NRHM to be National Health Mission soon

• The government proposes to convert the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) into a National Health Mission to provide health care to the urban poor also, in the course of the 12th Plan.
• Universal access to free generic essential medicines in public health institutions in a phased and time-bound manner will be ensured

Health to be allotted 2.5 p.c. of GDP by end of Plan

• A high-level meeting at the Prime Minister's Office decided on Wednesday to increase the total government expenditure on the health sector to 2.5 per cent of the GDP by the end of the coming 12th Plan period, from the current level of around 1.4 per cent of the GDP.

Set up special panel on linking of rivers, Supreme Court tells Centre

• The Supreme Court directed the Centre to constitute a ‘special committee' forthwith for inter-linking of rivers for the benefit of the entire nation.
• The Bench said: “This is a matter of national benefit and progress. We see no reason why any State should lag behind in contributing its bit to bringing the inter-linking river programme to a success, thus saving the people living in drought-prone zones from hunger and people living in flood-prone areas from the destruction caused by floods.”
• It said: “The NCAER report clearly opines that the interlinking of river projects will prove fruitful for the nation as a whole and would serve a greater purpose by allowing higher returns from the agricultural sector for the benefit of the entire economy. This would also result in providing varied benefits like control of floods, providing water to [the] drought-prone States, providing water to a larger part of agricultural land and even power generation. Besides … benefits to the country, it will help the countries like Nepal etc., uplifting India's international role. Importantly, they also point to a very important facet of interlinking of rivers, i.e., it may result in reduction of some diseases due to the supply of safe drinking water, and thus serve a greater purpose for humanity.”

Farmer friendly MGNREGS from April 1

• Even while turning down demands for a moratorium on MGNREGS jobs during the agricultural season, the Centre on Wednesday approved new works that aim at boosting the farm sector.
• The new avatar of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, coming into existence on April 1, will allow farmers who qualify for support under MGNREGS to hire hands for eight man-days per acre for transplantation and for another four man-days at two intervals for weeding.
• Through this provision the Centre seeks to solve the problem of small and marginal farmers who not only find it difficult to get hands but also pay higher wages demanded by workers. They are unable to match the wages paid under MGNREGS. Now the government will pay for those working on agricultural land owned by eligible farmers.
• In another development, to safeguard the interests of manual labour, receipt of application has been made mandatory and inability to provide job would automatically generate an unemployment allowance under the electronic system to be managed by the States. Refusal by authorities to accept application for jobs has been made punishable

National Manufacturing Policy, National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ)

• Creation of NIMZs as mega investment regions equipped with world-class infrastructure has been proposed as a major policy instrument.
•  The National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) proposed under the National Manufacturing Policy will be managed by a special purpose vehicle, headed by a government official and having experts, including those on environment. The industrial townships will be self-governing and autonomous bodies. Single window clearance will be provided to improve the regulatory environment. A job loss policy/sinking fund will be introduced to protect the interest of labour in the event of a unit's closure within the zone.
• The policy was based on the principle of industrial growth in partnership with states. The central government will create the enabling policy framework, provide incentives for infrastructure development on a private-public partnership basis through appropriate financing instruments while state governments will identify suitable land and be equity holders in the NIMZs.
• Share of manufacturing in the country's gross domestic product has stagnated at about 16% since 1980 while the share in comparable economies in Asia such as China, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia stands at 25% to 34%.
• The first phase of the NIMZ will be set up along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and is expected to come on stream in the next few years. The DMIC project covers six states including Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, which account for 43% of the country's GDP, 50% of industrial production and exports and 40% of total workforce. The government estimates that the project will offer employment to over three million people.

National Centre for Cold Chain Development

• The Union Cabinet gave its ex-post facto approval for registering National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 with its Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations. 
• All stakeholders will be having membership in the society in a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The NCCD will be having a Governing Council under the Chairmanship of Secretary with 22 members, covering government officials, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), growers, cold chain equipment manufacturers/supplies etc. 
• A sum of Rs.25 crore has been allocated as one time grant for setting up a corpus fund for NCCD. 

