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New Delhi,  May 12 : India’s renewable energy (RE) generation rose 20 per cent in FY26, while coal and lignite-based generation declined 4.3 per cent year-on-year, according to the latest annual edition of the Market Handbook released today by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water’s Green Finance Centre (CEEW-GFC). The Handbook notes that India added a record 57.5 GW of net power generation capacity in FY26, up from 33.2 GW in FY25. RE (including large hydro) accounted for 54.6 GW (~95 per cent) of the net capacity addition. Solar (grid-scale and rooftop) led RE additions with 44.6 GW, followed by wind at 6.1 GW, taking India’s total installed capacity to ~533 GW, with RE (including large hydro) contributing nearly 52 per cent.

CEEW-GFC’s Handbook tracks key developments in India’s electricity, and green finance sectors and their role in the country’s broader energy transition.

RE pipeline, tenders and auctions 

As of March 2026, ~151 GW of RE capacity (including large hydro but excluding rooftop solar) is under construction, with ~90 GW, ~29 GW, ~19 GW, and ~13 GW coming from solar, wind, hybrid, and large hydro respectively. On the tenders announced front, Renewable Energy Implementing Agencies (REIAs) issued 10.4 GW of renewable energy tenders. Auctions by REIAs and state agencies accounted for 14.25 GW, with innovative formats accounting for 76 per cent of auctioned capacity, according to the CEEW-GFC Handbook.

The Handbook identifies FY26 as a key inflection point for energy storage, with 37 storage tenders announced, including 31 for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), underscoring storage’s critical role in India’s clean energy transition. Andhra Pradesh’s APTRANSCO tender set a new record-low tariff of INR 1.23 per unit for two-hour BESS, 33 per cent below the FY25 benchmark.

Gagan Sidhu, Director, CEEW-GFC, said, 

“India’s energy transition continues to gather pace, with RE accounting for ~95 per cent of net capacity addition in FY26 and RE generation seeing a 20 per cent increase over the previous year. CEEW-GFC’s Market Handbook shows that this year, we saw a more competitive market, with a 35 per cent market concentration. However, at the same time the sector is also at an important crossroads. FDI saw a 26 per cent drop in the first three quarters of FY26 compared to the same period in FY25. In light of the multiple global disruptions playing out, it is all the more critical that we keep on track to achieve our RE targets.”

DISCOM health and smart meters

The CEEW-GFC Handbook highlights a marked improvement in the financial health of India’s power distribution companies (DISCOMs). Legacy dues owed to generating companies fell sharply to INR 4,109 crore as of February 2026, down from INR 49,451 crore in January 2024, highlighting the success of late payment surcharge rules. ~65 million smart consumer meters have been installed across the country.

Green finance

Sovereign Green Bonds worth INR 20,000 crore were issued through four equal 30-year tranches at a coupon rate of 6.98 per cent. Cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in RE for the first three quarters of FY26 stood at USD 2.5 billion, with solar energy attracting 79 per cent of these flows.

Bengaluru, India, May 12:  Leading global professional services firm Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) India has announced the appointment of Barathi Srinivasan, KK Venkata, and Dnyanesh Nirwan as Managing Directors across its Business Transformation Services and Infrastructure & Capital Projects practices, with all three leaders based in Bengaluru. These appointments are aligned with A&M’s continued investment in accelerating its presence in India, including the recent expansion of its Bengaluru office, as the firm strengthens its on-ground capabilities to support clients across key sectors.

Barathi Srinivasan joins the Business Transformation Services practice, focusing on Consumer & Retail transformation. She brings over 15 years of consulting and operating experience, including close to a decade at Amazon India where she built and scaled multiple businesses across categories, private brands, product, and supply chain operations.

KK Venkata joins the Business Transformation Services practice with a focus on Energy and Natural Resources. With over 20 years of consulting experience, he has advised clients across oil & gas, power, renewables, and mining on growth strategy, cost optimization, and large-scale capital and sustainability initiatives across India, Southeast Asia, and North America. Prior to A&M, he spent nine years at Oliver Wyman, including as the office leader for its Jakarta office, and has also worked with McKinsey & Company and Kearney.

Dnyanesh Nirwan joins A&M’s Infrastructure & Capital Projects practice. He brings over 24 years of experience advising clients on complex capital programs across power, EPC, transportation, and real estate, with a focus on cost optimization, schedule acceleration, and digital and AI-enabled project delivery. Prior to joining A&M, he spent nine years with McKinsey & Company, where he most recently served as Associate Partner.

Himanshu Bajaj, Managing Director & Head – A&M India and GCC, said, “A&M continues to invest in building a differentiated platform in India, anchored in sector depth and execution excellence. As clients navigate growth, disruption, and increasing complexity, there is a clear need for integrated capabilities that deliver measurable outcomes. The addition of Barathi, KK, and Dnyanesh further strengthens our ability to support clients across consumer, energy, and infrastructure sectors.” 

