30.09.21

Forum wants Punjab Government to buy private thermal plants, experts differ

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The newly formed Power Sector Reforms Forum has cautioned the against cancellation of power purchase agreements saying that such a step might have an adverse effect on consumers.

The forum, comprising retired power engineers of the Pspcl, said the government should instead buy private Plants. However, power experts believe that buying the private thermal plants will not solve the issue as the underutilisation of power is the root cause of the losses.

The forum leaders also opposed the privatisation of the distribution, proposed in the new electricity act which shall, on one hand, make electricity costlier and also deteriorate the quality of supply to the rural areas.

Himachal Pradesh becomes first state in India to begin organised cultivation of true dalchini

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Realizing that people in India have been consuming inferior quality cinnamon (dalchini) having serious ill effects on Health, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) -Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) has, for the first time, begun organized cultivation of true variety of cinnamon plant in the country.

The cinnamon derived from Cinnamomum cassia (commonly sold in the market ) was used in large quantities while making cakes or pies . Even many people consume large quantities of dalchini for medicinal purposes which indirectly causes much harm than doing any good.

India imports 45,318 tonnes (worth Rs. 909 crores) of cinnamon annually from China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Nepal. Of the 45,318 tonnes of imports, astonishingly, India imports 37,166 tonnes of Cinnamomum cassia (species banned in several countries) from Vietnam, China, and Indonesia.

With the cultivation of Cinnamomum verum , HP has become the first state of India to have organized cultivation of cinnamon .

The Uttarakhand government has awarded All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh with Ayushman Samman for its valuable contribution in treating patients under Ayushman Bharat Yojana. The hospital has so far treated 51,120 patients free of cost under the scheme. Since the inception of the scheme, 10,900 Ayushman cards have been made in AIIMS.

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The hospital administration claims that apart from Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, patients of many states have been treated in the hospital under the scheme.

New sugarcane variety draws 42,000 farmers to sweet crop in 5 years

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At least 42,000 farmers in Muzaffarnagar switched to sugarcane farming in the last five years after the introduction of a new crop variety with a better yield. With the new entrants, the cultivation area of the crop and sugarcane production has also seen a considerable jump.

Now, two lakh farmers are growing cane in comparison to 1.6 lakh in 2015, he said.
According to officials, in the crushing year 2016-17, the recorded sugarcane growing area stood at 1,26,872 hectare which has now reached 1,68,015 hectare in 2021-22.
The cultivation area of sugarcane in the district has increased by 42,596 hectares during the last five crushing years.

As many as eight sugar mills in the district have started preparation for crushing for the 2021-22 season.

The sugarcane farmers had been paid Rs 2,200 crore in 2015-16 by these mills. Now, the last payment was 3,200 crore in 2020-21. The payment of the sugarcane has increased Rs 1,000 crore in five years, the cane officer said.

Cabinet nod to new state mining & exploration corporation

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The state cabinet approved a host of proposals that are aimed at boosting the industrial Climate of Jharkhand.

Among the notable decisions the cabinet made was giving its nod to the state mining departments proposal to constitute the states own mining and exploration corporation. The corporation will explore mineral reserves within the states geographical boundaries and also participate in the e-auctioning of various mineral blocks.

The 11-member ministerial council also gave its nod to a proposal to grant 100% subsidy on electricity duties to the new and existing captive power Plants in the state for five years in a bid to attract big-ticket projects under the newJharkhand Industrial and Promotion Policy,2021.

Gujarat, Bihar, Ladakh head to become carbon neutral

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Progressive Climate actions being undertaken by many Indian states as they strategically shift towards increased use of .

This came to Light on Friday at a discussion organised by The Climate Group on the sidelines of the annual New York Climate Week, and at a time when the UN calls for no further build of coal across the world and countries, companies, states and regions world over are committing to bringing down emissions to net zero by mid century.

The plans of states are well placed to achieve long-term energy transition and net zero targets.

For instance, Gujarat is on the path to significantly reducing emissions as they choose to rely on renewable energy alone to meet all future power needs.

New analysis from GERMI shows that the share of coal power generation in the state will come down to 16 per cent by 2030, from the current 63 per cent as it aligns with the 450GW revised national renewable energy target.

The state is also setting up the world’s largest grid-scale battery storage in the Kutch region and is one of India’s largest markets for electric two-wheelers.

The analysis shows that not only will Gujarat not need to build any further thermal coal assets, but it will also have to consider retirement of Plants which are either old or polluting.

