Powering Equity - Engendering India's EV Policy
- theZURI
- Aug 4
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 9
Introducing Powering Equity - the second ZURI Lever Edition - A 12-month, 18-part inquiry into how gender responsiveness can be embedded in the design of India’s electric mobility ecosystem.
At Crossroads - India’s EV Transition & the Equity Imperative
India’s electric vehicle (EV) transition is no longer an emerging priority. It is an active set of policies. Anchored in climate ambition, industrial policy, and energy security, the EV ecosystem is being rapidly shaped through flagship programmes like FAME (now in its 2nd phase), Production Linked Incentives (PLI) for domestic manufacturing, and over 25 state-level EV policies. India’s EV revolution is picking up speed, backed by public & private investments, ambitious targets, and a strong industrial policy push.
Infrastructure is being laid, market incentives disbursed, adoption targets set
But beneath the surface of charging stations and production-linked incentives, behind the technical designs, schemes and financial instruments, a risk is gaining ground. A risk that this seemingly gender neutral green transformation will reinforce deep-seated exclusions unless equity is wired into its design.
The question to ask now is not just how fast we transition, but also who gets to ride the future, and who gets left behind
The EV transition is not just technological. It is economic, spatial, and social. It defines who moves, who benefits, who is counted in infrastructure design, and who is positioned to own, work, and build in this new economy.
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In a country where over 80% of working women are in the informal economy, where women make up nearly 60% of public transport users, and where care related travel is a daily necessity for women who shoulder more than 90% of the unpaid care work in India, the lack of recognition of the gender linked differences in one of India’s future focussed transition efforts, signals more than just a gap.
It reveals a policy architecture that does not yet see women as drivers, owners, workers or co-developers of the electric vehicle ecosystem and its transition. Without an intentional equity lens, at least on gender, India’s EV policy architecture risks replicating, if not deepening historical exclusions.
This is not a small omission. It is a systemic design failure
The shift toward green mobility must be a transition that is not only electric, but equitable
Introducing the Lever Edition
To respond to this policy moment, theZURI Policy Accelerator launches its second flagship Lever Edition, Powering Equity – Engendering India’s EV Policy
This India focussed edition is a 12-month policy-facing deep dive designed for ministries, state governments, think tanks, donors, OEMs, and financial institutions working on the future of mobility and energy transitions. It is not a campaign. It is a strategic knowledge offering, evidence-based, institutionally actionable, and grounded in systemic reform.
Over the next year, this edition will roll out 18 interlinked outputs.
12 long-form features on systemic levers of equitable transition across the Indian EV policy ecosystem
6 policy specific gender responsiveness scorecards based on theZURI Prism framework, a proprietary framework developed by theZURI to facilitate gender responsive policy making and advocacy.
These outputs are designed to inform -
Programme and policy design and reviews
Budget and incentive realignment
Public–private implementation strategies
Capacity building and institutional gender audits
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The Edition Framework
This Lever Edition is anchored in three interlinked strands:
ZURI Lever Series
A 12-part analytical series structured across three arcs.
Framing the Challenge (Issues 1–3)
Levers of Change (Issues 4–8)
Roadmap to Inclusion (Issues 9–12)
Each feature offers a diagnostic and strategic pathway to rewire equity into India’s EV ecosystem. You can find more information on the 12 Part Series of the Powering Equity ZURI Lever Edition here
ZURI Policy Prism Scorecards
The ZURI Prism Policy Scorecard is a proprietary assessment tool to evaluate gender responsiveness in public policy. Just as a prism takes in white light and reveals a full spectrum of colours, the Prism framework takes a seemingly gender neutral policy and reveals a spectrum of gender linked inclusions & exclusions. The ZURI Prism evaluates policies across seven parameters critical to gender responsive design. Each parameter corresponds to a crucial dimension where blind spots have the high risk of occurring and where design corrections can have the most lasting impact.
This Powering Equity Lever Edition includes six ZURI Prism Policy Scorecards, covering both national and state-level EV policies. Find more details on what to expect from these scorecards here on Who Gets Left Behind in India’s EV Push?
What to Expect - The 12-Part Lever Series
Framing the Challenge (Issues 1–3)
Introducing the gaps, context, and urgency of engendering EV policy by integrating gender responsiveness across the EV policy landscape in India
Feature 1 - Who Gets to Ride the Future? Framing Equity in India’s EV Transition
📅 12th Aug 2025 This opening article sets the context for the Lever Edition. It outlines why equity must be central to India’s EV policy, introduces the core challenges of the EV policy ecosystem, and identifies five policy levers that can guide the transition.
❓ What are the systemic exclusions shaping India’s EV transition?
Feature 2 - EV Policy Ecosystem – Architecture, Actors, and Blind Spots
📅 1st Oct 2025 India’s EV policies span ministries and missions but remain fragmented and gender-blind. This article maps the institutional landscape, identifies who shapes the transition, and where equity falls through the cracks.
❓ If policy design is fragmented and so called gender neutral, who falls through the cracks?
Feature 3 - Why Gender Must Be a Structuring Principle — Not an Add-On
📅 9th Oct 2025 This article argues for making gender equity foundational to EV policy. It unpacks the risks of gender-neutral design and explores how caregiving, informal work, and spatial exclusions shape access to EVs.
❓ What happens when policies ignore caregiving, informal work, and spatial inequality?
