India to keep leading Sustainable Energy Agenda

by | Jan 30, 2020 | Environment, Sustainability

Decarbonization of the energy sector is gaining momentum in India, and the government is working to improve energy efficiency and promotion of alternate fuels.
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The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dhamendra Pradhan has said that India will continue to lead the global sustainable energy agenda. Delivering the key note address at the TERI’s World Sustainable Development Summit 2020 on ‘Energy Future Road Map’ here today, the Minister said “We, in India, are in the midst of a major transformative shift in our energy sector, both in scale and complexity and also the interdependence across different systems. The trajectory to end energy poverty in India, as compared to the rest of the world, is based on our special national circumstances. The right mix of enablers are being put in place to ensure that the energy transition is secure, affordable, reliable and sustainable.” He added, “to end energy poverty in the country, we will remain cognizant of the need to root economic development firmly to achieve the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made at COP 21.”

Briefing about energy requirements, the Minister said “India is now the third largest energy consumer after the US and China. While our energy demand increased to 882 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2017, the per capita consumption of energy is still 30% of the global average. Our energy consumption is projected to grow at 4.2 percent per annum up to 2035. India’s share of the total global primary energy demand is set to roughly double to about 11 percent by 2040, driven by strong economic development. In India, we are finding ways to achieve the twin objectives of more energy availability and less carbon through a healthy mix of all commercially-viable energy sources.”

Pradhan added that despite our system-wide energy transition measures, crude oil would continue to play a critical role at this stage of development in meeting country’s energy requirements. He said the Government has set out a road map for reducing India’s crude oil imports by 10% by 2022. “We are in the process of developing new strategies and initiatives to achieve this target. We are working towards transformation to a gas-based economy, tapping into indigenously produced biofuels, apart from adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, to achieve the much-needed carbon reductions. As part of the energy transition, decarbonization of the energy sector is picking up momentum in India” Pradhan said. The Minister also stated that government is working to improve energy efficiency and productivity, demand substitution, improving refinery processes and promotion of bio and alternate fuels.

Dharmendra Pradhan also said “the biggest game-changer in our drive to bring about greater environmental sustainability and flexibility in the energy system is through the rapid deployment of natural gas in our energy mix”. He also added “we are advancing our collaboration with countries, such as Brazil and the US, to improve blending technologies in transport sector. To reduce vehicular pollution, BS VI quality fuel, equivalent to Euro 6 standard, will be supplied in the entire country from 1 April this year. Given the abundance of biomass in the country, the use of Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) will be promoted in a big way in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.”

The Minister further said that in the global drive to secure sustainable energy, India is defining new pathways keeping in view its unique energy needs. “India will continue to play an active role in leading the global sustainable energy agenda. Our commitment to keep carbon footprint to low levels remains unwavered as we pursue to enhance energy footprint in the country” He added.

On the occasion, Dharmendra Pradhan also released a report ‘Towards a low carbon steel sector’ – Overview of the changing market, technology and policy context for Indian steel.

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Tracking Swachh Bharat: 5th survey launched

Tracking Swachh Bharat: 5th survey launched

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing & Urban Affairs today launched the Swachh Survekshan 2020 (SS 2020), the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), said a PIB release. Alongside, the Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit, SBM Water PLUS Protocol and Toolkit, Swachh Nagar – an integrated waste management app and AI enabled mSBM App were also launched.

The event was webcast live for states and cities to witness the launches from across the country. The event also saw the release of a special Swachh Survekhan theme song featuring Kangana Ranaut, singers Kailash Kher and Monali Thakur. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA, V.K. Jindal, Joint Secretary & Mission Director, and representatives from serval urban local bodies were also present at the launch.

Speaking at the launch event, Puri said, “Earlier this year, we had launched Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) with the objective of sustaining the on ground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance on cleanliness. Today’s event for launching the Swachh Survekshan 2020, with field survey to be conducted in January 2020, is particularly significant since it gives us the opportunity to reaffirm once again our promise for a Clean, Garbage Free and Sanitary “New India”, by not only sustaining the gains that we have made under the SBM, but also by providing a roadmap to institutionalize the concept of total Swachhata among all our cities.”

The Swachh Survekshan 2020 Toolkit launched by the Minister contains the detailed survey methodology and component indicators with scores to help cities to prepare themselves for the survey.

Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA during his presentation on SS 2020 mentioned, “Every year, the Swachh Survekshan is redesigned innovatively, to ensure that the process becomes more and more robust, with focus on sustaining the changed behaviours.” He also elaborated on the key focus areas of SS 2020, and highlighted the key differentiators of SS 2020 from SS 2019.

