Insights, a blog published by IMPRI.
Recognising that efficient energy use and conservation are the most cost-effective ways to meet India's growing energy demand, the Government of India enacted the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. Under the provisions of this Act, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) was established on 1 March 2002 under the Ministry of Power. The Bureau is headquartered in New Delhi and extends across India.
The fourteen Pacific Island Countries (PICs) occupy less than 0.4% of the world's land area, yet their combined Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) cover close to one-fifth of the Earth's surface. Their strategic location astride critical sea lanes, their vast maritime resources, and their fourteen votes in the United Nations General Assembly have transformed a region once considered peripheral into one of the most actively contested diplomatic spaces of the decade. It is in this region that India has built the Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), its principal institutional vehicle for engagement with the Pacific (ICWA, 2023).
When a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on 6 February 2023, killing over 50,000 people and flattening entire cities, India was among the first countries on the ground. Within 12 hours, the Indian Army had assembled rescue teams and relief materials. Within 24 hours, Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft were landing at Adana with National Disaster Response Force personnel, dog squads, and a mobile hospital. India named this mission Operation Dost, "friend" in Turkish, Urdu, and several regional languages, a name that carried deliberate diplomatic meaning.
The Khadi sector occupies a unique place in India's economic and political imagination. Born out of Mahatma Gandhi's vision of rural self-reliance, the hand-spun fabric was once a tool of national resistance; today it survives largely as a niche, low-income occupation for rural spinners and weavers, many of whom earn barely enough to sustain themselves. Traditional charkha spinning has historically offered artisans wages as low as Rs. 140 a day, a figure that reflects both low productivity and the physical toll of manual spinning.
In June 2025, during the Tashkent International Investment Forum (TIIF), India was among the 97 countries that participated in this forum (Global Trade and Technology Council of India, 2025). Active participation by the Global Trade & Technology Council (India) underscored New Delhi's motive to strengthen bilateral ties and invest in key sectors like healthcare, education, textiles, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing and diagnostics.
India is the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, which is one of the main reasons for climate change. To mitigate these emissions, India aims to achieve Net zero by the year 2070. To complete this long journey, Germany is supporting India through technology cooperation and sustainable development projects. The Green and Sustainable Development Partnership (GSDP) was formed in 2022 to achieve these objectives. Under this partnership, Germany has committed €10 billion in climate finance to India by 2030 in the form of soft loans via the KfW Development Bank, most of which has been disbursed by Germany since 2022 (Pfänder, 2025).
The vision of MAHASAGAR stands for “Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions”, and it was established in March 2025 by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (Saha, 2026). The vision focuses on the ideas of trade for development, capacity building for sustainable growth, mutual security for a shared future, and expanding cooperation in technology through sharing, giving concessional loans, and grants (Saha, 2026).