Background:

With a production of 71.5 million MT of fruits, 133.7 million MT of vegetables and 17.8 million MT of other commodities like flowers, spices, coconut, cashew, mushroom, honey etc., India is the second largest producer of horticultural commodities in the world. However, a significant portion of the produce, particularly perishables like fruits, vegetables, flowers etc. goes waste due to post harvest losses.

In order to address this issue the Task Force on Cold Chain Development was constituted by Government of India during 2008. The Task Force, in its report, recommended the formation of a dedicated institution for promoting cold chain development in the country. The National Spot Exchange (NSE), in its study on Cold Chain Grid in India (2010) also recommended the need for a robust cold chain infrastructure for reducing the post harvest losses of perishables.

PM puts freight corridor project on fast track

• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has intervened to make sure the ambitious dedicated freight corridor project does not miss its March 2017 deadline due to constraints like land acquisition in states and bureaucratic hurdles at various Central ministries.
• Calling the DFC a project of “highest priority”, Singh has assigned the job of monitoring the progress of the project to the PMO. 
• Sources said Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, during his meeting with the PM last week, communicated his concerns about land acquisition issues faced by the corridor, which, at Rs 1 lakh crore, will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the country spanning 3300 km across various states.

HyAlfa and DelHy3w

• The world's first hydrogen-powered three-wheeler, 'HyAlfa'
• Part of a development project dubbed 'DelHy 3w', a fleet of 15 HyAlfa three-wheelers will run on an experimental basis at Pragati Maidan.
• The 15 vehicles will be refuelled from a station at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, where the fleet will be operating

Electricity / Power in India

Overview

• India has an installed power generation capacity of 155,000 MW
• The total demand for power is expected to cross 950,000MWby 2030 
• The government plans to add about 78,000 MWof installed generation capacity by 2012 
• Main sources of power in India include thermal power, hydro power and nuclear power 
• Private sector contributes around 13.5% to total power generation 
• The per capita power consumption in India is 612 kWh
• Only 44% of rural households have access to electricity 
• The Government of India is working towards the objective of ‘Power for All by 2012

Power transmission

• Transmission of electricity is defined as bulk transfer of power over a long distance at a high voltage, usually 132 kV or more
• Transmission in the country is divided into five regional transmission system:

Northern region (HQ Delhi): largest in area
Norther eastern region (Shillong) : Highest hydro:thermal power ratio (1:1)
Eastern region (HQ Bangalore)
Southern region (HQ Bangalore)
Western region (HQ : Nagpur)

• The interconnected transmission system within each region is called the Regional Grid. The eastablishment of a National Grid has been planned
• Power transmission is handled by the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL)
• Four of the five Regional Grids now operate as a synchronous grid (western, northern, eastern and norther eastern). The Southern Grid is connected to the sysnchronous grid separately through HVDC links.
• Each Regional Grid functions under a Regional Load Despatch Cenre. Additionally, a National Load Despatch Cenre has been established in New Delhi to coordinate efforts to establish the National Grid

Power distribution

• Transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in India reach 33%
• Losses include technical losses such as unplanned lines, overloading, and commercial losses such as theft, pilferage etc
• The Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP) was initiated in 2001 to bring down T&D Losses below 15%
• Power distribtion is the responsibility of State Electricity Boards (SEBs)
• The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) is the second largest power generating utility in India, after the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC)

GOVERNMENT UNDERTAKING IN POWER SECTOR

NTPC

• The NTPC is the largest power generating utility in India. Its installed generation capacity is around 30,000MW
• It was established in 1975 and is headquartered in New Delhi
• It has 18% of national installed capacity but contributes 28% of national power generation
• It has 15 coal-based and 7 gas-based power generating plants
• The largest coal based plant is the Talcher-Kaniha plant in Angul, Orissa (3000 MW)
• The largest gas based plant is the Dadri plant in Uttar Pradesh (817 MW)
• The NTPC has forayed into hydro power projects as well. Hydro projects under implementation by the NTPC are

