Amazon plans to invest another $15 billion in India by 2030


Image Credits: Isaac Brekken / AP Images

Manish Singh
Fri, June 23, 2023 

Amazon plans to more than double its investment in India in the next seven years, the e-commerce group said, joining a roster of other high-profile American giants ramping up commitment to the South Asian market after meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week.

The e-commerce group has invested about $11 billion in India to date and plans to pour $15 billion more by 2030, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said Friday. The vast majority of the new capital is likely earmarked for AWS expansion in India. The company said last month that it plans to invest $12.7 billion into its cloud business in the South Asian nation by 2030.


India is a key overseas market for Amazon, even as the firm has closed many businesses in the country in recent quarters. Walmart, Amazon’s global rival, has also spent over $2.5 billion in India this year.

Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said on Friday that the company will open a global fintech operation centre in GIFT city in the state of Gujarat.

Modi's visit to the U.S. has attracted a number of other high-profile commitments this week. U.S. memory chip firm Micron said it will invest up to $825 million in its first DRAM and NAND assembly and test facility in India, whereas Applied Materials pledged to invest $400 million over four years in a new engineering center in the country.

Biden calls religious pluralism 'core principle' for India, US

HINDU NATIONALISM MEET CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

AFP
Thu, June 22, 2023 

US President Joe Biden shakes hands with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS)

President Joe Biden on Thursday called religious freedom a "core principle" for India and the United States, in a gentle nudge as he welcomed India's Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narenda Modi.

Modi has faced criticism over the rights of religious minorities in India, with rights groups alleging a blind eye to vigilante violence against Muslims and Christians.

"Equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious pluralism and diversity of our people -- these core principles have endured and evolve," Biden said at a ceremonial welcome to Modi at the White House. "Even as they have faced challenges throughout each of our nations' histories, and will fuel our strength, depth and future."

Biden and Modi, however, overwhelmingly stressed the positive as they opened talks set to focus on trade and defense, with the two democracies both seeing challenges from a rising China.

"I have long believed that the relationship between the US and India will be one of the most defining relationships of the 21st century," Biden said.

Modi said that both India and the United States had societies "based on democratic values."

"Both of our countries take pride in their diversity," Modi said. "Both of us believe in the fundamental principle of 'in the interest of all,' 'for the welfare of all.'"

"The two countries are committed to work together for the global good and for global peace, stability and prosperity. Our strong strategic partnership is a clear proof of the power of democracy," Modi added.

Biden Affirms Tighter U.S.-India Bond as Modi Waves Off Human Rights Concerns

Brian Bennett
Thu, June 22, 2023

President Joe Biden (R) and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participate in an arrival ceremony at the White House on June 22, 2023 in Washington, DC.

 Credit - Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images

In nine years as India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi has rarely taken questions from the press. When a reporter at the White House asked Thursday what steps he was willing to take to improve the rights of Muslims and other minorities in India, Modi denied the premise.

The U.S. State Department has documented troubling encroachments on political rights and expression in India under Modi’s watch, and a rise in religious intolerance toward Muslims and other minorities. But, with President Biden standing next to him under the chandeliers of the East Room, Modi ignored all that.

“There is absolutely no discrimination,” Modi said.

It was a stark denial from India’s Prime Minister, who was being largely embraced during his trip to Washington but also challenged. After his White House visit, he was headed to the Capitol, where a handful of lawmakers planned to boycott his joint address to Congress. After that, Modi will be a guest of honor at a state dinner, only the third head of state to receive such an honor during Biden’s presidency.

Biden had said heading up to Modi’s visit that he would not ignore Modi’s human rights record. But if he raised any of those concerns with Modi during this visit, Biden left those behind closed doors.

“The prime minister and I had a good discussion about democratic values,” Biden said. “That’s the nature of our relationship. We are straightforward with each other and we respect each other.”

That respect is paying off for both countries. Modi and Biden announced this week a laundry list of significant ways that India and the U.S. are increasing military and business ties.

Aides to Biden and Modi have met for months to find ways to streamline tech and military cooperation between the two countries, who have not been traditional allies. The effort is part of Biden’s broader effort to counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific and reduce the U.S. supply chain’s dependence on Beijing.

Timed for Modi’s trip to Washington, the two countries announced a deal for India’s Hindustan Aeronautics to build General Electric fighter-jet engines, a long-term move that stands to will weave India more tightly into the U.S. military industrial complex for decades to come.

