India In Transition

Climate Undone x The ClimAct Initiative
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A podcast exploring how climate change, sustainability and the transition to a low-carbon economy are reshaping life in India. Through conversations with people working across different sectors, communities and professions, the podcast looks beyond climate targets and technical discussions to understand what these changes mean for the people experiencing them. From energy and mobility to mental health, culture, livelihoods and migration, each episode explores a different part of a country responding to climate change while continuing to develop, grow and redefine what progress looks like. At the centre of the podcast is the idea of a just transition. India’s shift towards renewable energy, cleaner technologies and more sustainable systems will create new opportunities, but it will also change industries, jobs, communities and ways of life. What makes the transition fair? Who gets to participate in shaping it? Who benefits from new opportunities, and who risks being left behind? Art Cover by Prgayan Das!

Episodes

  1. 1 day ago

    Can India Build a Sustainable Future While It Still Depends on Oil | Indian Oil

    Bibhuti Ranjan Pradhan, Executive Director – CSR at Indian Oil Corporation Limited speaks about the role oil continues to play in India’s development and what happens as the country moves towards a cleaner energy future. In this episode of India in Transition, Heeta Lakhani and Pranshu Patel talk about the bigger question - the energy transition may be inevitable but how quickly are we actually willing to make it happen? The conversation moves beyond a simple oil-versus-renewables debate. Bibhuti argues that India is dealing with multiple energy realities at once — particularly between urban and rural India — where questions of access, affordability, infrastructure and reliability can look very different. We talk about IndianOil preparing for the growth of electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers, the role of battery swapping and charging infrastructure, the importance of affordable energy storage, and whether decentralised solar and biogas systems could allow parts of rural India to leapfrog a fossil-fuel-heavy development pathway altogether. The conversation also looks at energy security, the need to diversify India’s energy sources, IndianOil’s long history of CSR, and where the line sits between corporate sustainability, CSR and genuine climate action. At the centre of the episode is a question we keep coming back to: What role does oil play in India’s sustainable development? And perhaps the bigger question is not whether the transition will happen, but how quickly India is willing and able to make it happen. About Bibhuti Ranjan Pradhan: Bibhuti Ranjan Pradhan is Executive Director – Corporate Coordination & CSR at Indian Oil Corporation Limited. His work spans corporate strategy, sustainability, stakeholder engagement and community development. In this conversation, he shares his perspective on India’s changing energy system, the future role of fossil fuels and renewables, the challenges of rural energy access, and how IndianOil is preparing for changes in mobility and energy demand. Explore IndianOil: Bibhuti Ranjan Pradhan on LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/bibhuti-ranjan-pradhan-11488518IndianOil CSR: https://www.iocl.com/pages/csr-overview Meet the Hosts:Heeta Lakhani: https://in.linkedin.com/in/heeta-lakhani-9042b677Pranshu Patel: https://in.linkedin.com/in/pranshu1999 Follow India in Transition:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/india-in-transition/about/Instagram: @india_in_transition