Koldam in Himachal Pradesh (800 MW)
Loharinag Pala in Uttarakhand (600 MW)
Tapovan Vishnugarh in Uttarakhand (520 MW)

National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC)

• The NationalHydro Power Corporation Ltd. (NHPC) is a Mini Ratna enterprise responsible for developing hydro power in India
• It was established in 1975 and is headquartered in Faridabad
• The NHPC has completed 13 hydro power projects worth installed capacity of 5000 MWand is in the process of implementing 11 more projects
• The largest hydro plant is the Indira Sagar across the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh (1000MW)
• The Subansiri (Lower) project across the Subansiri river in Assam is the largest hydroelectric project undertaken in India. Expected to complete in 2010, it will have an installed capacity of 2000 MW

Nuclear Power Corporaiton of India (NPCIL)

• The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is responsible for generation of nuclear power in India. The NPCIL is the only power utility company in India that uses nuclear energy
• The NPCIL was established in 1987 and is headquartered in Mumbai
• The NPCIL functions under the Department of Atomic Energy (Ministry of Science and Technology)
• The NPCIL operates 17 nuclear power plants with an installed capcity of 4120MW. Additionally it has five reactors under construction with capaticy of 2660 MW
• The NPCIL also operates a 10MWwind power project at Kudankulamin Tamil Nadu (site of upcoming nuclear project)

Power Grid Corporation Ltd. (PGCIL)

• The Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. is one of the largest power transmission utilities in the world. It was established in 1989 and is headquartered in New Delhi
• The PGCIL is a Navaratna enterprise
• The PCCIL conducts about 45% of India’s electricity on its power lines. It has over 71,500 km of transmission network circuitry.
• The PGCIL operates five Regional Grids (see above). It is also working towards establishing a National Grid in India

Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd (REC)

• The Rural Electrification Corporation aims to finance and promote rural electrification projects in the country
• It was established in 1969 and is headquartered in New Delhi
• The REC provides loans to SEBs and state power utilities for investment in rural electrificaiton schemes
• The REC is the nodal agency for the implantation of the RGGVY

National Electricity Policy

• Launched in 2005
• The objectives of the Policy include
  • Provide access to electricity to all housholds by 2010
  • Power demand to be fully met by 2012. Energy and peaking shortages to be overcome
  • Supply of reliable and quality power at affordable rates
  • Minimum lifeline consumption of 1 unit per houshold per day by 2012
  • Per capita availability of electricity to be increased to over 1000 units by 2012
  • Financial turaround and commercial viability of electricity sector
  • Protection of consumer’s interests
• The Policy also required the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to frame a National Electricity Plan every five years, which covered
• The Policy seeks to address multiple issues including the following
  • Rural electrification
  • Power generation, transmission and distribution
  • Recovery of cost and subsidies
  • Technology development and R&D
  • Power sector reforms including private sector participation
  • Energy conservation
  • Renewable energy sources
• In order to implemtn the policy, the RGGVY scheme was launched by the Rural Electrification Corporation

Rural Electrification Policy

• Launched in 2006
• Objectives include
  • Provision of access to electricity to all housholds by 2009
  • Quality and realible power supply at reasobable rates
  • Minimumhousehold consumption of 1 unit per household per day by 2012
• As per the policy, all state government were required to prepare and notify a Rural Electrification
  Plan to achieve the Policy goals

Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY)