India also agreed to buy MQ-9B SeaGuardian armed drones from San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which will increase India’s aerial surveillance abilities in the region. And the U.S. is expanding “trusted shipyard” agreements with India to allow more US naval vessels to be repaired in Indian shipyards near Chennai, Mumbai and Goa.

In addition, the chip manufacturer Micron announced an $800 billion investment in a semiconductor assembly plant and test facility in India. And the U.S. company Applied Materials will build a new semiconductor research center in India.

Those decisions put India on track to be a closer military ally to the U.S. than it has been in the past. During the Cold War, India kept the U.S. at arm’s length and purchased Russian military equipment. President Bill Clinton worked to bridge ties with New Delhi in the 1990s, but in recent decades India’s leaders have been reluctant to be seen as a full throated ally of the U.S.

Modi himself has had tense relations with the U.S. before. In 2005, when Modi was the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, the U.S. denied him a diplomatic visa over violence by Hindu mobs in the state in 2002 that killed more than a thousand people, most of them Muslim. But whatever strain that may have caused, has eased. Modi previously addressed Congress in 2016, and he held a joint rally with Donald Trump in Houston in 2019.

Read more: Indian Americans in Congress Plan to Attend Modi Speech Amid Calls for Boycotts

Speaking in the White House on Thursday, Modi said his visit would have a “special importance in the history of India-America relations.”

“Our discussions today and the important decisions we have taken have added a new chapter to our comprehensive and global strategic partnership. They have given it a new direction and a new energy,” Modi said.

Earlier in the day, Modi’s arrival on the South Lawn of the White House was cheered on by 7,000 Indian-Americans. In his remarks greeting Modi, Biden said that he has “I’ve long believed that the relationship between the United States and India will be one of the defining relationships of the 21st century.”

Why GE plan to make fighter jet engines in India is a big deal




Thu, June 22, 2023
By YP Rajesh

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -The aerospace unit of General Electric on Thursday announced it had signed an agreement with India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics to jointly make engines in India to power fighter jets for the Indian Air Force.

The announcement was timed to coincide with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark visit to the United States this week.

The deal, called "historic" and "trailblazing" by officials, is considered the most significant of a number of agreements expected to be concluded between the two countries or their companies during Modi's visit, which ends on Friday.

Below are some facts about the engine and why it is critical for India’s military.

THE ENGINE

The GE engine in question is called the F414 and it has been used by U.S. Navy aircraft for more than 30 years.

The F414 powers or is on order to power jets in the U.S., Sweden, Australia, Kuwait, Brazil, South Korea, India and Indonesia.

GE says it has delivered more than 1,600 F414 engines and they have clocked more than 5 million flight hours.

It is also manufactured in South Korea.

INDIA’S NEED

India’s quest to manufacture an engine for an indigenous light combat aircraft called "Tejas" began in the 1980s but has struggled.

Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) turned to GE's F404 engine – the predecessor of F414 – to power Tejas in the mid-2000s.

So far, 75 F404 engines have been delivered and another 99 worth $716 million are on order for Tejas Mark 1.

Tejas Mark 2, still under development, is a more powerful jet and needs a bigger engine. HAL has procured eight F414 engines for this programme.

The F414 will also be used to develop India’s next generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft.

India's Air Force is desperate to shore up its fighter squadrons, which have fallen to 31 from a target of 42.

New Delhi hopes it can meet its target with home-made jets powered by home-made engines to keep costs under control and also to avoid becoming dependent on a foreign supplier.

U.S. COOPERATION

India and the United States, once on opposite sides of the Cold War, have grown closer over the last two decades and are building a strong bond centred on trade, defence and technology partnerships as well as geopolitical alignment.

Washington designated India as a "major defence partner" in 2016 and New Delhi's military purchases from the United States passed $20 billion in 2020 from near-zero in 2008.

India faces twin military threats from China and Pakistan and is the world's largest arms importer.

It has traditionally been dependent on its old friend Russia for arms supplies but has over the decades also sourced from France, Israel and the U.S., among others.

Washington has sought to deepen ties with New Delhi also as a counter to China’s rising global influence. It also wants to wean India away from Russian military supplies and is willing to give India access to critical American technologies such as F414 it rarely shares with non-allies.

WHAT NEXT?

The GE-HAL deal to co-produce F414 engines in India requires U.S. government and legislative approvals.

