia. It is nonetheless alarming. The IEA’s Medium-Term Coal Market Report 2012 says that increased demand from India and China are fuelling the push. Although the growth rate of coal slows from the breakneck pace of the last decade, global coal consumption by 2017 will stand at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent, versus around 4.40 billion tonnes for oil, based on IEA medium-term projections

Indian solar developer Raasi Green Earth Energy, has won a INR9.2 billion (USD 169 million) deal build a a 100-MW, Solar PV farm in Tamil Nadu, according to the Hindu newspaper.

India’s Business Standard reported yesterday that authorities have assessed the potential for renewable energy in the state of Odisha (formerly Orissa) at 11.82-GW and will be looking at private funding to help tap it.

The India solar policy brief on the Tamil Nadu Solar Policy, just published by Bridge To India presents a detailed analysis on the risks and opportunities on the state’s ambitious 3-GW solar power target till 2015. With its policy announcement in October 2012, Tamil Nadu becomes the seventh Indian state out of 28 to announce an official solar target. No breakup between photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) projects has been given as part of the policy.