Various states in India are deprioritizing power supply to industries in favour of consumer household use. So domestic news is playing those "govt reduces power supply to industries by 50%" headlines. [1]
Use of ACs and air coolers has skyrocketed the demand for power (38 year high), thereby increasing demand for Coal. Internal politics is now totally fixated on Coal stocks and supply for each state. National govt even blamed some states for "not taking ample steps to end power shortage, not buying enough coal". [2]
National govt cancelled 650 passenger trains to ensure timely delivery of coal supplies by train rakes to states.
[1] https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18Live/status/1520308462533550080
[2] https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18Live/status/1519929083588902912
I get the immediate need for electricity, but talk about increasing coal stocks sounds weird nonetheless in light of what the goals are now in Western countries.
But if talk of an "accelerated coal phase out" were to come up, it will face some pushback and phasing-out pace will only be in line with development and growth targets. I wouldn't be surprised if politicians point to emissions by developed nations over the years and term India as a victim of it.
Consumers would happily switch to EVs that are priced right. That shift may occur fairly quickly. The grid going hybrid is a work in progress. Coal is now showing how "elastic" it can be to meet demand spikes like these, so it may stick around longer.
The rest of the world, of course, is full of pompous hypocrites who say one thing to arm-twist nations like India, while doing exactly the opposite at home (see, climate-change, Russian-oil etc.). Little wonder there is little trust of the West in the global south (except in "elite" circles).
Coming to climate modifying aerosols I haven't heard/read this being discussed. A comparable exercise, cloud seeding, was done couple of years ago. But it was very geographically limited. What we are experiencing right now is unprecedented. So I guess we just have to wait it out.
For comparison; Bangalore used to see high summer temperature of 32-34 about a decade ago. It's gotten progressively worse. To an extent that Bangalore reached ~35-36 as soon as summer months began, mid/late March.
By far the harshest heat I've experienced is back in 2015, early May in Delhi, India. I don't know what the temperature was but the blast of heat wave as soon as I exited from office building is vivid in my memory. Couple of days later I read in news that a few cars spontaneously caught fire around the office building I visited.
Also, fire broke out last week in Delhi last week[1]. So yeah, it's quite bad.
Edit: more content.
[1] https://www.india.com/news/delhi/video-delhi-bhalswa-landfil...