• Thr RGGVY was launched in 2005 to implement the National Electricity Policy
• The RGGVY is implemented by the REC
• The RGGVY provides 90% Union Government subsidy for rural electrification projects including
  • Rural Electricy Distribution Backbone (REDB): The REDB is to act as the primary infrastructure for the distribution of electricity in rural areas. Each Block to have at least one 33/11 kV substation
  • Village Electrification Infrastructure (VEI): at least one distribution transformer in each village
  • Decentralised Distributed Generation (DDG) System: these systems are to act as stand-alone power generation and distribution mechanismwhere supply from the grtid is not possible or not cost-effective
• The RGGVY provides for free connection to all households below the poverty line
• The Scheme says that there shall be no discrimination in the hours of supply between urban and rural areas. This should help in development of rural industries, health care and education facilities
• The Scheme targets the electrification of 125,000 un-electrified villages 

sourced from here

GOI and World Bank Sign an Agreement to Improve Livelihoods for 300,000 Village Households in North Eastern States

• The Government of India and the World Bank signed an IDA credit of US$ 130 million to finance the Government of India's (GOI) efforts to empower rural communities in the growth-deficient North East (NE) region to improve their livelihood opportunities.
• The North East Rural Livelihoods Project (NERLP) will enhance the livelihoods of the rural poor, especially women, unemployed youth and the severely disadvantaged in eight districts of the four participating states- Mizoram; Nagaland; South, Sikkim; andTripura.
• Despite its rich natural resources and relatively good human development indicators, the North East (NE) region lags behind the rest of India in important parameters of growth. 
• Almost 35 percent of its predominantly rural population lives below the poverty line; agricultural productivity is low; and high school drop-out rates and lack of skills have led to high unemployment among the youth. 
• This low-growth scenario is exacerbated by problems of geographical inaccessibility, protracted insurgency in some areas, and recurring natural disasters.
• Recognizing the urgent need to put economic growth on track in the NE, the Government of India developed the North Eastern Region (NER) Vision 2020, endorsed by all NE states. The Vision envisages using a partnership-approach with all relevant stakeholders to make interventions responsive to people’s needs and aspirations for a better quality of life.

• The Project seeks to develop an institutional platform for the communities, which will help them link up with the private sector, public sector, and civil society and to acquire the institutional, technical, and financial capacity needed for improving their livelihoods.
• Global development experience shows that absolute poverty can be overcome by equipping a member of the household (especially a youth) with employable skills. A separate activity for skills development and job placement has thus been included in the project to ensure that such opportunities are available to the rural poor. 
• Some livelihood opportunities envisaged under the Project include natural resource management activities such as forest management, non-timber forest produce storage and processing, horticulture, preservation of riverine fishes, water harvesting and recharging of ground/surface water in the villages; community-based infrastructure activities like upgrading of small agricultural link roads, micro hydro-power schemes, wind-cum-solar mills, to name a few.

• The Project comprises four main components (i) Social Empowerment; (ii) Economic Empowerment; (iii) Partnership Development and (iv) Project Management. 
• The first component seeks to help rural communities to create sustainable institutions so that they can manage common activities around microfinance, livelihoods and natural resource management. 
• The second component will provide funds to the community institutions to undertake various livelihood activities, as well as provide self-entrepreneurship opportunities to unemployed youth. To enable this, the Project with help develop partnerships with various formal financial intermediaries - such as microfinance institutions, commercial banks, development financial institutions such as National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), and specialized funding agencies such as North East Development Finance Institution (NEDFI) – and with the private sector and civil society to allow rural communities to access technical and marketing support. 
• The project management component facilitates the implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, learning and quality enhancement efforts of the project.
• The credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the World Bank’s concessionary lending arm, has a final maturity of 25 years, including 5 year grace period.