Developing a retirement package for these coal plants will hold the key. This will make economic sense given that the cost of renewable energy is less than new coal power.

Electricity sector in India contributes to 40 per cent of emissions.

Ladakh is working towards an enormous 10 GW of renewable energy capacity with solar and wind power, and it is setting up a 50MWh battery storage capacity –India’s largest so far.

Kids snatched at 15 comprise 70% of Naxal cadre: Survey

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Over 70% Maoist cadres are forcibly recruited as children without the Consent of their parents. They are mostly roped in at 15 and given a gun at 17, says a survey conducted by Bastar Police among surrendered Maoists.

The recruited kids are not allowed to go Home for years, some never, not even if any of their parents dies, say police. Whats more, a shocking 25% of them end up getting forcibly sterilised in youth, says the survey.

There are 12 Maoists recruitment hotspots identified by police villages from where at least 10 cadres have joined PLGA. The surrendered cadres shared heart-breaking stories of the hardship and pain they underwent as children in an insurgent outfit. They were banned from visiting home or meeting parents for years. They werent allowed to go home even if a parent died, not to speak of visiting families for festivals.

Madhya Pradesh to build world-class hockey stadium: CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan

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After the state of the art international cricket stadium inIndore, it is now the turn of eitherBhopalorGwaliorto get a world-class hockey stadium. Chief ministerShivraj Singh Chouhanannounced this during the felicitation of the Indian womens hockey team at Minto Hall.

Chouhan and Sports ministerYashodhara Raje Scindiapresented Rs 31 lakh each to the players of the Indian Women hockey team, who made the country proud by making it to the semifinals of the Olympics in the recently concludedTokyo Olympics.

CM said, continuous work is being done for the promotion of sports in Madhya Pradesh. The initiative to remove the financial problems of women hockey players took place in 2010 in Madhya Pradesh. After that, the hockey academy was strengthened. Today it is one of the best hockey academies in the country, he added.

Globally, nuclear energy is considered as the future of clean energy. However, since the primary source of nuclear energy Uranium is finite, scientists across the world are working on efficient ways of extracting the heavy metal from secondary sources.In a breakthrough development, a scientist from Bhavnagar-based CSMCRI (Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute) Shilpi Kushwaha has developed a method to extract Uranium from secondary sources such as seawater and acidic effluents using crystalline thin films and polymer nanorings.

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Khuswaha was conferred with the Young Scientist Award (YSA) for innovative research by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) during a function held in New Delhi on Sunday. She was awarded by the Vice President M Venkaiha Naidu, under the category of Earth, , Ocean and Planetary Sciences.

According to Kushwaha, India needs a sustainable option for clean energy to follow the Paris agreement on Climate-change”>Climate Change. The demand for energy is increasing day by day. Its expected that in the near future the demand for Nuclear Energy will increase worldwide as it is carbon neutral. However, the Uranium reserves are limited and it is estimated that it would be exhausted in over 100 years, she said.

Here the recovery of Uranium from secondary sources such as contaminated groundwater, mining effluents and seawater comes into picture.

Uranium extraction from seawater (UES) is amongst the seven chemical separations processes where progress would lead to global gains. UES provides additional benefits to the Energy Security of any country. It is independent of terrestrial Uranium Ore which reduces the concerns of environmental damage from land-based mining, Khuswaha told TOI. She added that the heavy Metal extracted from seawater is at par with the similar experiments done globally.

Elaborating further, the scientist said that secondary sources of Uranium include spillages from mines, effluents of nuclear power Plants or fly ash dumps that go into water sources after mixing with rainwater and ultimately end up in the sea.

To promote electric vehicles in the state, the urban development and housing (UDH) department will allot government land on concessional rates.As per the order dated September 28, land will be allotted at 50% concession for first 500 renewable energy based EV charging stations installed within five years.

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In the budget speech, the chief minister Ashok Gehlot announced Rajasthan policy, 2019 and Rajasthan Wind and Hybrid Energy Policy-2019. The provisions to allot land on the concessional rates are made under these policies.

As per the calculations, for slow charging stations in urban limits minimum 800 square feet land is required where at least 10 vehicles can be charged at a given time. Similarly, fast-charging stations require a set-up on minimum 460 square feet land where it can have capacity of six vehicles.

As per a survey, there are 15,000 EVs in the city. In the coming days, these stations will be as ubiquitous as petrol pumps in the JDA region. “The tentative cost of running an e-vehicle is between Rs 1.25 and Rs 1.50 per km.