Globally, nearly 2.8 billion people depend on solid fuels such as firewood and biomass for their cooking needs and nearly 1 billion people live without electricity connection. Majority of such people lacking basic energy access reside in African and Asian countries including India. In the last two decades, India has made substantial progress in enhancing energy access through policies that support greater use of LPG cylinders and by expanding the electric grid. However, several issues still remain.

To understand the Indian and global energy access challenge and the required interventions, we interviewed two renowned energy access experts - Shalu Agrawal, Program lead at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and Dr Hisham Zerriffi, Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. Over the years, both Shalu and Hisham have independently led numerous studies on energy access in India and in other countries.

This is our first episode with two guests. An important disclaimer - Hisham is Sandeep’s PhD supervisor at the University of British Columbia.

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