In line with the focus on continuity and sustainability, a major focus of SS 2020 indicators, both for the quarterly and annual assessments – has been on complete faecal sludge management and waste water treatment, in line with the Government’s promise made in its election manifesto. Reiterating its commitment to the cause, the Ministry also launched the Water PLUS Protocol and the accompanying Toolkit.

Moving beyond ODF, ODF+ and ODF++, the Water PLUS protocol aims to provide a guideline for cities and towns to ensure that no untreated wastewater is released into the environment thereby enabling sustainability of the sanitation value chain. This is in line with the Government’s focus on water conversation and reuse under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan and also aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals on clean water and sanitation. The toolkit provides the detailed SBM Water Plus protocol laid down by MoHUA, along with declaration formats to be obtained from various stakeholders, that wards / work circles (in case under jurisdiction of development authority) and cities are required to submit, as part of the SBM Water Plus declaration and certification process.

SS 2020 will be conducted in January 2020. A major thrust of Swachh Survekshan has always been on citizen engagement, be it through citizen feedback or indicators involving citizen participation. This year, the citizen-centric focus has been enhanced substantially through verification of the progress made by cities on Swachhata through direct responses from citizens. Continuing with its focus on providing integrated waste management solutions to Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and citizens, MoHUA also launched the Swachh Nagar Mobile App. This app, with features such as tracking of waste collection by ULBs through route and vehicle monitoring, notification to citizens, online collection of user fee for waste collection and an effective grievance redressal mechanism, will be the answer to several issues that hinder effective waste management such as lack of monitoring, collection of segregated waste, and tracking the movement of waste vehicles and waste pickers, amongst others.

The event also saw the launch of AI enabled mSBM App, a mobile app developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) that helps detect the beneficiary face and toilet seat in the photo uploaded using Artificial Intelligence (AI) model at the backend. This app will not only facilitate the applicants of Individual Household Toilets (IHHL) under SBM-U know the status of their application in real-time after uploading the photograph but also help them upload the correct photo. The App will also help the respective ULB nodal officer to verify and approve the application thereby significantly reducing the processing time for applicants. The launch event ended with the release of the Swachh Survekshan theme song. While Padmashree awardee Kailash Kher and Monali Thakur have lent their voice to the song titled ‘Swachhata Adhikar Hai’, national award winning actor, Kangana Ranaut has featured in the video.

India has revved up its sustainability drive

India has revved up its sustainability drive

Contrary to what the perception is, India is no longer pushing the climate change concerns under the carpet. In case you haven’t already noticed, India has quietly but surely accelerated its journey on the road to sustainability.

Move #1: In her maiden budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that to make electric vehicles affordable to consumers, the government will provide additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on the interest paid on loans taken to purchase electric vehicles. This amounts to a benefit of around Rs 2.5 lakh over the loan period to the taxpayers who take such loans. To further incentivize e-mobility, the Budget said customs duty was being exempted on certain parts of electric vehicles.

An even greater emphasis was laid on providing affordable and environment friendly public transportation options for the common man. Phase II of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME) Scheme has an outlay of Rs 10,000 crore for a period of 3 years and has already commenced from 1 April 2019. Under the scheme, advanced battery and registered e-vehicles will be incentivized.

The Minister hoped that the inclusion of solar storage batteries and charging infrastructure in the FAME scheme would give a boost to manufacturing, which is needed for India to leapfrog and become a global hub for manufacturing of these vehicles.

The Impact: The announcement led to obvious cheers across the electric vehicles industry. Tech Mahindra, in partnership with Mahindra Logistics, announced introduction of EVs for employee transportation. The latter aims to take the tally of electric vehicles in its employee transportation fleet to 300, over the fiscal year 2020. (See: Tech Mahindra Partners with Mahindra Logistics to Introduce Electric Vehicles for Employee Transportation)

More recently, the Department of Heavy Industry has approved the sanction of 5,595 electric buses to 64 Cities, State Government Entities, and State Transport Undertakings (STUs) for intra-city and intercity operation under FAME India scheme phase II in order to give a further push to clean mobility in public transportation. (See: Soon, 5,595 new electric buses for 64 cities)

Move #2: The most significant manifestation of this drive is reflected in the recent decision of slashing of goods and services tax (GST) rates for electric vehicles and related services to 5%. While GST rate on all electric vehicles was reduced from 12% to 5%, the rate on charger or charging stations for electric vehicles be reduced from 18% to 5%. Also, hiring of electric buses of carrying capacity of more than 12 passengers by local authorities was exempted from GST.

Even more significant was the speed with which it was implemented. Within five days after the high-powered GST Council chaired by Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman took the decision on 27 July 2019, it was implemented. The new rates thus came into effect from 1 August itself.