Barathi Srinivasan, Managing Director, A&M India, said, “Consumer businesses are being reshaped by evolving customer expectations, digital adoption, and new commerce models. A customer-obsessed approach, combined with disciplined execution, is critical to driving sustained impact. A&M’s focus on practical outcomes provides a strong foundation to support this transformation, and I look forward to working with clients to deliver meaningful change.” 

KK Venkata, Managing Director, A&M India, said, “Energy and natural resources sectors are navigating a period of uncertainty and transition. Leaders have an enhanced challenge balancing immediate needs for resilience while investing into optionalities for future when the growth cycle reopens. A&M’s integrated capabilities provide a strong foundation to support clients through this transition, and I’m excited to join and contribute to this journey.” 

Dnyanesh Nirwan, Managing Director, A&M India, said, “India’s ambition to become a developed nation by 2047 will require a significant scale-up of infrastructure across sectors. Delivering these programs will depend on strong execution, cost discipline, and innovation in project delivery. A&M’s track record in large-scale transformation provides a strong foundation to support this opportunity, and I look forward to working with clients to help unlock its full potential.

May, 12 : Nearly half (48%) of Indian professionals say they would actively look at or seriously consider joining an Indian homegrown company if laid off tomorrow, yet 47% cite toxic workplace culture as their top concern, more than twice as high as higher than pay gap concerns (18%), according to the latest survey of 1,205 Indian professionals by Blind, the anonymous community app for professionals. 

Quality-of-life concerns dominate economic ones. 47% fear toxic culture and an additional 18% worry about losing work-life balance, meaning 65% prioritize workplace environment over the 18% who cite pay gaps as their biggest concern. This suggests workplace culture, not compensation, is the primary barrier for India’s homegrown sector.

When asked which Indian homegrown company they would join, Flipkart leads at 20% among all respondents, followed by Zomato and Swiggy at 14%, Zoho at 10%, Paytm and PhonePe at 7%, and Freshworks at 6%. Traditional IT services giants TCS, Infosys, and HCL collectively received just 3% despite being India’s largest tech employers. 40% selected “none of the above,” suggesting that the companies capable of meeting their workplace expectations either don’t exist yet or haven’t built the reputations needed to compete with global employers. 

The cultural concerns are not unfounded. On Blind, where verified employees can anonymously review their employers and access other companies’ reviews, even top-choice companies face scrutiny. One Flipkart employee wrote, “You will feel at home if you have no life outside of work,” while a Zoho employee cited “No WFH. No overtime benefits. Weekends have to be sacrificed for work. Poor work life balance.” A prior Blind survey found that 83% of Indian IT professionals experience burnout, with 25% working 70+ hours weekly.

Despite these workplace challenges, interest in Indian homegrown firms comes primarily from employees at global tech giants, with Microsoft (7.6%), Amazon (6.8%), Oracle (4.1%), and Google (3.2%) leading the list of respondents open to joining Indian companies. Blind’s internal AI, which analyzes employee sentiment, search behavior, and engagement patterns across companies, backs this up. Between February 2025 and May 2026, Flipkart, PhonePe, and Infosys ranked as the top three most searched Indian homegrown companies at both Microsoft and Amazon. If Indian firms can address workplace culture problems, they could attract top-tier employees working at the world’s leading tech companies.

Professionals are vocal about the need for change. In a Blind post discussing toxic tech culture in India, a verified Microsoft employee wrote, “We need to find a way to pivot mindset and boost mental health.” The opportunity is clear: Big Tech employees are watching, and the next Indian unicorn could be built by talent already willing to return, if homegrown firms can prove they’ve adopted Silicon Valley’s best practices rather than its worst habits.

Methodology

Blind surveyed 1,205 India-based professionals between April 27–May 6, 2026, on their willingness to join Indian homegrown companies. Response breakdowns by question are as follows:

• If you were laid off from your current role tomorrow, how likely would you be to join an Indian homegrown company?

  • Actively looking at them already (13%)

  • Would seriously consider it (35%)

  • Only as a last resort (34%)

  • Not a chance (18%)

• Which Indian homegrown company would you join?

• Flipkart (20%)

• Zomato / Swiggy (14%)

• Zoho (10%)

• Paytm / PhonePe (7%)

• Freshworks (6%)

• TCS / Infosys / HCL (3%)

• None of the above(40%)

• What’s your biggest hesitation, if any?

• Toxic culture (47%)

• Pay gap (18%)

• Work-life balance concerns (18%)

• No hesitation (7%)

• Job security or layoff risk (6%)

• Career growth ceiling (4%)

Recognising ongoing commitment to sustainability and carbon management

 SYDNEY, May 12– Epson Australia has been recognised as a CitySwitch Champion for the third consecutive year, affirming the company’s long-term commitment to sustainability leadership, carbon management and practical climate action across its Australian operations.