It is not known yet how much of the technology behind the F414 that GE will share with HAL, and if that includes sensitive technology that deals with managing very high engine temperatures.

The first F414 engines are expected to be delivered from the U.S. over the next three years while HAL sets up a production facility for it in India.

The first Tejas Mark 2 is expected to fly in 2026.

Full scale production of F414 in India and Tejas Mark 2 is expected only early in the next decade.

(Reporting by YP Rajesh in New Delhi; Editing by Conor Humphries)

White House mum on jailed Defense News correspondent in India

Leo Shane III

DEFENSE NEWS
Thu, June 22, 2023

Senior White House officials said press freedom would be among the topics discussed this week by President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in private meetings, but would not commit to specifically intervening in the case of Defense News contributor Vivek Raghuvanshi.

Raghuvanshi, a journalist and freelancer to Defense News for more than three decades, was jailed in mid-May by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of espionage. The Indian government has released minimal information on his arrest.

Sightline Media Group, which owns Defense News, and the National Press Club have condemned the move and called for officials to produce more information on the allegations and his ongoing detention.

Reports: Defense News correspondent arrested in India

Modi’s government has received significant criticism from international groups such as Amnesty International for restricting media reporting and public protests. Human rights advocates are expected to protest Modi’s visit to Washington, D.C., this week to highlight some of those concerns.

In a briefing with reporters ahead of the visit, senior White House officials vowed that Biden would not shy away from discussing those issues in private meetings throughout the week.

But they would not detail the specific topics to be included. Asked whether Raghuvanshi’s imprisonment would be mentioned, the officials said only that “a full range of issues will be on the table.”

As part of the visit, White House officials are expected to announce a series of new defense partnerships with India, including joint production of new jet engines and new ship repair agreements between the countries. Were he not in custody, Raghuvanshi would likely have covered those issues.

Modi is expected to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday afternoon and attend a state dinner at the White House in his honor on Thursday night.

U$A

Students outraged after discovering eyebrow-raising investments made by universities: ‘A total contradiction’



Erin Feiger
Fri, June 23, 2023

Several major universities are in the hot seat as the topic of climate change heats up on campus.

A CBS News investigation recently uncovered that many universities touting the fact that they are working to fight climate change are accepting donations from the same dirty energy companies that drive global warming.

What’s happening?

Students and experts alike are understandably upset that many major universities are profiting from climate change while they claim to be fighting it.

A new study by Data for Progress found that from 2010 to 2020, six dirty energy companies — or companies that make money off of oil, coal, and gas — funneled more than $700 million in research funding to 27 universities in the U.S.


Some of the particularly egregious top schools on the list are those that champion climate research, including Stanford University. June Choi, who chose to get her Ph.D. from Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability, was dismayed to learn that the school accepted funding from the dirty energy industry, calling it “a total contradiction.”
Why is it concerning that dirty energy companies are funding education?

Dirty energy use is the largest source of harmful, planet-overheating carbon pollution in the world, so when universities accept donations from oil, gas, or coal companies for climate change research, it threatens to put a positive spin on the very industry causing the problem.

As Bella Kumar, lead author of the Data for Progress report, pointed out, “These research projects have real-life implications — for example a lot of the fossil fuel-funded research has re-centered natural gas in the conversation about renewables.”

Universities that claim to be doing more to fight climate change than they actually are is an example of corporate greenwashing, which has become increasingly prevalent and problematic.

Greenwashing is when a company or establishment makes false or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product or practice. Dirty energy companies have been doing it for years, and these relationships with universities are just another example.

Michael Mann, a climatologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said “[Dirty energy companies] are purchasing the name Stanford University, and that is worth a lot to [an] industry that’s trying to purchase credibility. ‘Hey look, we’re trying to solve the problem and we’re working with the greatest universities around to do so.’”
What’s being done to hold universities accountable?

Since the news came out, students have formed oversight committees and are starting to demand transparency from their universities.

Further, due to pressure on universities to divest from stock in dirty energy companies, 50 universities or university systems have exited those investments.

Join our free newsletter for cool news and actionable info that makes it easy to help yourself while helping the planet.

Renewables Revolution: US Green Energy Poised for 'Staggering' Growth, According To BloombergNEF Report

Jeannine Mancini

BENZINGA
Fri, June 23, 2023 


The U.S. clean energy sector is set to deliver a record-breaking 600 gigawatts (GW) of solar, wind and energy storage capacity by the end of the decade, according to BloombergNEF’s latest Clean Energy Market Outlook. The report notes that the White House’s Inflation Reduction Act has played a key role in propelling the country toward “staggering” renewable energy growth.

