Meanwhile, the two-wheeler segment is set for a radical change. Bangalore-based Electrotherm launched the Yo bike this February in Gujarat. It is a no-petrol, pollution-free battery-operated two-wheeler costing between Rs 16,000-29,000 with a maximum speed of 25 kmph. For the cost of a litre of petrol, the Yo can run 700 km. It also has a anytime, anyplace battery charger.

Hero Honda and Atlas are working on similar battery-powered vehicles. “Two-wheelers are 26 per cent of all Indian vehicles, and the difference in total emissions will be large if they go green,” said Dilip Chenoy, head of Society for Indian Automobiles Manufacturers (SIAM).

AGRICULTURE:
APPLES TO CHERRIES IN HIMACHAL
First a delayed and insufficient winter snowfall. Later a sharp, sudden rise in the temperatures and then an untimely hailstorm. Alarm bells are ringing in Himachal Pradesh, home to the country’s choicest apples.

So it is for staples like wheat, rice too. But apples are important as the state Government earns Rs 1,500 crore from the orchards. Himachal has lost as much as 60 per cent of the crop to erratic weather. “The apple crop is weather-stressed,” admit horticulturists across the prosperous fruit belt. “Looking at other crops is the solution,” they say.

The YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry at Solan has some suggestions. Says Jagmohan Singh, Vice-Chancellor: “We have strongly recommended to the government and to orchard owners that they gradually shift to other fruits. We have successfully tested and endorsed planting of new fruit varieties like pears, apricots, plums and kiwi fruit. All these tolerate a wider temperature band.”

... contd.