In 2015, over 10 million Indian households voluntarily gave up their LPG subsidies. No new law compelled them. No technology made it easier. A simple appeal, framed as a patriotic act of generosity toward poorer families, was enough. The 'Give It Up' campaign remains one of the world's most successful behavioural interventions, and its lesson is one India has yet to fully apply to its energy transition.
India's clean energy ambitions are impressive. Renewable capacity is expanding rapidly, electric vehicle incentives are in place, and energy efficiency standards are tightening. Yet the gap between policy intent and real-world outcomes persists. The reason is not primarily technical. It is behavioural.
Every kilowatt saved, every bus taken instead of a car, every energy-efficient appliance chosen, these are not just market or infrastructure outcomes. They are the product of human decisions, shaped by habit, social norms, and the way choices are presented. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that changes in demand and consumption behaviour alone could cut global emissions by 40 to 70 per cent by 2050. Net zero, in other words, is as much a behavioural challenge as a technological one.
Nudging toward sustainability
Behavioural science offers two complementary tools for policy. The first is nudges, which are low-cost interventions that shape how choices are presented without restricting options. The second is boosts, which are interventions that strengthen people's ability to make informed decisions for themselves.
Mission LiFE, launched in 2022, is India's most visible nudge at scale. By framing sustainable actions such as switching off lights, composting, and using public transport as everyday habits rather than sacrifices, and recognising participants as "Pro-Planet People," the programme taps into something powerful: the human desire to conform to what our neighbours do. When sustainable behaviour becomes visibly normal, it becomes socially expected.
Similar logic underpins the Home Energy Reports sent to 200,000 Delhi households by BSES Rajdhani in 2018. By simply showing residents how their electricity use compared to similar neighbours, consumption fell by 1 to 3 per cent per household, at minimal cost. India's Smart Meter National Programme now scales this feedback nationwide. The data exists. What remains is the commitment to use it behaviourally, not just technically.
Building capability, not just compliance
Nudges work best when paired with boosts that build lasting capability. In Kerala's Kattakada constituency, students became energy auditors in their own schools, identifying wasteful practices, calculating savings, and implementing fixes.
The model spread to offices and households across the constituency, turning energy literacy into a community skill. This is the kind of durable change that nudges alone cannot achieve.
BEE star labels on appliances nudge consumers at the point of purchase, but the accompanying awareness workshops that help households calculate long-term savings build the critical thinking that makes those nudges stick. Smart meters provide data; the mobile apps that help families interpret and act on that data provide capability.
Framing matters
In urban transport, behavioural framing can shift modal choices more effectively than infrastructure alone. Pune's 2023 bus frequency pilot, which improved services on low-ridership routes and added last-mile connectivity, saw over 50 per cent of surveyed users agreeing to increase bus usage.
Crucially, the programme's communication emphasised reduced waiting times and reliability, not emissions. People respond to immediate, tangible benefits. Policy communication should reflect this.
Initiatives like Raahgiri Days, which temporarily reclaim city streets for pedestrians and cyclists, do something subtler but important: they make sustainable mobility feel normal and enjoyable, not like a compromise.
Behavioural interventions are not a substitute for good infrastructure and sound regulation. They are complementary. They also carry risks. Nudges can lose effectiveness over time, trigger rebound effects or fail to reach marginalised communities if poorly designed. India's socioeconomic diversity demands that behavioural programmes be context-sensitive and inclusive, with strong data privacy protections and transparent design.
What India needs now is institutional capacity to design, test, and scale these interventions rigorously, learning from what works, discarding what doesn't, and building long-term habits rather than short-term compliance.
The 'Give It Up' campaign showed that Indians will make pro-social choices when the demand is clear, the framing is right, and the social moment is real. India's energy transition needs that same understanding of human behaviour, embedded not as an afterthought, but as a core pillar of policy design.
Technology is advancing. The policies are in place. Now India needs to meet people where they are.
The writers, Anna Paul is a Behavioural Scientist, Centre for Social and Behavioural Change (CSBC), and Ilika Mohan is a Former Research Manager, Ashoka Centre for People-centric Energy Transition (ACPET) at Ashoka University, Delhi-NCR.
Views expressed are personal and do not reflect the views of the University. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