Centre plans audits to keep a tab on proper use of NRHM funds

• In the wake of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam that surfaced in Uttar Pradesh, the Centre is planning to conduct regular audits across the country to check whether the NRHM funds were properly utilised.
• This is of utmost importance as NRHM has been extended for another five years during the 12 five year plan. A National Urban Health Mission is also being planned.
• Pointing out that the audits would be easy to conduct, the health Ministry had a list of all hospitals and healthcare facilities run by the State governments. “Every year, centre allocates Rs. 15,000 crore to the State governments for upgrading healthcare infrastructure. Teams of officials will visit these facilities to see if the infrastructure had actually been provided
• NRHM was launched in 2005 with a mission to provide accessible, equitable and affordable healthcare services to people. 
• While 1.4 lakh personnel were added to the health system, infrastructure was strengthened by taking up the construction or renovation of 594 district hospitals, 2,721 community health centres, 5,459 primary health centres and 31,001 sub-centres in the country

World's Largest Solar Telescope to be Set Up in Ladakh

• The Jammu and Kashmir government has assured all help and co-operation to the union Department of Science and Technology in its endeavour to set up a solar telescope, said to be the world's largest, at Merak on Pangong Tso lake in the cold desert Ladakh region.

National Counter-Terrorism Centre gets CCS approval

• The NCTC will be the nodal agency for all counter-terrorism activities and coordinate with intelligence agencies such as Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) and state intelligence agencies.
• The NCTC will connect Multi Agency Centre (MAC), which would be subsumed into NCTC, and all agencies reporting to it in Delhi and state capitals.
• The NCTC will not have any foot-soldier to collect information, but will depend on other agencies.
• It will come up through an executive order which will be issued soon. The government will not bring a legislation for setting up of this anti-terror body, unlike the NIA that was created through an Act.
• The head of the body, an additional Director General level police officer, will report to the Union Home Secretary.

Centre approves creation of Three National Land Records Centre

• The Government has approved creation of three National Land Records Modernization Programme, NLRMP Centres at Salboni in West Bengal, Union territory of Puducherry and at Berhampur and sanctioned about 196 lakh rupees for each of the centres during the financial year 2011-12.
  
• The NLRMP centres shall be made operational within a period of one year from the date of sanction.
• The National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP) has been conceptualised as a major system and reform initiative that is concerned not merely with computerisation, updating and maintenance of land records and validation of titles, but also as a programme that will add value and provide a comprehensive database for planning developmental, regulatory and disaster management activities by providing location-specific information, while providing citizen services based on land records data.
• The activities to be supported under the Programme, inter alia, include survey/resurvey using modern technology including aerial photogrammetry, updating of land records including mutation records, completion of computerization of the records of rights (RoRs), computerization of registration, automatic generation of mutation notices, digitization of maps , integration of the entire system digitization of maps and training and capacity building of the concerned officials and functionaries.
• It must be recalled that in 2008, the Cabinet had approved the proposal of the Department of Land Resources , Ministry of Rural Development to merge the two existing Centrally-sponsored schemes of Computerization of Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of Revenue Administration & Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR) and to replace them with a modified Centrally-sponsored scheme in the shape of the National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP), with the ultimate goal of ushering in the system of conclusive titles with title guarantee in the country.

National mission on monsoon prediction soon

• The Union Cabinet is likely to give its final approval for a national mission to try and improve the accuracy of monsoon forecasts by this month-end.
• The mission, estimated to cost Rs. 350 crore, is designed to improve the current generation of dynamic numerical models for prediction through better insight of the highly complex phenomenon of monsoon.
• Under the project, scientists would work on models from the United Kingdom's Met Office and the United States' National Centers for Environment Prediction . 
• The mission would have two components relating to two different timescales — monthly, seasonal and intra-seasonal scale on the one hand and a medium range forecast, up to 15 days, on the other.
• At present, India Meteorological Department makes its forecasts based on the system of a statistical model, which makes the prediction on the basis of several predictors. 
• India does not have a dynamic numerical model of it own. The goal now is to develop a model that would be India-specific within five years

Smart Grid is the ‘energy Internet' of the future

In India, the demand for power is surging with shortage peaking over 15 per cent. Many of the households are still not connected to the country's electricity grid. According to the Ministry of Power, India's transmission and distribution losses are among the highest in the world, averaging 24 per cent of total electricity production, in some states as high as 62 per cent.