  2. 22 Aug

    What the Oil Crisis Means for India’s Solar Future | Ashish Khanna

    In this episode of India in Transition, Heeta Lakhani and Pranshu Patel sit down with Ashish Khanna, Director General of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), to explore why solar is increasingly becoming a question of energy security, economic strategy and development not just climate action. As geopolitical instability and fuel price shocks expose the risks of relying on imported fossil fuels, Ashish explains why countries across the Global South are looking more closely at energy that can be generated domestically, and why solar could become an even bigger part of India’s transition. But scaling solar is about much more than installing more panels. We talk about the need for energy storage and flexible electricity grids, rooftop solar, solar-powered agriculture and decentralised renewable energy. We also look at some of the harder questions around critical minerals, recycling, battery and panel waste, and what a circular solar economy could look like. The conversation then moves to the people behind the transition: what happens to workers and communities dependent on existing fossil-fuel industries? Where could the next generation of green jobs come from? And how could AI, digital infrastructure and energy trading create entirely new opportunities for young people? Finally, we zoom out to India’s wider growth story and the role it could play in demonstrating a different pathway to energy security and development across the Global South. In this episode: The oil crisis and the case for energy securityIndia’s solar transition and what comes nextStorage, grids and decentralised energySolar panels, batteries, critical minerals and recyclingJust transition, workers and communitiesAI, digital energy systems and green jobsRooftop and balcony solarIndia and the Global South Find out more: Ashish Khanna — https://in.linkedin.com/in/ashish-khanna-b68989/ International Solar Alliance — https://www.isolaralliance.org/ Heeta Lakhani — https://in.linkedin.com/in/heeta-lakhani-9042b677/ Pranshu Patel — https://in.linkedin.com/in/pranshu1999/ Climate Undone — https://www.climateundone.org The ClimAct Initiative — http://www.theclimactinitiative.org/ India in Transition is hosted by Heeta Lakhani and Pranshu Patel and created by The ClimAct Initiative and Climate Undone, exploring the people, choices and ideas shaping India’s transition.

  3. 15 Aug

    What Does a Lifetime of Hope Look Like? | Bittu Sahgal

    What does it mean to spend more than four decades fighting for nature  and still believe there is something worth fighting for? For the first episode of India in Transition, Pranshu Patel and Heeta Lakhani sit down with Bittu Sahgal, one of India’s most prominent voices for wildlife and nature conservation.Bittu has spent much of his life making the case that our ecological future cannot be separated from the choices India makes about development, economics and society. This conversation looks back at that lifetime of work, at what India has understood about conservation, what we continue to get wrong, how the environmental movement has changed and what keeps someone hopeful after witnessing decades of ecological loss and change. At the centre of the episode is a question we keep coming back to: What does a lifetime of hope look like? And perhaps more importantly, what can the rest of us learn from it? About Bittu Sahgal: Bittu Sahgal, Editor Sanctuary Asia, Head of the Sanctuary Nature Foundation, and India's one million strong Kids for Tigers program, is a strong voice for nature conservation, climate mitigation and biospheric health. He has made it his life’s mission to direct world leaders away from short-term development objectives that could compromise the ability of India to sustain its population of 1.4 billion people. He believes that the ecological foundations of all nations are the bedrock on which global economic and social foundations rest. Believing that climate change poses the greatest ever threat to humanity, he is a strong Nature Needs Half advocate who works with young adults and policy makers, arguing that rewilding Planet Earth is critical to the long term survival of Homo sapiens. Explore Bittu's work: Sanctuary Nature Foundation https://www.sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/ Kids for Tigers https://www.sanctuarynaturefoundation.org/ Bittu Sahgal on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bittusahgal/ Follow India in Transition: Website - https://climateundone.org/india-in-transition/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/india_in_transition/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@IndiaInTransition-podcast LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/india-in-transition/about/ Meet the Hosts: Heeta Lakhani LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/heeta-lakhani-9042b677 Pranshu Patel LinkedIn: https://in.linkedin.com/in/pranshu1999 The Organisations Behind the Podcast: The ClimAct Initiative: https://www.theclimactinitiative.org/ Climate Undone: https://climateundone.org/

  • 3 Episodes

About

A podcast exploring how climate change, sustainability and the transition to a low-carbon economy are reshaping life in India. Through conversations with people working across different sectors, communities and professions, the podcast looks beyond climate targets and technical discussions to understand what these changes mean for the people experiencing them. From energy and mobility to mental health, culture, livelihoods and migration, each episode explores a different part of a country responding to climate change while continuing to develop, grow and redefine what progress looks like. At the centre of the podcast is the idea of a just transition. India’s shift towards renewable energy, cleaner technologies and more sustainable systems will create new opportunities, but it will also change industries, jobs, communities and ways of life. What makes the transition fair? Who gets to participate in shaping it? Who benefits from new opportunities, and who risks being left behind? Art Cover by Prgayan Das!

Information

  • Creator
    Climate Undone x The ClimAct Initiative
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Climate Undone x The ClimAct Initiative
  • Show Website
    India In Transition