The forecast predicts that 358 GW of new solar capacity will be deployed between 2023 and 2030, almost tripling the current installed capacity. Meanwhile, wind power capacity is expected to increase by 137 GW, nearly doubling total capacity compared to 2022 levels. The report also expects 111 GW of new battery storage capacity to be deployed by 2030, marking a nine-fold increase in current capacity.

As the U.S. clean energy market gears up for a massive surge in battery storage capacity, innovative companies like Airthium and other startups will play a critical role in driving down costs and unleashing the full potential of sustainable power. Sustainable power solutions will become a vital part of the growing renewable energy sector.

The report also highlights the need for significant regulatory and permitting reforms to overcome structural constraints and meet net-zero targets. The $83 billion allocated toward grid investment through 2030 falls short of the $255 billion investment required to align with these targets.

Against this backdrop, more than 40 clean energy organizations, environmental groups and developers have called on Congress to fund high-capacity transmission deployment and research through the U.S. Department of Energy’s budget. The coalition emphasizes the need for additional electric transmission infrastructure to support clean energy deployment, private investment, job creation and emissions reduction.

The urgency of this issue is further highlighted by Google’s announcement of a new partnership with EDP Renewables North America to deliver over 80 distributed solar photovoltaic projects, totaling 500 megawatts of new capacity. The deal is said to be the largest corporate sponsorship of distributed solar development in the U.S., according to data from S&P Global and BloombergNEF.
Surging Green Energy Stocks

Green energy has been getting considerable support from the U.S. government and Biden administration. The Biden Administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act was a $1.2 trillion bill and has since allocated hundreds of millions more to the space. This is causing certain companies like First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLR) to rally over 215% in the past ten months. The company is up over 24% today after an announcement to acquire another solar company. While currently on the decline, Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:ENPH) is still up over 3,000% in the last five years, largely due to increased government subsidies in the space. Famous electric car maker Tesla Inc.‘s early success is largely attributed to government subsidies on electric vehicles.

Malawi Establishes Agency to Oversee Trade, Marketing of Carbon Credits




Frank Jomo and Antony Sguazzin
Fri, June 23, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Malawi has created an agency to oversee its trade and marketing of carbon emission offsets, President Lazarus Chakwera said.

“Using the prevailing global market prices, the potential value of Malawi’s carbon credits is estimated at 19.9 million metric tons of carbon per annum, valued at over $600 million,” Chakwera said at the inauguration of the Carbon Marketing Initiative on Friday.

Malawi’s announcement is the latest attempt by an African government to profit from the growing trade in offsets. Zimbabwe this year decreed that the state will get half the proceeds of any carbon credit programs while Kenya is putting in place regulation to oversee the trade.

One carbon credit represents a ton of planet-warming carbon dioxide or carbon dioxide equivalent either removed from the atmosphere or prevented from entering it in the first place. The offsets are bought by emitters to mitigate the effects of their activities.

Malawi’s agency will collate an inventory to establish a national carbon registry, said Macdonald Mafuta Mwale, secretary to the Treasury. It will also will seek to find carbon credit opportunities as well as marketing and trading the securities. It has hired Switzerland’s Klik Foundation to help it assess carbon opportunities and issue internationally tradable credits.

The country signed a memorandum of understanding at the event with a Kenya-based company, Koko Networks, which sells carbon credits as part of its business of selling clean-burning bio-ethanol cook-stoves. The stoves displace the use of charcoal and wood for cooking, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Koko is “exploring the potential to build a bioethanol utility in Malawi,” Greg Murray, a co-founder of Koko and the company’s chief executive officer, said in a response to queries.

“We are encouraged by the creation of a national carbon strategy and policy in Malawi,” he said. “This is one of the areas that governments need to get right to unlock international private climate finance.”

Poland was not hub for Nord Stream sabotage, prosecutors say


Gas leak at Nord Stream 2 as seen from the Danish F-16 interceptor on Bornholm

Thu, June 22, 2023 

WARSAW (Reuters) - There is no evidence to suggest that Poland was used as a hub for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, Polish prosecutors said on Thursday, rejecting a report that a team that blew up the pipelines may have used Poland as an operating base.

