Going Electric

India accounted for 14 cities in the list of 15 most polluted cities released by the World Health Organization last month. Kanpur, Patna, Gwalior, Varanasi, Lucknow or New Delhi and its satellite towns Gurgaon and Faridabad figure on these lists so frequently that it does not come as a surprise anymore. The government, aware of the risks this poses to citizens' health, has set ambitious targets for e, two wheelers, trucks, buses and pretty much anything that runs on wheels. Apart from improving air quality, this will also help it reduce the high dependence on crude oil imports. Every year, India imports more than 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement (220 million tonnes in 2017/18). The crude oil import bill of $88 billion in 2017/18 accounted for a quarter of all our imports. Almost 40 per