New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- India's ongoing build-up is at a scale without precedent. The National Infrastructure Pipeline projected an outlay of more than Rs.100 trillion in the five years till the end of 2024-25 across 9,000 projects in transport, energy, urban and rural development, and digital infrastructure, of which roughly a fifth are complete. Alongside, PM Gati Shakti seeks logistics corridors for digitally coordinated connectivity.

These efforts aim to lift growth, improve services and generate employment. Yet, the scale of expansion embeds long-term carbon emissions that are rarely measured.

While operational energy has received attention-how much power is consumed by buildings, how efficient transport systems are and how renewabl...