Search

India is facing a significant energy crisis due to its rapidly growing population, which is not being met by an equivalent increase in energy supply. According to the US Energy Information Administration, India's electricity consumption is projected to grow by 3.3% annually until 2035. Biogas technology, which converts waste into clean energy, offers a promising solution to this problem and accounts for 9% of global energy consumption. Despite being introduced in 1981, biogas technology's potential in India remains largely untapped, with only 7.34 MWe of off-grid projects generated by 2020. However, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have significant potential for biogas generation. The National Biogas and Manure Management Program (NBMMP) have installed 5,056,139 biogas plants between 1981-82 and 2020-21, with Maharashtra being the top performer. India's agrarian economy provides ample raw materials for biogas generation, making it a crucial renewable resource for the country's energy crisis. Given the pressing need to address global warming, greenhouse effects, depleting fossil fuels, and pollution, biogas technology is essential for a cleaner, more sustainable future. Focusing on biogas technology can help India meet its increasing energy demands and contribute to a cleaner and more sustainable future. From 2018-19 to 2020-21, the NBMMP received a total allocation of INR 1,439,249,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem services are the processes of nature that directly or indirectly benefit human beings. These services need to be conserved through incentive-based market approaches for a sustainable future. Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is one approach that aims to manage natural resources and ecosystem stewardship, wherein the users recompense the conservators of the ecosystem services. While PES has numerous benefits in enhancing the awareness of linkages between human well-being (e.g. poverty alleviation) and ecosystem services, it is constrained by major challenges, especially in developing countries like India. This article reviews the significant issues and challenges of environmental marketing in India and suggests measures to promote PES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introductory article makes a critical estimation of the impact of pandemics on the Global South consumer's well‐being. Our paper moves beyond the concerns of the other papers of this Special Issue. Instead, we focus on the issues of the vulnerable, marginal, and subaltern consumers of the Global South—experiences and anxieties, distinct from those of more "modern," capitalized, industrialized, democratized, and economically liberated Global North consumers. We offer the North–South comparisons across national lines or from block to block that bring in a series of promising directions and new currents in the critical, interdisciplinary studies of consumer affairs. Primary perspectives and associated topics for future agenda impacting TCR highlighted are (i) socio‐economic inequalities and injustices, (ii) environmental injustice and sustainable future. We finally suggest an innovative research paradigm, "altruistic‐activist consumer research," to address the concerns and impact the well‐being of marginal consumers from the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solar energy is the most promising resource as it plays a vital role in economic growth, improvement in quality of life and achievement of sustainable future of a nation. The objective of the present study is to conduct the Strength-Weakness-Opportunity-Challenges (SWOC) analysis of solar energy deployment in Indian context. Moreover, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique is utilized to obtain priority of the SWOC variables in deployment of solar energy. The hybrid combination of AHP with SWOC analysis produces analytically determined priorities for the factors and makes them commensurable. Finally, sensitivity analysis has been used to investigate SWOC variables' rank stability. Among SWOC variables, opportunity factor emerged out to be the most dominant which concludes that deploying solar energy can provide several chances to grow for a nation sustainably. Moreover, weakness associated with solar energy reaches to bottom place which shows bright future of diffusion of solar energy. Present study will assist policy planners, and concerned authorities to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of solar energy in order to plan, manage and develop it effectively to attain sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]