In fact, the total average losses are as high as 50 per cent when energy theft is taken into consideration of which technical losses alone account for 30 per cent of all losses. Indian utilities need to address challenges of high AT&C losses, payment default by consumers, encroachments on electrical network creating unsafe situations, theft of electricity and electrical equipment, distribution transformer failure and rising power purchase costs.

To address what is emerging to be a serious national issue, considering the increase in demand for power and to create the required infrastructure for growth, India needs to invest in building a modern, intelligent grid. Let us first define a grid.

A grid is a collective name for all the wires, transformers and infrastructure that transport electricity from power plants to end users. The present day grid is unidirectional and does not maximize technological developments.

Even today people need to inform the utility of a problem or failure in their area. The effort is to change this in India, and across the world. Solutions such as capability of remote disconnection on non-payment by consumers, automatic alarms when network is being encroached or when people engage in theft will enable utilities stop pilferage and avoid unsafe situations or accidents. In addition, optimal asset utilisation can be planned with online data of overloading of transformers and network, which can help reduce or prevent failures.

A national Smart Grid would evolve the existing system into one that would be better suited for the information flow which is required for energy conservation, higher reliability and the introduction of variable generation power from renewable sources. Smart Grid is the convergence of Information Technology (IT), communication technology and electrical infrastructure.

It is a network for electricity transmission and distribution systems that uses two way state-of-the-art communications, advanced sensors and specialized technology to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of electricity delivery and use. It is actually a process, an evolution of the electricity network from generation to consumption in a way that is interactive, flexible and efficient.

Proper implementation of Smart Grid might provide uninterrupted electricity to consumers across India to a larger extent, even in remote locations, while eliminating wastage of power units. Smart Grid solutions would enable utilities to increase energy productivity and power reliability while allowing customers manage usage and costs through real time information exchange. It impacts all components of the power system like generation, transmission and distribution.

The Smart Grid presents some primary benefits including lower operating and maintenance costs, lower peak demand, increased reliability and power quality, reduction in power theft and resultant revenue losses, reduction in carbon emissions and expansion of access to electricity. Smart Grids through demand response and load management reduce the per unit production cost. By reducing the peak demand, a Smart Grid can reduce the need for additional transmission lines.

Smart Grids are undoubtedly the "energy internet" of the future. The engagement and cooperation of all stakeholders (regulators, utilities, vendors, customers, etc) is a vital first step. Everybody has to work together and move at the same speed.

It will take India a few years to realize the full impact of Smart Grid when a utility control room operator can regulate an electric meter in homes.

The technology can help us reduce electricity transmission and distribution losses to 5-10 per cent annually. Without Smart Grid, India will not be able to keep pace with the growing needs of its cornerstone industries and will fail to create an environment for economic growth.

Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission

http://jnnurm.nic.in/nurmudweb/toolkit/Overview.pdf


Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is a massive city modernisation scheme launched by Government of India. It envisages a total investment of over $20 billion over seven years. The scheme was officially inaugurated by the prime minister, Manmohan Singh on 3 December 2005 as a programme meant to improve the quality of life and infrastructure in the cities. It has two sub-missions:

• the Sub-Mission for Urban Infrastructure and Governance administered by the Ministry of Urban Development, with a focus on water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, road network, urban transport and redevelopment of old city areas.
• the Sub-Mission for Basic Services to the Urban Poor administered by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation with a focus on integrated development of slums
  

Mega Food Parks

• Government has approved setting up of 15 Mega Food Parks under Infrastructure Development Scheme. The main features of the scheme are cluster based and demand driven approach. Availability of approximately 50 -100 acres of land and adequate quantity of raw materials are basic criteria for the selection of location for setting up of such Parks.
• Setting up of 15 more Mega Food Parks have been proposed during the remaining period of 11th Five Year Plan. The States for these projects have not been finalized.
• This scheme is aimed at creating state of the art infrastructure facility for enabling setting up of food processing industries. Through backward linkages, Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the Mega Food Park enters into an arrangement with farmers' group in the catchment area for production of desired variety and quantity of farm produce to ensure regular supply of raw material to the Mega Food Park. This has facilitated clusterised farming on demand driven manner with market orientation. The farmers are assured of the market for their farm produce and get remunerative prices thereby increasing their income considerably.
• Ministry has constituted District Coordination Committee under the Chairmanship of concerned District Collectors for coordinating various activities of the Mega Food Park.

