According to a recent report, India’s electric vehicle financing industry is projected to be worth Rs 3.7 lakh crore (€43.5 billion) in 2030, which would be about 80% of the current retail vehicle finance industry. The government is planning to set up an institution to fund businesses with a focus on electric vehicles as well as facilitate new financial instruments for lending to the public transportation and commercial vehicle segment, Union minister Nitin Gadkari said. Gadkari also said the government is planning to bring incentives for construction equipment vehicles to encourage them to become electric ones.

The Covid-19 pandemic and its damage to the Indian economy did not deter the discerning investors from lapping up opportunities in the electric vehicle and e-mobility sector. Many financial deals and the funds involved vindicate this fact. Collective investment done by e2W, e4W, EV component makers, electric commercial vehicles, and last-mile delivery companies was recorded at INR 25,045.31 crores (€2.9 billion) during January-July 2021. Electric commercial vehicles led the investments with a 32% share. Electric 4W saw an investment of 28% where M&M invested INR 3000 crore (€0.35 billion) making its contribution at 12%. It has already invested INR 1,700 crore (€0.2 billion) in India's EV business, with another INR 500 crore earmarked for a new research and development (R&D) centre

• Report 1 - Fundamentals of Electric Vehicle Charging Technology and its Grid Integration Read more/Download>>

Report 2 - International Review on Integration of Electric Vehicles charging infrastructure with distribution grid.

Top trade and technology bodies from the US and UK have told the Indian government to adopt the 5G standards that have been recommended by the 3GPP. India is currently in confusion about which 5G standard it should go with - 5Gi developed by Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) or the 3GPP developed 5G standard. The top international trade bodies have urged the Indian government to go ahead with 3GPP standards which will give a much-needed push to electronic manufacturing in India as companies will be encouraged to set up their operations in India.  “By using globally harmonized standards such as those from 3GPP, companies can set up manufacturing operations in India with the confidence that they can easily serve both the Indian market and export to global markets,” the bodies said in a joint submission letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecommunications Engineering Centre (TEC). 

During the pandemic, India has reported the highest increase in the use of AI at 45%, as compared to other major economies (the US at 35%, the UK at 23 % and Japan at 28 %). In fact, AI startups in India attracted total funding of $836.3 million in 2020. Also, despite the total number of high-value funding shrunk, the companies that received funding almost doubled in 2020 compared to 2019,” according to homegrown independent Transaction Advisory firm, RBSA Advisors. According to the study titled ‘Artificial Intelligence & Its role in Delivering Economic Value to Indian Enterprise, investment in AI has accelerated in India during the pandemic and the country has a potential to be a global epicentre of AI. IT services and technology sectors contribute to more than 60% of the AI market, followed by BFSI, engineering and retail.

An ambitious incentive scheme worth up to Rs 12,000 crore (€1.4 billion) is in the works to encourage companies to set up data centres in the country. The govt. is targeting an investment of Rs 3 lakh crore in the next five years as part of the hyperscale data centre scheme and is planning to provide between 3% and 4% of capital investment as incentive to companies, along with real estate support and faster clearances. Vision is to “make India a global data centre hub” and termed the scheme’s target as the largest so far in terms of expected investment in the country over a period of just five years.

India is nowhere close to launching 5G services but has already become the 4th largest market for smartphones supporting the next gen technology in terms of shipments, say market research firms. As per IDC, India trailed China, USA, and Japan in terms of 5G smartphone shipments at the lowest average selling price at $410. IDC expects India to reach around 40 million 5G smartphone shipments, which is around 24% of the total, by end of 2021, up from around 3.5 million in 2020. Research expects around 32 million 5G smartphones.

Telecom department's apex body the Digital Communications Commission (DCC) has cleared a provision of using satellite connectivity in telecom networks to provide services in remote areas where it is difficult to lay optical fibre network. Telecom Secretary said that the DCC (formerly the Telecom Commission) has also cleared the Request for Proposal for the rollout of BharatNet project for broadband services in villages in 16 states in public private partnership mode with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore (€2.2 billon). "With a view of ease of doing business, the DCC has approved provision of cellular backhaul connectivity via satellite through VSAT for telecom services as per Trai recommendation. "This will help telecom companies in providing service in far flung areas where it is difficult to lay optical fibre," Prakash said.

States which can install smart prepaid meters before December 2023 will also be eligible for an additional incentive of Rs 450 per meter. According to an office memorandum released by the Union power ministry on the contours of the discom scheme, the new meters are to be installed first in the 500 cities covered under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) programme where aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses — an indicator of pilferage — are greater than 15%.

Tata Power-DDL and AutoGrid are jointly launching a behavioural demand response program for company’s residential customers to reduce peak demand and network capital costs. This pilot project aims to empower customers, by helping them understand their consumption patterns and evaluate the effectiveness of demand response (DR) programs. AutoGrid is a global leader in AI-based energy management solutions, to undertake joint project around demand response (DR), distributed energy resource management (DERMS), electric vehicles (EVs), virtual power plants (VPPs), energy storage optimization, flexibility management, forecasting, and renewable integration. Tata Power-DDL and AutoGird both will strive to develop and deploy cutting-edge energy management technologies to optimize usage for the larger benefit of Tata Power-DDL customers.