The Indian Parliament has passed the landmark Consumer Protection Bill, 2019 which aims to provide the timely and effective administration and settlement of consumer disputes. Key Highlights of the New Act:

• Covers E-Commerce Transactions
• Enhancement of Pecuniary Jurisdiction
• E-Filing of Complaints
• Establishment of Central Consumer Protection Authority
• Product Liability & Penal Consequences
• Unfair Trade Practices
• Penalties for Misleading Advertisement
• Provision for Alternate Dispute Resolution

The Ministry of Power (MoP) has issued a vision document which charts the way forward for India’s power sector. The document points out the problem areas and sets the timeline for every aspect of power generation, evacuation, and distribution.

The document, called “Vision 2024”, aims at developing a sustainable, viable, efficient, and competitive power sector to facilitate economic and social development. The report points out that the generation capacity in India has increased drastically in the past decade, but the sector is beset with falling plant load factor (PLF) and stressed assets. 

Transmission is a huge problem for Indian renewable energy project developers. In many cases, renewable energy projects are ready to evacuate, but the evacuation infrastructure is not ready. In some other cases, due to the lack of proper transmission infrastructure, renewable energy has to be curtailed.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of four public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, announced the successful installation of over 5,00,000 smart meters in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, under the Government of India’s Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP). The smart meters operational in these states aim to enhance consumer convenience and rationalise electricity consumption. 

The smart meter technology is critical to India’s ongoing power sector reforms. The Smart Meter National Programme that aims to retrofit 25 crore conventional meters with smart variants will lead to 80-100 per cent improvement in billing efficiency.

The government will soon announce a new industrial policy aimed at promoting growth of industries and creation of jobs.

Addressing the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, the President said work is underway in full earnest to transform India into a global manufacturing hub. "Keeping in view Industry 4.0, a new industrial policy will be announced shortly.

The new policy will replace the industrial policy of 1991 which was prepared in the backdrop of balance of payment crisis. This will be the third industrial policy after the ones released in 1956 and 1991.

The proposed policy aims at promoting emerging sectors and modernising existing industries. It will also look to reduce regulatory hurdles and encourage adoption of frontier technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

A new initiative was launched on 23rd September at the UN Climate Action Summit to help guide the world’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitting industries toward the low-carbon economy.

India and Sweden together with Argentina, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, South Korea and the UK, as well as a group of companies including Dalmia Cement, DSM, Heathrow Airport, LKAB, Mahindra Group, Royal Schiphol Group, Scania, SpiceJet, SSAB, ThyssenKrupp and Vattenfall, announced a new Leadership Group for Industry Transition that will drive transformation in hard-to-decarbonize and energy-intensive sectors. 

This global initiative will be supported by the World Economic Forum, the Energy Transitions Commission, Mission Innovation, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the European Climate Foundation among many others in an ambitious, public-private effort, to ensure heavy industries and mobility companies can find a workable pathway to deliver on the Paris Agreement.