Dedicated freight corridor to boost transportation

The railway freight traffic has grown by 8 to 11%, which is projected to cross 1100 million tonnes by the end of 11th Five Year Plan
In mid-2006, the foundation stone was laid at Ludhiana in Punjab for the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) and the Indian Railways embarked on a multi-crore project to set up a direct freight link from the manufacturing bases in the northern hinterland of the country to ports on the west coast and with the coal fields and steel plants in the east coast ports. DFC will cover approximately 3300 route kilometres on two corridors – Eastern and Western corridors- and will greatly improve the freight transportation.

Salient features

• Exclusively for running freight trains at speeds upto 100 km/h
• Parallel to existing Indian Railways Corridors and connection at important junction points
• This corridor will bypass populated cities/towns to minimise social and environmental impacts
• Facilitate running of longer and heavier trains
• Reduce unit cost of transportation
• Ensure guaranteed transit time thus providing quicker and reliable service
• Accelerated industrial development in the region

 A special purpose vehicle (SPV), the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited was created for planning and development, mobilisation of financial resources, construction, maintenance and operation. The eastern sector (1806 km long), stretches from Ludhiana to Dankuni in West Bengal while the 1483 km long western sector, starts from Tughlakabad – Dadri inland container depots and ends at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port of Mumbai. There is also a short section interlinking the two corridors at Dadri in Haryana. The DFC envisages state-of-the-art construction technology, upgrading of transportation systems, substantial increase in wagon axle load to achieve significant reduction in unit cost of rail transport, volume and speed being achieved for freight trains.
The Western Corridor
Traffic projections for 2021-22 are 128 million tonnes, 6 million TEUs and 264 trains. Total current cost of building the corridor is expected to be INR26,124 crore excluding cost escalation and interest during construction. The western DFC would cater largely to the container transport requirements between the existing and newly emerging private ports in Maharashtra and Gujarat and the northern manufacturing hinterland. It will be funded substantially by the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) under the special terms of the economic partnership scheme of the Government of Japan where 30% of the total value of contracts will have to be sourced from Japan.
The Eastern Corridor
Traffic projections for 2021-22 will be 144 million tonnes and 160 trains. This rail corri-dor will largely serve coal and steel traffic. From Durgapur, the corridor will be extended to the proposed new port near Kolkata as the ports of Kolkata and Haldia have a shallow depth of 8 and 8.5 metres, respectively.
The government plans deep sea port, possibly at the Sagar Island. For the eastern freight corridor, the railways have sought funding from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) for about 70% stretch of the corridor (World Bank for financing the 125 km of Mughalsarai-Khurja portion and ADB for the 426 km Khurja-Ludhiana portion).
Delhi – Mumbai Industrial Corridor
The ambitious USD 90 billion Delhi (INR 4.05 lakh crore) – Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project between the national and financial capitals of the country will revolutonise business and industry in the western region of the country.
The project has been conceived as a high-speed connectivity for high-axle load wagons or double-stacked container trains along the multimodal western dedicated freight corridor, with end-terminals at Dadri in the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port. The DMIC will have world class road connectivity. It is to develop an industrial zone spanning seven states – Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The project will see major expansion of infrastructure and industry including industrial clusters and rail, road port, air connectivity in these states along the route of the 1483 km long western dedicated freight corridor. About 38% or 564 km of this corridor will pass through the state of Gujarat alone. Gujarat is expected to be a major beneficiary of the development with investment potential reaching one-third of USD 90 billion.
The project is expected to double employment potential, industrial output and exports from the region in five years time. The industrial corridor would house rail sidings with sheds, large inland container depots, warehouses, office building for logistics operators and assembly units for processing raw materials for exports. The industries to be developed include shipbuilding, aircraft maintenance and repair centres, stone and mineral technology parks, airport related industries, healthcare and hospital equipment manufacturing, agri-processing and agri–business, aerospace component manufacturing and defence equipment and components.
The project will be implemented by the DMIC Development Corporation, an autonomous body comprising the government and private sector and implemented SPV. It will be funded through private-public partnership (PPP) and foreign investment, with Japan being a major investor.

