Sustainable Buildings, TERI organized a national roundtable consultation on ‘Developing a National Guiding Framework for Accelerating the Implementation of India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP)’ on 27^th September 2023 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The focused group discussion had key experts from central and state governments, academia, industry leaders, and the World Bank come together and discuss strategies on how India can accelerate the adoption of efficient and innovative cooling solutions, and boost the resilience of urban systems and their people.

This collaborative Roundtable was chaired by Mr. Kuldip Narayan, Joint Secretary (HFA), Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, and Mrs. Rajasree Ray, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India and moderated by Mr. Sanjay Seth, Senior Director, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The National Roundtable Consultation marks a significant milestone in advancing ICAP's goals and emphasizes the strong commitment of TERI and the World Bank to collaborate with stakeholders to drive this critical mission forward.

TERI and WWF have joined hands to conduct a feasibility study and develop an action plan for accelerating the clean energy transition in rural livelihoods of the Indian Himalayan Region. Under this initiative, two villages in the Ladakh region have been identified as Hanle and Chushul, and the study is being carried out with the multidisciplinary engagement of TERI professionals. The work is being conducted phase-wise, beginning with a feasibility study of selected RE-based solutions, and progressing to the development of system designs and an action plan for implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Recently, TERI professionals interviewed key officials from line departments of the Leh administration which included Shri Ravinder Kumar, IAS: Secretary to HLG & Secretary (PDD/Animal & Sheep/Coop/Youth & Sports) Civil Secretariat, Union Territory of Ladakh, Mr. Chosying Dorjey: Project Director, LREDA, Mr. Dhawan Kumar Rawat: Divisional Forest officer, Mr. Tsewang Gyalson: Chief Planning Officer, Leh, Ms. Tsering Spalzes: Assistant Director, Tourism Department Leh, Mr. Sonam Norboo: Assistant Commissioner Development (ACD- rural), etc.

They also visited Hanle and Chushul villages to interact with the community in order to learn about the prominent areas for RE-based interventions. Based on the interaction during the on-site visits to the bordering villages and the response from key officials, the first phase of work is primarily focused on developing solutions to address the critical concerns of space heating, wastewater management, and food drying and processing.

In collaboration with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), TERI and ECBC and ENS Cell Odisha conducted training programs in Bhubaneshwar and Gajapati on awareness of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) and the Eco-Niwas Samhita (ENS).

One-day training program on 'Envelope Optimization' was conducted in Bhubaneswar, on 24^th August 2023, and on ‘HVAC Design’ was conducted in Gajapati, on 13^th September 2023 which was attended by approximately 80 participants.

Training sessions were delivered by Bureau of Energy Efficiency certified ECBC master trainers.

At Mahindra-TERI Centre of Excellence (MTCoE), we are thrilled to introduce our latest equipment UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer with external DRA for measuring solar-driven thermal properties of reflective materials and coatings.

The high-performance UV-Vis and NIR spectrophotometer with superb photometric performance in the 175–3300 nm range is used for the measurement of solar reflectance, transmission, Solar Reflective Index (SRI), etc. using the standards test methods ASTM E903, ASTM C1371, and ASTM E1980.

The latest generation of PbSmart detectors improve its sensitivity and lower stray light in the NIR, making it a powerful tool for materials science research. Additionally, the instrument has the option of a 150 mm integrating sphere for diffuse reflectance and diffuse transmission measurements.

Various dignitaries along with their teams visited the MTCoE lab to understand the on-going testing of opaque and transparent construction materials utilising cutting-edge tools and technology. The TERI team provided a walk-through tour of the CoE along with a demonstration and got acquainted with the various sustainability principles and design strategies espoused by the CoE building.