It also said that there was no direct evidence to suggest that the "Andromeda", a 50-foot (15-metre) yacht suspected of being involved in explosions at the site, took part in the sabotage.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported this month that German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as its base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September.

"The statement that 'Poland was a logistics hub for the operation of blowing up Nord Stream' is completely untrue and is not supported by the evidence of the investigation," the Polish National Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

It added there was no evidence to suggest that Polish citizens participated in blowing up of the pipelines.

According to the newspaper, German investigators have reconstructed the two-week voyage of the Andromeda. Citing people familiar with the voyage, it said the sabotage crew placed deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1 before they setting the vessel on a course towards Poland.

Polish prosecutors said that the Andromeda had sailed to Poland from the German island of Ruegen and spent 12 hours in a Polish port.

"The findings of the investigation show that during the stay of the yacht in a Polish port, no items were loaded onto its deck, and the crew of the yacht was inspected by the Polish border guard," the prosecutor's office said.

Polish daily Rzeczpospolita cited the prosecutors office as saying that there were 6 people on board the yacht and that they had Bulgarian passports.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish and Pawel Florkiewicz)

Canada authorities charge Indian man for immigration fraud targeting students


The main entrance to the Canadian Border Services Agency border crossing in Lansdowne

Reuters
Fri, June 23, 2023 

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian authorities on Friday charged an Indian man for issuing fraudulent university letters of acceptance to Indian students and other immigration-related criminal offences.

Brijesh Mishra, a citizen of India, is facing five charges under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said in a statement.

CBSA said it had launched an investigation after receiving information about Mishra's status in Canada and his alleged involvement in activities related to "counseling misrepresentation."

Canada is a popular destination for international students since it is relatively easy to obtain a work permit. Official data show there were more than 800,000 foreign students with active visas in Canada in 2022, including some 320,000 from India.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported that several students from India had been served deportation papers for using forged documents to enter Canada in an alleged immigration scheme.

The acceptance letters appeared to have been written by universities but the Canada Border Services Agency informed the students the documents were fake and warned them that they could face deportation, according to the CBC report.

"Our government is taking action against those who are responsible for fraud, while protecting those who've come here to pursue their studies," Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said in a statement on Friday.

Last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced a freeze on the planned deportation of dozens of students who entered the country using fraudulent university letters.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Why Women Are Especially Vulnerable During India's Deadly Heat Waves

Astha Rajvanshi

TIME
Fri, June 23, 2023


Women covering their face with dupatta during a hot summer day at Kargil Chowk, in Patna, India, on June 4. Credit - Santosh Kumar—Hindustan Times/Getty Images

Bhanu ben Jadav has been earning her daily wage for the past 18 years by threading beads into intricate necklaces in her slum settlement of Vasant Nagar in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad. She earns around 2,500 rupees, or $30 a month, to feed her family, but the work requires patience, concentration, and cool weather—which has, of late, become near-impossible with the mercury reaching 46°C (114.8°F) this week. In recent days, at least 96 people have died from the sweltering heat in two of India’s most populous states.

“I get headaches, nausea, and vomiting, and my capacity to work shrinks,” 44-year-old Jadav tells TIME over the phone. “I lose so much in this extreme heat.”

Women like Jadav make up 65% of the world’s home-based workforce, which consists of informal workers who produce goods or services in or near their homes for local, domestic, or global markets. There are some 42 million workers like this in India alone. Now they are bearing the brunt of deadly heat waves across South Asia, which experts say could halt or even reverse India’s progress in reducing poverty, food and income security, and gender equality.

Read More: Western Architecture is Making India’s Heat Waves Worse

Last year, India’s meteorological department stated that the country experienced the hottest March since 1901, when it first began recording temperatures. A recent study by Cambridge University estimates that since April 2022, 90% of the country has been at increased risk from hunger, loss of income, or premature death during the record-breaking heat waves, which are becoming more common due to climate change.

Although April, May, and June are generally India’s hottest months, extreme heat has been arriving early in recent years. In March, over 60% of India recorded above-normal maximum temperatures.

As the frequency and intensity of heat waves increase, so does their impact. “Long-term projections indicate that Indian heat waves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050,” the Cambridge study said.

Resident Nandini Chohan, 16, paints the roof of the home she shares with her family with reflective paint following an assessment by the Mahila Housing Trust in Chandpole on June 14 in Jodhpur, India. The Mahila Housing Trust trains women to work in their communities to assess and implement measures to mitigate the impact and effects of climate change and rising temperatures, including how to keep their homes cool.

