RAJASTHAN

In a bid to promote handicraft exports, theRajasthan Export Promotion Council(REPC) will hold the first-ever edition of the “Rajasthan International Expo” in Jodhpur. This expo will be organized at theTrade Facilitation Centerat Boronada,Jodhpur, from March 20-23.Rajeev Arora, chairman ofREPC, said that approximately 25 foreign embassy ambassadors headquartered in Delhi have shown a willingness to send their trade representatives to participate in the exhibition. A few of the embassies that have already confirmed their participation are South Sudan, Zambia, the Republic of Fiji, and Nauru.

ThePublic Health Engineering Department(PHED) has provided tap water connections to every household in 1,001 villages under Jal Jeevan Mission- Har Ghar Jal so far.
PHED minister Mahesh Joshisaid they will ensure tap water connections to all the rural households of the state by 2024.

Apart from this, drinking water is being supplied to more than 90 per cent of families in 617 villages, more than 80 per cent of the households in 705 villages, and more than 70 per cent of families in 772 villages through the Har Ghar Jal connection scheme.
At present, Har Ghar Jal connections are being given to about 3,000 new rural families every day in the state in total.

Under JJM so far, approvals for 86,21,450 Har Ghar Jal connections have been issued in 9,316 rural drinking water projects, including 128 major drinking water projects in 35,776 villages and 9,188 multi and single village projects.

For this, technical approval of 8,673 rural drinking water projects in 25,937 villages (62,51,516 for Har Ghar Jal connection), 8,148 schemes in 25,641 villages (62,03,603 Har Ghar Jal), tenders for connection and work orders have been issued for 32,29,482 Har Ghar Jal connections in 5,440 schemes in 13,020 villages.

The Cabinet on Thursday approved a Rs 12,031 crore plan to string more than 10,000 km intra-state transmission lines and substations for feeding of produced by seven states into the national grid.

The Centre will provide Rs 3,970 crore, or 33% of project costs, for the scheme that aims to prepare the countrys electricity Network for handling 450 GW of green energy capacity planned by the government by 2030.

The Central assistance will help keep tariffs down for consumers by offsetting the intra-state transmission charges.

The transmission network, including sub-stations, is estimated to evacuate 20 GW (gigawatts) of renewable energy from Gujarat,Himachal Pradesh,Karnataka, Kerala,Rajasthan,Tamil Naduand Uttar Pradesh.

The transmission systems will be built over five years, starting 2021-22 financial year and is expected to be completed in 2025-26.

The latest scheme is the second phase of the green energy corridor. The first phase is under implementation in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu for grid integration and evacuation of about 24 GW of green power. It is expected to be completed this year.

Under the first phase, 9,700 km of transmission lines and substations are being built at an estimated cost of Rs 10,141 crore. The Centre is extending Rs 4,056 crore as assistance.

Sludge from wastewater flowing out of textile units in Rajasthan is now being treated at effluent treatment Plants and then used as fuel in cement-making units. The treated wastewater is also being reused, ensuring 100% recycling of waste of the textile units.

At least 2,625 textile units in Pali, Jodhpur, Balotra, Bithuja, Jasol, Sanganer, Bhilwara, Bagru and other places in the state have either been connected to common effluent treatment plants (CETPs) or set up their own effluent treatment plants (ETPs) to treat the wastewater that contains harmful chemicals.

In Bhilwara, all the textile units have set up their ownETP. They are also following our directions to treat wastewater with reverse osmosis (RO), which has ensured 65% to 70% of wastewater is now being reused in the units. They no longer have to discharge the wastewater with harmful chemicals into rivers and other places,

The state Education department will introduce Education in Mother Tongue programme in pre-primary and primary classes from the next academic session under the New Education Policy (NEP).

TheRajasthanState Council of Educational Research & Training (RSCERT), Udaipur, has prepared a curriculum with contents in three languages Hindi, English and the local dialect. For example, textbooks will teach mango in English, aam in Hindi and keri in the local dialect. The state has 18 local dialects recognised by the central government and several minor dialects.

The is committed to introducing the provisions of NEP by integrating it into its education system by June 2022. The promotion of regional languages is one of the main provisions of NEP. Earlier this year, 18 dialects had been zeroed in for the developing the module for classes up to five. Subject experts from across the regions were called to form a repository of words in order to create a composite textbook. Our effort is to include all dialects, which is an uphill task considering the depth and diversity of it, said Kamlendra Singh Ranawat, associate professor at RSCERT.

Every language book will start with an image with its name in the local dialect, Hindi and English. The dialects which have been included areMarwari, Vaagdi, Doondari, Mewati, Bhili and Shekhawati along with minor dialects.

The two-day ‘InvestRajasthan‘ summit got off to a promising start withGautam Adaniof the Adani Group committing an of Rs 65,000 crore in the state over the next five to seven years.

The Ports-to-energy conglomerate will invest Rs 50,000 crore to set up a mega 10,000MW solar plant, expand the cement plant and upgrade the Jaipur airport. Tata Power will also develop around 10,000MW of RENEWABLE ENERGY, mainly solar, over the next five years.

Investments in the power sector has been the leading theme of the summit with MoUs accounting for close to 60% of the total proposed investments.

The chief minister was reviewing the power crisis facing the state due to shortage of coal in thermal power stations. The discoms said they were forced to go for load sheddings because of the coal shortage.

ith Haryana and Punjab governments allowing net metering benefits for solar rooftop Plants with loads up to 500KW, pressure is on Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) to follow suit before the current regime ends in September.

Following a regulatory decision by Union ministry of power last year, RERC had also restricted the net metering load for solar rooftop projects to 10KW from 1MW earlier, but had postponed its implementation till September 15 after the protested.

After the Union power ministry allowed net metering for 500 KW, energy regulators in Haryana and Punjab have notified allowing the same capacity for net metering but RERC is yet to take a call even as the September 15 deadline is a week away. A representative of the Rajasthan Solar Association said they had written letters to energy minister, regulator principal secretary and Rajasthan RENEWABLE ENERGY Corporation to revisit the 10KW criteria and increase the load up to 500KW as has been proposed in the draft regulations by the Union ministry of power.

Under net metering, the consumer uses cheaper rooftop solar power instead of the costly discom power. As per new rules, projects above 10KW will come under gross billing or metering which requires them to pay normal electricity rate to discoms even though they uses cheap power from its rooftop plant. The discoms will pay the rooftop projects owners under gross metering at rates discovered through auction along with 25% incentive which is estimated to be far lower than the discom rates of around Rs 8 per unit.