 

 (l-r) Epson Australia’s environment and sustainability manager Fatida Un and North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker

The CitySwitch Awards celebrate businesses demonstrating genuine progress in areas such as emissions tracking, waste reduction, sustainable procurement and staff engagement.

Epson was formally honoured at the North Sydney Council Champion Lunch with the award presented by North Sydney Mayor Zoë Baker.

This achievement reflects Epson’s sustained commitment to transparency, data-driven carbon reduction and continuous environmental improvement.

CitySwitch is Australia’s flagship decarbonisation program for businesses. Run by council partners and NABERS, the initiative supports office-based organisations to measure, manage and reduce their carbon footprint on the path to net zero emissions.

Since joining CitySwitch as a signatory in 2023, Epson has reported annually on energy use, emissions and waste across its five Australian workplaces and built a robust foundation for long-term carbon management.

Key achievements to date include:

• Transitioning all Australia and New Zealand offices to 100% renewable electricity

• Reducing landfill waste at its primary warehouse facility by more than half compared with FY2023 levels

• Shifting inbound freight from road to rail, cutting logistics-related emissions

• Developing a full Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions framework, aligning local goals with Epson’s global science-based targets

• Enhancing energy efficiency at its Sydney head office, reducing overall electricity use

• Improving recycling processes across its Sydney offices and the recyclability of consumer product packaging 

While continued emissions reduction remains a priority, Epson is equally focused on building robust systems, data quality and organisational capability to support meaningful, long-term progress.

Craig Heckenberg, Managing Director, Epson Australia and New Zealand said, “Being recognised for a third time as a CitySwitch Champion is a valued acknowledgement of the commitment and hard work of our teams across Australia. It reinforces our approach of connecting sustainability to everyday decisions from how we source electricity and manage waste, to how we design systems and ship products. Every improvement brings us closer to a low-carbon future.”

The annual CitySwitch Champions Forum also brings together participants to share practical insights into carbon management. This year, Epson presented on building a practical approach to carbon tracking, drawing from its own journey of “progress over perfection”. This includes:

    • Starting with the data already available

    • Focusing on key emissions hotspots

    • Connecting reduction efforts directly to business priorities

    • Maintaining steady momentum through collaboration and knowledge sharing

By applying this pragmatic approach, Epson continues to strengthen its operational sustainability while supporting the company’s broader global target of achieving carbon negativity and underground resource-free status by 2050.

Epson’s recognition as a three-time CitySwitch Champion demonstrates its leadership as an innovation-driven manufacturer that embeds sustainability into products and operations alike.

Through collaborations like CitySwitch, the company continues its commitment to act decisively on its decarbonisation journey.

Learn more about sustainability at Epson Australia here: https://www.epson.com.au/about/sustainability/

 Founded in 2005, CitySwitch initially focused on office energy efficiency before expanding to help businesses integrate broader sustainability practices — including waste reduction, green procurement and Scope 3 emissions management.

The boutique marketing firm is recognized for its trademarked approach to interpreting marketing and communications impact through human-centered analysis

 

ORLANDO, FL (May 12) – Kafka Media Group, an integrated marketing firm, has been named a winner in the 32nd Annual Communicator Awards for its proprietary Soft-Analytics® methodology, recognizing the agency’s innovation in modern communications strategy and marketing intelligence.

Presented by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts, the Communicator Awards honor excellence and innovation across the communications industry, with thousands of entries submitted annually by agencies, organizations, and brands worldwide.

Soft-Analytics® is Kafka Media Group’s trademarked methodology that combines traditional performance metrics with human insight, strategic interpretation, and contextual analysis to help clients better understand the true impact of their marketing and communications efforts.

“Soft-Analytics® was built around a simple idea: data alone cannot tell the full story,” said Pierce Kafka, CEO & Creative Director of Kafka Media Group. “In a communications landscape increasingly shaped by automation and AI-generated content, interpretation, strategy, and context matter more than ever. This recognition validates the importance of understanding not just what happened in a campaign, but why it mattered.”

Unlike traditional reporting that focuses solely on impressions or mentions, Soft-Analytics® evaluates the context, sentiment, momentum, and strategic value behind media coverage and audience engagement.

Kafka Media Group officially trademarked Soft-Analytics® in 2025 as part of its broader effort to redefine how communications impact is evaluated and interpreted. The methodology has been applied across its integrated marketing and publicity campaigns, helping clients translate visibility into actionable strategic growth.

“This recognition reinforces what we believe the industry is moving toward: smarter measurement, stronger storytelling, and more strategic interpretation of what drives real influence,” Kafka added.