Rebecca Conway—Getty 

Jadav is usually on her feet from 6 a.m. When she isn’t sitting in the communal courtyard outside her home making necklaces, she says she travels from home-to-home as a volunteer for the Mahila Housing Trust, a local nonprofit that aims to improve women’s living and working conditions. But she says that task is made more difficult by heat exhaustion and nausea—just some of the symptoms caused by heat waves.

No group is more impacted than women. A report by HomeNet South Asia, a regional network of home-based workers, found that 43% of women surveyed had reported a loss in income and an increase in caregiving as a result of extreme heat. Another 2014 study concluded that more women died during a heat wave in Ahmedabad in 2010 when temperatures reached 47.8°C (118°F) and heat-related hospital admissions of newborns increased by 43%.

Read More: What Extreme Heat Does to the Human Body

Ronita Bardhan, an associate professor who co-authored the 2023 Cambridge study, says that while people of all genders are equally unable to cope beyond a certain temperature, women are less likely to take protective measures from the heat. “Women will not do any sort of intervention unless the temperature crosses around 32°C [89.6°F] whereas men will start to access any sort of cooling intervention as soon as it crosses around 28 or 29°C [82 or 84°F],” Bardhan says.

During long days spent inside to avoid the heat, many women suffer from dehydration. Lots of research, including the study on Ahmedabad’s 2010 deadly heatwave by the U.S. think tank Rand Corporation, has pointed to the lack of access to toilets, which leads women to drink less water to avoid relieving themselves outdoors.

Despite these factors, Jadav says that most women she knows feel too embarrassed to discuss these issues, leading to a culture of silence. “We call it the norm of a good housewife,” Bardhan says. “This cultural notion doesn’t provide women with the agency to cool themselves down; it dictates they not undertake a lot of interventions when required.”

People suffering from heat related ailments crowd the district hospital in Ballia, Uttar Pradesh, India, on June 20. A scorching heat wave in two of India’s most populous states has overwhelmed hospitals, filled a morgue to capacity and disrupted power supply, forcing staff to use books to cool patients as officials investigate the climbing death toll.

Rajesh Kumar Singh—AP

The most obvious prevention method is investing in electricity and indoor toilets, Bardhan says. But even drinking water can be “life-changing.”

Findings by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change say that the total duration of heat waves has increased by about three days in the last 30 years, and is expected to go up 12 to 18 days more by 2060.

This has pushed the Indian government, including local authorities, to develop better prevention strategies. In 2013, Ahmedabad became the first city to implement a Heat Action Plan (HAP), a guide for emergency responses to heat waves. The city has subsequently reduced the number of heat-related deaths by more than 1,000 each year.

HAP was seen as a pioneering strategy to shield people and adopted by several cities, but challenges persist. When India’s Centre for Policy Research analyzed 37 HAPs in nine cities and 13 districts across 18 states, it found that most plans weren’t built for the local context, oversimplified hazards, and poorly identified and targeted vulnerable groups. In many cases, the plans were underfunded and insufficiently transparent. On a national level, the India Cooling Action Plan, which outlines cooling measures to deal with rising heat over the next two decades, has also suffered from a lack of funding.

Workers like Jadav have turned to more informal mechanisms. She painted her roof with solar-reflective white paint, which research says is one of the quickest and easiest methods of passive cooling. (In Ahmedabad, more than 7,000 roofs belonging to low-income people have been painted.)

More recently, “parametric insurance” has emerged as a new solution to help protect women’s incomes and health. Under this initiative, workers can receive payouts on days of extreme heat, so that they don’t have to work under dangerous conditions.

In Ahmedabad, several local collectives like the Self Employed Women’s Association and Jadav’s Mahila Housing Trust, are trialing “parametric insurance.” The Mahila Housing Trust partnered with London-based Global Parametrics to design an initiative where different heat levels result in different payments. It is expected to be rolled out in three different cities by next year, says Wendy Smith, impact and ESG manager at Global Parametrics.

Jadav recently attended an information session about the program. Although she’s nervous about paying for insurance she isn’t sure will reap dividends, she says she has no other way to protect her income—or her safety.

“I need to work so my family can eat, but some days it’s just too hot,” she says. “I can’t afford an air conditioner, but if I can pay for this insurance and get something in return, it’s worth trying.”