Problems
Land acquisition: Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee has refrained from forcibly acquiring land because of objections from land owners in Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. This has forced the corporation to go back to the drawing board to re-examine the alignment of the corridors that will result in major delays and endanger the commissioning process.
Cost escalation: The cost for developing both the eastern and the western corridors has escalated from what was originally sanctioned.
Resource mobilisation: INR10,000 crore is expected from the World Bank to construct 730 km between Khurja and Mughalsarai. Financing arrangements for the remaining stretches are yet to be finalised.


This article has been taken from http://www.businesseconomics.in/?p=984

Why adopting smart grid makes sense for India

India is a fast-emerging economy where the demand for electric power is increasing by leaps and bounds. This can be visualised from the fact that while holding more that 17 per cent of the world's population, India currently consumes around 3 to 4 per cent of the world's electrical energy.

As India strides forward on her economic journey, the demand and consumption of electrical energy by its populace is going to increase dramatically. Yet, although 70 per cent of Indians live in villages, there are still thousands of villages with no or inadequate access to electricity.

In developing economies such as ours, energy efficiency enhancement technologies such as smart grids can leapfrog development by harnessing distributed energy resources, which nature has so generously bestowed on us.

Smart grids use a combination of digital communication and digital control technology to despatch power with minimum loss. Power may be generated either centrally in large power stations operated by utilities or by local, small generators using green and renewable energy resources.

Why smart?

The 'smart' digital components communicate and compute the most efficient routes to despatch power to loads, resulting in a better quality of supply. The digital communication elements notify all parts of the grid rapidly in case of breakdowns so that alternative routes for power despatch may be computed. This combination of computation and communication is where the 'smartness' of the smart grid lies.

For the average Indian city- or town-dweller, the development of the smart grid would mean better quality of power. Voltage and frequency fluctuations would be eliminated, especially the low voltage and frequency conditions of summer, making power outages and load-shedding relics of a dark past.

Lure with incentives

Deployment could be accelerated through incentives to consumers who install smart grid equipment. For example, consumers installing solar panels or micro wind turbines on their premises may feed the excess power generated into the regional grid, which the utility may buy at special rates called ' feed-in tariffs', thereby allowing the consumer to recover the cost of installation within a reasonable period.

A large percentage of India's rural population cannot afford to pay more than a few rupees per day on energy. Setting up smart mini/ micro-grids, which are self-contained energy grids based on local renewable energy resources, would bring low-cost electricity, enabling the country to leapfrog to total rural electrification.

Potentially, these grids could revolutionise lives in rural India. With the availability of low-cost electricity, working hours in a day would be extended, improving the quality of life. Electricity would be available for agriculture, animal husbandry, mobile communication, data connectivity and healthcare systems in villages.

Practical implementation of the smart grid in India will need a great deal of research, development and industrialisation to obtain designs optimised for cost, efficiency and reliability in our unique conditions. In addition, standardisation of equipment modules and operating procedures is necessary to ensure systematic proliferation.

Green energy

The Union Government has mandated generation and use of non-conventional green energy resources and formulated comprehensive policies in keeping with the mandate, so that our unique ecosystems are protected and marginalised populations in poverty-stricken communities can avail themselves of energy at low costs.

The smart grid technology goes a long way in addressing the technical complexities introduced by green energy resources-based generation as well as in increasing the efficiency of generation and distribution systems.