The Punjab Energy Development Agency has released a draft green hydrogen policy aiming to achieve a green hydrogen and ammonia production capacity of 100 kilo tonnes per annum by 2030. The policy proposes extending incentives under the existing “Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy 2022” to new green hydrogen and …
What are the recommendations from the study, Energy for Tomorrow's World, that are relevant to India? Energy for Tomorrow's World is a global study, where no particular country has been specified. But 1 of the 9 regional working groups was on South Asia, and the people involved talked confidently about …
THE World Conservation Union (IUCN) is distressed about the way relief agencies like the Red Cross and Christian Action Research and Education are treating the Virunga National Park, Africa's oldest wildlife sanctuary. These agencies are aiding Rwandan refugees camping on the Zaire-Rwanda borders rubbing shoulders with the park. In a …
In 1982 popular opposition forced your ministry to take back a draft bill on forests. Why have you now rammed through another bill with similar intent? Nobody is saying that the 1982 bill is right. If it were, all I needed was to take that to Parliament. It is because …
LEADERS of 34 countries attending the Summit of the Americas left Miami after the 3 day-long meeting, which concluded on December 12, 1994, seemingly in an upbeat mood. Host us President Bill Clinton said that the meeting would create a free trade area stretching from "Alaska to Argentina". Heads of …
How would you define and explain the mandate of the President's Commission on Sustainable Development? Well, I think the Commission sustains on a mandate rooted in relationship between business and environmental NGOs in America. Both are now inclined to identify areas in which certain common programmes can be explored. This …
A 5-mw power plant fuelled by municipal garbage is being set up in south Madras. The project is a joint venture between the Newam Power Company Ltd and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd, with technical collaboration with the UK-based Henley Burrowes and Co Ltd, which has worked on …
Long range vision marked the mid-November summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Jakarta, Indonesia. apec called upon its industrialised members and other developing members to remove trade and investment barriers by ad 2010 and 2020 respectively. However, observers say that more significant was the commitment of 18 nations …
Renewable energy sources and technologies have been researched and promoted in varying degrees in different countries over the past 2 decades. Do energy experts have a clearer idea now as to which renewable sources and technologies should play a greater role in meeting rural energy needs? I don't think that …
FAR from the shrill cut-and-splice medley of liberalisation, reform and the free market highway to economic growth, some experts have been advocating an alternative approach to alleviating poverty and dealing with energy scarcity in India. They banded together in Bangalore recently to suggest a bioresources strategy for India. Bioresources, essentially …
THE Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (ireda), the financing arm of the Union ministry of nonconventional energy sources, is finalising a US$ 100 million assistance package from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (adb). This follows a technical assistance study initiated by adb in August 1994 at a cost US$ 354,000. …
Does rural fuelwood use and more generally rural biomass use cause forest degradation? This question has been debated in scientific and policy circles. The author presents a framework for defining degradation and sustainable use of forests that might help clarify some of the confusion.
The ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) has recently commenced a $5.5 million project, funded by the Global Environmental Facility, to convert municipal and industrial waste into energy. A national bio-energy board has been constituted under the chairpersonship of the secretary, MNES, to monitor the implementation. The first phase of …
The Refuse Incineration-cum-Power Generation Plant in Delhi is up for grabs. In 1987, the ministry of non-conventional energy sources (MNES) commissioned the plant, which was bought from the Denmark-based Volunt Miljotechnik with the help of a Danish government loan of Rs 20 crore. The plant converted 300 tonnes of garbage …
EVERYTHING in Thailand is daringly up front -- except for a serious water crisis. A transit passenger in the luxurious Bangkok airport who heads for the toilet for a quick shave risks inviting more than a few reproachful glances if he keeps the immaculately-polished taps carelessly turned on. The Thai …
In its cynical sense, the price of power is a phrase which often evokes rich imagery. Seen from any angle, the Indian government's decision to go in for what is going to be the world's largest, private sector electricity plant, to be constructed at Dabhol in Maharashtra by the US …
Sulabh International, which has designed and installed over 2,000 public lavatories in slums and resettlement colonies, has just developed a lavatory design that recycles compost to generate biogas for cooking fuel. "We plan to set up 61 such complexes throughout the country," says N D Mazumdar, director (technical research) of …
THE United States has once again lost the battle to use trade measures to determine not only tuna fishing methods but also the impact of tuna fishing on other species. In response to a complaint by the Netherlands and the European Community, the second panel report of the General Agreement …
The title would cause non-scientists to groan, "Not another harangue on equity..." Scientists might dismiss it as a bit of hackery -- how could anyone be preposterous enough to say that equity is good science? But C V Seshadri is no hack writer or blinded boffin. Despite his Carnegie Mellon …
ASIA is emerging as the focus for the debates and implementation of nuclear power. The International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that in 1993, the construction of over 10 nuclear power reactors began in Asia. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the US corroborates this revelation. According to a recent EIA …
