New Delhi India Inc may have complained about the slow pace at which green clearances are awarded but the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Thursday questioned this claim. It said that on the contrary, the environment ministry gave out an unprecedented number of clearances in the last five years.
Even more than tempting liquors like tequila, tobacco is a pleasure that the Old World wishes it had never taken from the New. In 1492, when Christopher Columbus was met by tribesmen with "fruit, wooden spears and certain dried leaves which gave off a distinct fragrance', he threw the last gift away. But his shipmates brought home the custom of sucking in the smoke, and the taste spread so rapidly that in 1604 King James I of England was prompted to issue a denunciation of the "manifold abuses of this vile custome'.
State-run NTPC has initiated talks with GE Energy Financial Services of the US, Kyushu Electric Power Company of Japan and Brookfield Power Corporation of Canada for setting up a joint venture company to undertake renewable power generation. It has initiated the move in accordance with its memorandum of understanding with Asian development Bank .
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the Kerala High Court verdict quashing an order of a panchayat that canceled the licence of soft-drinks major Pepsi's plant at Kanjikode in Palakaad district. A Bench headed by Justice Arijit Passayat dismissed the appeal filed by the state government against the HC judgement, which held that the Puthussery panchayat had no jurisdiction under the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act in the matter of issuing, renewal or cancellation of license since the area had been excluded from the Act's purview.
The government had offered investors freedom to sell oil and gas to any consumers at market-determined prices under the terms of the production sharing contracts (PSCs) in the new exploration and licensing policy (Nelp). But, the evolution of government policies in the sector over the last few months, though ostensibly within the boundaries of the terms of PSCs, is in sharp contrast to these stated intentions, and this may even dampen investor sentiments.
For a reforming Economy, India is letting a lot of things occur in the marketplace that evokes for it the adjective "dysfunctional'. They serve neither social purpose nor make any economic sense, and smack mostly of arbitrary political interventionism. On a larger plane, the economic policy framework is now avowedly market-based and opposed to any form of strategic intervention. Weaving social objectives into economic policies is frowned upon. The agenda of economic reform does not include social interventions like the NAC's employment guarantee scheme and so on.
Katrain, HP, Feb 11 A new hybrid cabbage seed, developed here at the regional station of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), may be released next month for commercial cultivation, which will boost production by up to 40%. "We have developed the cabbage seed here at temperate climate, which can give a yield of 35 tonne per hectare if grown at an optimum temperature level of 15-20 degree celsius,' head of the regional station SR Sharma told PTI. The current yield of normal cabbage seed is 20-25 tonne per hectare.
Faced with high oil prices and increasing oil imports to meet the country's rising demand for transportation fuels, there is now a perception that India's energy security is threatened. In addition to securing overseas oil fields, alternative options include biomass-based fuels and coal-to-liquid (CTL) fuels. While the production of biodiesel has now become a national mission, CTL fuels are also gaining currency as a commercially attractive proposition because of the potentially cleaner characteristics.
The government is planning to create a multi-billion-dollar sovereign wealth fund to invest in energy assets such as oil, gas and coal across the world. "The plans are at a very initial stage. A decision on this would be taken after the budget,' Planning Commission energy adviser Surya P Sethi said here. "The fund, if set up, will invest in overseas oil, gas and coal assets.' Sethi did not give any idea of the possible size of the fund, but said: "It has to be in billions of dollars.' According to the latest data available with the Reserve Bank of India, the country's foreign exchange reserves stood at about $290.8 billion for the weekended February 8, up 57% from a year earlier. A sovereign wealth fund comprises assets such as stocks, bonds and other financial instruments, which is owned and managed by the government. The funds are deployed overseas for higher returns. The fund will be on the lines of Temasek Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Singapore government. Officials are of the view that low returns on investments in US treasury bills and other sovereign securities did not cover the costs of maintaining huge forex reserves, and justified establishing a fund that could deliver higher returns. Last year, state-run India Infrastructure Finance Co Ltd set up an offshore unit in London to use part of the country's reserves to help local Companies import equipment for infrastructure projects. The corpus of this fund is $5 billion. The central bank has previously expressed reluctance at using forex reserves to set up an investment fund as it said the build-up in reserves was largely to insulate the Economy from the impact of huge capital inflows, which could be reversed at short notice.
The energy crunch that the country will soon be beset with, as global fossil fuel reserves fail to adequately satisfy the growing energy needs of emerging economies, is an issue that has yet to receive the urgency it warrants. While the persistent rise in oil prices has drawn attention to the problem, the government's long-term plan to address it remains either sketchy or under wraps. Few realise that India's commercial energy consumption is now growing at almost double the world's average rate, and indeed, almost as fast as China's. The consumption base is low, admittedly. Despite being home to a fifth of all humanity, India's current share of world energy usage is only 3.9%, as compared to China's 15.6%. That OECD countries consume half the world's commercial energy supplies is a reflection of how developed those economies are. For India to gain share, as its emergence demands, "clean energies' like nuclear and hydro electricity have been widely recommended. But even here, India's global share is only 0.6% and 3.7%, respectively, compared to 84.5% and 43.5% enjoyed by OECD countries. India's hydrocarbon reserves do not inspire much confidence either. By current estimates, India's oil and gas will last only about 19 and 34 years, respectively, half the world average for these reserves. Only in coal can the country claim to have a reasonable edge, with its current reserves expected to last up to 207 years, about a third longer than the world average. But, in an interlinked world, global warming complicates the coal scenario. Indian policymakers would be well advised to chalk out a long-term plan that discreetly optimises all the options within the set of existing and emerging energy-use constraints. Overt trends and underlying pressures would have to be taken into realistic account. While global oil prices, which shot above $100 per barrel early last week, are a hot subject of discussion worldwide, natural gas and coal have also touched critical highs. Natural gas in the EU, which slid steadily for a decade-and-a-half to a low of $1.80 per million btu in the late 1990s, now rules at around $9, with spot rises spiking higher. International coal prices have nearly doubled in the last three-four years. Market forces, even if allowed to operate unhindered, would still spell high prices, given demand trends. India does have assets. Good management could see the country through.
India's first coal-to-liquid (CTL) project rolls off.
