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Saumya Khandelwal

Inside New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, just born twins nestle against the skin of their aunt Neerja Kumari, while their mother, Sunita, recuperates. Kangaroo mother care—attending to newborns while they rest skin-to-skin against the mother or a surrogate—is well known, especially in developing countries, as a way to strengthen fragile low-birth-weight babies. A recent study coordinated by the World Health Organization at Safdarjung and four African hospitals found that kangaroo care is even more effective when it’s nearly continuous and starts immediately after birth, rather than for a few hours a day after the baby is judged stable. Researchers estimate this approach could save 150,000 lives a year.

Migrants climb onto a truck which will take them toward their village on the outskirts of Lucknow, India, on May 6, 2020. When the Indian government announced a nationwide lockdown on March 24, it requested that people stay put, wherever they were. But that created a shortage of food for the huge migrant population in cities—so, after much deliberation and implementation of new public safety measures, state governments coordinated efforts to transport the migrants to their homes on special trains.

Tenzin Cheojor (wearing a grey cap), a technician with Global Himalayan Expedition, and Tenzin Chosdan, a driver, lay wires to supply electricity, while the occupants of the home look on. With the new solar panels installed in Yal, residents will have access to enough reliable power to light their homes, rather than intermittently run just a lightbulb or two.

Shakir Hussian, a solar engineer with Global Himalayan Expedition, follows Nawang Phunchok up to the roof of his house in Yal village where he is setting up a solar panel. Phunchok had owned one before, but it stopped working after five years.

Ladakh is a mountainous region in India with many isolated villages that have never been connected to the nation's electric grid. Entrepreneurs and activists are seeking to bring power to such hard-to-reach places through solar power, which has become increasingly affordable.

Mumtaz Ahmed Chopan, with TATA Power Project, installs wires on utility poles, preparing for a major solar plant to be built in Zanskar, an administrative district in Ladakh.

Workers from NTPC, a power company, inspect panels at the solar park. The gigantic facility is one of 42 such solar parks that India has established. With an output of more than 2.2 gigawatts, it's the largest facility of its kind in the world.

The Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan, spreads over 14,000 acres of desert. By 2030, India has pledged to nearly quadruple its renewable energy capacity to 500 gigawatts, an amount that would supply half of the country's projected energy needs.

On the last leg of a two-day trip that began with a drive over treacherous mountain roads, workers with Global Himalayan Expedition help carry solar panels to the village of Yal in Ladakh, India. The company organizes treks for socially minded tourists to bring solar power to Indian villages that have no electricity.

Medical workers arrive at a community kitchen to test people for COVID-19 in a virus hotspot in Lucknow, India.