The Impact: The impact has been even more positive. Some stakeholders who had been waiting for such incentives to arrive, were quick to respond with their plans. Tata Power and Tata Motors announced their partnership to install 300 fast charging stations by the end of the FY2020, across key five cities namely Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad. (See: Tata to set up 300 EV charging stations in 5 cities)

Earlier, Tata Motors said it supplied 40 electric buses to the Jammu & Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation. Some of these buses are plying on the difficult terrains of the Jammu to Katra (Vaishno Devi) route and some buses will also ply in the valleys of Srinagar. (See: Tata Motors delivers 40 electric buses to J&K)

Interestingly, these electric buses have been manufactured at Tata Motors Dharwad plant, and will have a traveling range of up to 150 kilometers on a single charge. Adapted to local conditions, its Li-ion batteries have been placed on the rooftop to prevent breakdown due to waterlogging.

There has been a sudden spurt in the number of electric vehicles in the cars and two-wheeler segments as well. While Mahindra has been present in the EV segment ever since it acquired Reva Electric in 2010, Hyundai has recently launched Kona Electric and others are also rushing to launch their offerings. Maruti Suzuki is expected to bring its first electric car Wagon R E next year.

In fact, the recent slump in the automobile sector could help further accelerate the growth of the electric mobility segment in India. The sops being offered by the government could incentivize automobile players to give push to their e-mobility offerings.

Move #3: This one comes not from the government but from India’s largest business conglomerate, Reliance Industries. While it may arguably be seen as a mega outcome of the two moves discussed above, the sheer scale of RIL makes it a move as well.

In its latest annual report, the company has said, “Reliance has developed a future-ready Oil-to-Chemical strategic vision to, progressively, transform the Jamnagar refinery from a leading producer of fuels to chemicals.”

“The Jamnagar refinery product slate, at the culmination of oil-to-chemical transition, shall be only jet fuels and petrochemicals. All refined products priced below crude shall be eliminated for chemicals at initial stage. Final fuel de-risking shall target elimination of gasoline, alkylate and diesel, synchronised to the global evolution of E-mobility and transport fuel demand decline,” the report further noted.

The Impact: This move is bound to trigger a wide range of responses from multiple players, big and small, across industries. The fact that RIL has also announced a multi-billion-dollar stake sale deal with the world’s largest and lowest cost-per-barrel producer of crude oil, Saudi Aramco, would help ensure energy security as the country transitions to a less-fossil-fuel strategy.

PM Modi’s retweet on conserving Nature is in air

PM Modi’s retweet on conserving Nature is in air

The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi has said it on so many other occasions, and this tweet was a further reiteration of his commitment toward environmental conservation and tackling climate change. In a retweet of adventurer and TV host Bear Grylls’ post on Twitter, Modi said.

The retweet came after posted this message on his Twitter handle: “Tonight watch my journey with PM @narendramodi for Man Vs Wild on @DiscoveryIN – Together let’s do all we can to protect the planet, promote peace & encourage a Never Give Up spirit. Enjoy the show!”

NTPC’s push for GW-scale solar power continues

NTPC’s push for GW-scale solar power continues

The PSU has invited online technical and financial bids from eligible bidders for selection of solar power developers for setting up 1,200 MW ISTS-connected solar PV power projects anywhere in India through reverse auction.

Request for selection (RfS) documents will be made available at e-Tender Portal from 14 August 2019 and can be accessed up to 2 September for examination and downloading. The technical bids will be opened on 2 September itself. All interested parties are required to get registered with M/s ISN Electronic Tender Services website https://www.bharat-electronictender.com (if not registered already) in order to access the RfS documents.

The date and time of start of reverse auction shall be intimated separately by NTPC.

All bids are to be accompanied by earnest money deposit for an amount calculated at the rate of INR 400,000 per MW. For the 1,200 MW project, this works out to be INR 48 crore.

It seems that the appetite of solar power developers is yet to grow for multi-MW and GW-scale projects. That could be a reason why the responses to NTPC’s earlier projects of 1,000MW or above have been somewhat muted.

NTPC, on its part, has been proactive in either extending or refloating the project tenders. The following additional tenders from NTPC are still open:

  • Development of 20MW solar PV project at Rihand (closing date: 14 August 2019).
  • Selection of solar power developers for 1,200MW grid connected solar photo voltaic projects under open category (closing date: 13 August 2019).
  • Development of 20 MW floater solar power project at the reservoir of NTPC Auraiya gas power plant at Dibiyapur in Auraiya district of Uttar Pradesh (closing date: 20 August 2019).
DAE exhibits techs for clean water, environment

DAE exhibits techs for clean water, environment

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India, is organizing a two-day exhibition on DAE spin-off technologies for non-power applications at New Moti Bagh recreation club, New Delhi. The exhibition was inaugurated by the Chairman, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Rakesh Gupta here today. The exhibition is open to public for two days on Aug 11–12 2019.