Levers of Change (Issues 4–8)
A focused sub-series on five Levers that must be rewired for a gender responsive EV transition
Feature 4 - Lever 1: Inclusive Product and Vehicle Design
📅 30th Sep 2025 Current EV designs overlook diverse users. This article explores design challenges and opportunities to align vehicles with caregiving trips, safety needs, and body ergonomics for women and non-dominant users.
❓ Who are EVs designed for—and who cannot use them safely or effectively?
Feature 5 - Lever 2: Equitable Charging Infrastructure
📅 21st Oct 2025 Charging stations are skewed toward urban, commercial centres, with no safety or access audits. This article proposes how infrastructure can serve diverse geographies, use-cases, and social contexts.
❓ Can we call it future facing infrastructure if half the population can’t safely access it?
Feature 6 - Lever 3: Workforce Participation and Skilling
📅 11th Nov 2025 Women are underrepresented across the EV value chain. This article maps the barriers and proposes workforce inclusion pathways via skilling, SHG-based models, and safe employment ecosystems.
❓ Who is building the EV economy & who is being left behind in the green jobs revolution?
Feature 7 - Lever 4: Gender Responsive Budget & Inclusive Financing
📅 2nd Dec 2025 EV policies lack gender-tagged budgets and inclusion-linked finance. This article explores how to embed equity in public subsidies, capital flows, and blended finance instruments.
❓ Where does the money go?
Feature 8 - Lever 5: Data, Accountability, and Feedback Loops
📅 13th Jan 2026 No national EV scheme currently mandates gender-disaggregated data or outcome audits. This article proposes systems of accountability and reporting that can institutionalise course correction.
❓ How do we govern equity outcomes if we don’t measure them?
Roadmap to Inclusion (Issues 9–12)
Translate insights into institutional pathways, reform strategies, and accountability frameworks
Feature 9 - Policy Practice Interface – How Public Incentives Shape Private Sector Inclusion
📅 3rd Feb 2026 Public EV subsidies influence private enterprise. This article analyses how state-led schemes shape corporate hiring, procurement, and design—and how inclusion can be embedded in conditionalities.
❓ Should public funds support companies that can’t show who they include?
Feature 10 - Action Pathways - Who Must Act, Where & How
📅 3rd Mar 2026 This article presents an action matrix for ministries, state EV cells, OEMs, financiers, and civil society actors. It identifies inclusive transition pathways for India’s central and state specific EV policies.
❓ Who holds the levers of change—and are they acting in coordination or isolation?
Feature 11 - Designing Equity into the Transition – From Gaps to Governance
📅 14th Apr 2026 Equity is not a corrective—it is a system design principle. This feature consolidates the framing of EVs as a state–market–citizen interface and proposes governance frameworks for inclusion.
❓ Is equity an afterthought—or a principle embedded into the system's design?
Feature 12 - A Gender Responsive EV Sector Transition Roadmap
📅 5th May 2026 The final issue of the Powering Equity Lever Edition will draft a strategic inclusive transition roadmap for the EV sector in India, based on insights generated through the year and learnings distilled through the policy labs (hosted under theZURI Policy Accelerator)
❓ Can we move from policy intent to institutional delivery—at scale and with urgency?
Who Gets Left Behind in India’s EV Policy Push?
A series of Gender Responsiveness Scorecards of India’s flagship EV policies including a select set of state EV Policies
ZURI Prism Policy Scorecard 1
FAME-II Prism Policy Scorecard - An initial investigation into India’s flagship EV subsidy programme
📅 15th Sep 2025 A ₹10,000 crore policy instrument for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric Vehicles, that has catalysed adoption, nudged the auto sector, and expanded charging infrastructure. But in our latest evaluation using the ZURI Prism, we ask a harder question.
❓Who benefits from this public investment? Who is excluded by design or by default?
ZURI Prism Policy Scorecard 2 - 6
State EV Policy Scorecards – Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat
📅 Nov 2025 – Aug 2026 These scorecards examine the gender responsiveness of five state EV policies using the ZURI Prism framework. Each policy is assessed across core dimensions
Intent & Framing
Participation & Representation
Institutional Capacity & Mandates
Finance, Budgeting & Resource Allocation
Design Features & Delivery Mechanisms
Data, Evidence & Monitoring
Sustainability & Systemic Integration
Together, these reviews surface multi-state patterns in how gender is or is not integrated into subnational EV transition frameworks.
❓ Can India build an inclusive national EV transition if its subnational policies remain gender blind?
Up next: Issue 1 – Who Gets to Ride the Future? Framing the challenge, surfacing systemic exclusions, and introducing the five levers of change.
Partner with theZURI Policy Accelerator
Host institutional briefings, policy dialogues or focussed policy labs using insights, tools and strategies designed in collaboration with theZURI
Co-develop inclusive reform pilots and EV implementation strategies
Commission custom ZURI Prism scorecards for your programme, sector or scheme or region
Design your policy advocacy strategy in collaboration with theZURI policy accelerator
Build institutional capacity on gender-responsive budgeting and programme design
Localise learning at the state level or within sectoral missions
How to Engage
🧩 Use the articles, scorecards, and tools in programme and budget reviews
🗣️ Engage your institutional partners with the data and insights
🤝 Partner with theZURI Policy Accelerator to shape inclusive EV transitions - email us at hello@the-zuri.org
