HUMAN PLAY-NET

In what could be a big push to the efforts of electric vehicle adoption in the country, Niti Aayog plans to roll out a battery swapping policy for EVs in the next three to four months, according to a media report. As per the proposed policy, a buyer would not be required to purchase the vehicle’s battery, which currently accounts for nearly 40 per cent of an EV’s cost, since the Aayog intends to put in place the ‘battery-as-a-service’ (BaaS) model. "I am confident that electric vehicles will be cheaper than ICE engine vehicles in the near future,” NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant was quoted as saying in an ET report on Saturday. This is in line with the announcement made by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this regard during the Budget presentation. She had said a battery swapping policy for electric vehicle charging would be framed soon. Apart from a substantial cut in the cost of EVs, introduction of this model would also lay to rest the owners’ range anxiety and the worr...

Robust infrastructure is a pre-requisite for national development, economic growth and improving the lives of citizens. That being the reason, creation and expansion of infrastructure, like roads and highways, railways network, ports and logistics, and waste management mechanism, has always been at the centre of economic activities. However, following the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns slowed down the construction activities for various reasons, including shortage of workforce, lack of demand and of course shrinking of funds availability, among others. It was only following various timely interventions from the government that the economic activities started picking up as the pandemic went on the wane. But, in the wake of the emergence of Omicron variant of Covid towards 2021-end and possibilities of more such variants impacting various businesses in the days ahead, infrastructure sector players look forward to more provisions for them in the Union Budget 2022. ...