The exhibition is covering technologies developed by the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Raja Ramanna Centre for Advance Technology, Indore and other Units of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which are useful for the common man in day-to-day life, e.g., in the field of health, agriculture, water, food security and environment, said a PIB release.

The details of the exhibits are as follows:

Water: DAE has developed technologies for clean water to fulfill departmental requirements and as spin-off developed many techniques which finds applications in ultra-filtration membrane, RO membrane, multistage flash evaporation and water hydrology based on radiotracers. Low cost water filters for removal of all contamination from drinking water have been displayed.

Environment: DAE technologies are finding a lot of applications for Swatch Bharat Mission where bio-methanization and urban sludge hygienization technologies are being deployed across the country. “Nisargruna” plant is a bio-methanization plant for digesting kitchen food waste and green vegetable wastes from agriculture markets to methane gas which can be used for cooking/generating electricity or even for running biogas vehicles. This plant can digest animal waste from slaughterhouse also.

Agriculture: DAE has developed 44 high yielding seed varieties by inducing mutation to suit local weather conditions across the country. DAE has also developed technologies of fertilizer production from bio-sludge and encourages organic farming. The disease resistant, low maturity period and high yielding crops have been well accepted by the farmers. Rural technologies are also being made available to rural youth through ‘AKRUTI’ program.

Health: In health sector there are three segments i) Development of Radio Pharmaceuticals ii) Production & Distribution iii) its implementation for diagnosis and therapeutic application. The treatment of cancer is managed by Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH), a fully autonomous aided institution of DAE, provides comprehensive treatment to cancer patients. Medical devices for Tele-ECG, Bhabhatron–a radiation tele-therapy machine, screening of TB and cancer are on display.

While inaugurating the exhibition, Rakesh Gupta expressed his happiness that such exhibition is being organized in New Delhi. He said that these technologies are helpful in day to day life for common people. He added that Government officials act as opinion leaders, so they should visit the exhibition and understand these technologies. Gupta emphasized that these technologies should be adopted in the whole country at a large scale.

The Secretary, DAE, Dr. K.N. Vyas reviewed the preparations for exhibition yesterday. The former Secretaries of DAE, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Dr. M R Srinivasan were present. The former Secretary DST and member of Atomic Energy Commission, Dr B Rama Rao, also visited exhibits, along with CMD, NPCIL, S.K. Sharma.

News and all pix: PIB

Reform farm sector and conserve water: Naidu

Reform farm sector and conserve water: Naidu

The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu has called for introducing structural reforms in the agricultural sector along with financial assistance schemes like Direct Benefit Transfer to make agriculture profitable and sustainable.

He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating the Mukhya Mantri Krishi Ashirwad Yojna of the Jharkhand Government, in Ranchi, Jharkhand today. Lauding the Jharkhand government for coming up with the scheme, he expressed hope that it would go a long way in addressing agricultural distress in the state, said a PIB release.

Under the scheme, all the small and marginal farmers of the state, who have arable land up to a maximum of 5 acres, will be given a grant-in-aid at the rate of Rs 5,000 per acre per year, which will also reduce their dependence on loans. This amount would be given in two installments through Direct Benefit Transfer to the beneficiary’s bank account. This will be in addition to PM Kisan Nidhi Yojana under which each small & marginal farmer’s family having combined landholding/ ownership of up to two hectares is paid Rs 6,000 per year, said the Vice President.

Naidu opined that Direct Benefit Transfer would eliminate middlemen and ensure that every penny of the financial assistance given by the government reaches the beneficiaries.

The Vice President said that the Government of India had taken a firm resolve to double the income of farmers by 2022. He added that the government was continuously increasing the minimum support price of food grains to achieve this objective.

He asserted that development would be meaningless until the benefits of progress reached the rural areas and made the lives of our farmers better.

The Vice President also stressed the need for water conservation and said that “Conservation of natural resources like water is essential. For this, a massive campaign of rainwater conservation should be carried out, which will replenish our ground water.”

He cautioned that groundwater levels are continuously falling due to uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater. Due to which the cost of irrigation is increasing. The Vice President also urged the farmers to adopt traditional techniques to support groundwater conservation.

The Governor of Jharkhand, Draupadi Murmu, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Raghuvar Das, the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha, Harivansh Narayan Singh, the Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Co-operative Department, Government of Jharkhand, Randhir Kumar Singh, and others were present on the occasion.

News and pix source: PIB.

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