International Institute of Information Technology-Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has announced that Silicon Labs, a leading provider of silicon, software and solutions, is the first corporate founding partner for its new Smart City Living Lab. The lab’s mission is to provide a research and development ecosystem for next-generation technologies designed to improve safety, sustainability, energy efficiency, sanitation, and overall quality of life in densifying cities. It is part of the institute’s Smart City Research Center, supported by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Smart Cities Mission, Telangana government, and European Business and Technology Centre.

The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) will establish a technology data bank for ASEAN (Association of Southeastern Asian Nations) region as part of ASEAN-India Innovation Platform. The corporation has been entrusted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to manage the platform for a period of four years. The proposed data bank will link existing data banks of available technologies in the ASEAN region. DST has been given the responsibility of bringing whatever technologies are available in India and ASEAN on one platform and make it available for commercialisation for Indian as well as ASEAN entrepreneurs.

Power and Renewable Energy Minister said a committee will be set up having members from all relevant Ministries for implementation of the Roadmap on Energy Efficiency and low carbon technologies. A high-level meeting to review the progress of various energy efficiency programmes and the preparedness for Climate Change Actions in the country was held. The purpose of this high-level meeting was to discuss activities in the field of energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy with the objective of reducing CO2 emissions. The Minister said a concerted push for renewables is already under way and a detailed action plan will be developed to identify potential areas.

Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy said purchase of green hydrogen will be made mandatory for certain sectors similar to renewable purchase obligation.

Under RPO (Renewable Purchase Obligation), bulk purchasers like discoms, open access consumers and captive users are required to buy a certain proportion of renewable energy out of their total consumption of electricity. They can also buy RE certificates from renewable energy producers to meet the RPO norms. Green hydrogen is produced using renewable energy and electrolysis to split water and is distinct from grey hydrogen, which is produced from methane and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and blue hydrogen, which captures those emissions and prevent them causing climate change.