How to sustain the Mother Earth!
India to relax 'green' norms for big power projects
"সোনার বাঁধালি নাও,
পিতলের গুরা রে
ও রণের ঘুড়া দৌড়াইয়া যাও"
The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is likely to take up two power projects worth approximately `35,000 crore this week.
The two projects namely NHPC's Dibang project and Reliance Power's Tilaiya project, like others have been long-stalled due to environmental hurdles.
Palash Biswas
নারী শক্তির হাত ধরে আবার জাগছে বাংলা। জাগরণ ঘটবে বাংলার সংস্কৃতির। আত্ম পরিচয়ে আবার গর্বিত হবে বাঙালি ।
Unlike · · Share · about an hour ago ·
No doubt,India's Mars mission is a major step forward in exploring the solar system that was completed by Indian scientists in just 15 months, said the euphoric scientific community Tuesday.But mother earth at home faces acute sustenance problem.
What about that?
Finance Minister P Chidambaram Tuesday exuded confidence that India's current account deficit (CAD) will be contained below USD 60 billion this financial year as against an earlier estimate of USD 70 billion.
"We think we can peg it (CAD) at USD 60 billion or below.
I am confident that we can do even slightly better than USD 60 billion," he told CNBC Awaaz.
How to make this possible?
Here you are!
The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) is likely to take up two power projects worth approximately `35,000 crore this week.
The two projects namely NHPC's Dibang project and Reliance Power's Tilaiya project, like others have been long-stalled due to environmental hurdles.
The Indian government, keen to boost power output in the electricity-starved country, is likely to bypass environmental hurdles for 'ultra mega power projects' (UMPPs).Cabinet Committee on Investment, this week, is likely to take up two power projects worth over Rs 35,000 crore that have been long stalled due to environmental hurdles.
On the other hand,Odisha government exposed itself how it did sold away minerals to big companies as Odisha has decided to halt the process of allocating coal blocks in the state given the controversy this has generated in the past, a senior official of the state's steel and mines department said on Monday. The central government allocated about 30 coal blocks in the state during 1993-2012 to different companies. Some of them are either facing litigation or are facing probes by different agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Just read this report and please do understand how surgically precise is the master plan!
India Growth to Improve as Stalled Projects Revive, Rajan Says
By Janelle Lawrence - Oct 16, 2013 11:15 AM GMT+0530
"The simple fix is we don't need a manufacturing revolution. We need it in the next 10 years but not now. We need to complete these projects.
''Growth will start picking up because these large projects will start coming onstream.''
On gold and the current-account gap:
''Gold is an asset that many Indian households prize. People who are richer don't know about fixed deposit. They want to buy gold. Our gold imports started surging over the last 10 years as people became more prosperous. That creates a problem because we import all our gold.
''Take out gold and our current-account deficit becomes healthy. India is sitting on something like 30,000 pounds of gold, all of which is imported.''
On regulations:
''We need a simpler, cleaner system of regulation. We need to right-size regulation. We need to do it across India. Certainly we're working on the financial sector to make regulation simpler and more transparent.''
On India's banking system:
''We need a better and more transparent framework and we're doing that.
''We are creating more opportunities but bringing in more entrants. This is part of making the banking system more competitive.
''We need people who need money to pay it back and we need to know who is not paying it back and why. We need to reduce the amount of strategic default in the country.
''My hope is over the next few years we transform the financial landscape.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Janelle Lawrence in Boston atjlawrence62@bloomberg.net
Panel set up to restart 215 stalled projects worth Rs 7 lakh crore
PTI Mumbai Last Updated: June 6, 2013 | 00:00 IST
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said a committee, headed by Anil Swarup, has been appointed to re-start 215 large projects worth over Rs 7 lakh crore that have been stalled for various reasons.
The panel will look at ways to get the projects off the ground at the earliest, he told the 66th annual general meeting of IBA, the umbrella body of the banking industry.
"I am happy to inform you that the Prime Minister today approved appointment of Anil Swarup from the Cabinet Secretariat as the head of a panel to identify and help restart the 215 large projects that have been stalled for one reason or other for years. I hope with this panel, which is likely to be constituted in a couple of days, we will be able to get these projects worth Rs 7 trillion identified and get started. Once these projects get started, we will see the results of them on investment in the remaining three quarters of this fiscal," the minister said.
Each of these projects that would be restarted on recommendation of the Swarup panel, will be tracked and get implemented on a time-bound manner, Chidambaram said.
The finance minister is hoping to accelerate economic growth by getting stalled projects off the ground. His brainchild, the Cabinet Committee on Investment has already cleared several thosand crores worth of projects in oil and gas, power and road sector.
Noting that banks have already extended Rs 53,000 crore to these projects, the Chidambaram said he wants the bankers to closely work with the panel, because it is in their interest that these projects get off the ground as this is their own money that is stuck.
The finance minister also said the Cabinet will finalise some of the crucial pending decisions in the four key sectors - roads, coal, oil & gas and fertilisers - in the next three to four days, but did not offer details.
Big Story - Stalled Projects Dampening Credit Demand: Rajiv Takru ...
► 1:49► 1:49
Aug 2, 2013 - Uploaded by Bloomberg TV India
Big Story - Stalled Projects Dampening Credit Demand: Rajiv Takru. Bloomberg ... The Outsider: Free ...
Chinese infrastructure projects in India stalled by red tape - YouTube
► 3:01► 3:01
May 23, 2013 - Uploaded by NDTV
Along with talks on resolving border disputes, India and China, the two most populous and fastest growing ...
Odisha has decided to halt the process of allocating coal blocks in the state given the controversy this has generated in the past, a senior official of the state's steel and mines department said Monday.
The Central government allocated about 30 coal blocks in the state 1993-2012 to different companies. Some of them are either facing litigation or are facing probes by different agencies including the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The official said only one coal block, namely Talabira-I, granted to Hindalco Industries Ltd is now in operation. The remaining 29 blocks are at different stages of processing for grant or execution.
Some of the coal blocks allocations are now the subject of public suits before the apex court, the official said.
The apex court directed the state government to submit its response on various issues related to such allocations two months ago. Similarly, the CBI also initiated enquiry into some of these past allocations, the official said.
The Central government had asked the state to proceed with steps in development of coal blocks as well as execution of mining leases as per law, he said.
But the recent developments in Talabira II coal block indicate that the state government is not fully aware of the developments on the pending investigations into the coal block allocations, he added.
The subsequent actions by the state government while investigations are pending are also liable to come under scrutiny, he said.
Therefore, the state government has decided not to proceed further for grant of mineral concession for coal blocks in the state untill pending litigation are setlled or investigation is closed, he said.
"So far, we have not received any advisory or information concerning investigations into the coal blocks allocated in the state, leaving us unsure of further steps to be taken in pursuance of allocation," the Chief Secretary J.K. Mohapatra said in a letter he has sent to the secretary of the ministry of coal last month.
"Therefore, in view of the pending litigations and investigation by the CBI or other agencies, we consider that proceeding further in respect of such allocations may not be advisable till the settlement of pending litigation or closure of investigation," Mohapatra wrote in the letter a copy of which is in possession of IANS.
-
Images for odisha coal mine
Amid disputes, Odisha halts coal block allocations - The Hindu
www.thehindu.com/news/national/...odisha...coal.../article5313960.ece
1 day ago - PTI An escavator removes coal blocks to search for bodies from dumpingcoal sliding spot at MCL mines at Sundargarh, Odisha. A file photo.
Odisha defends PSUs in coal block controversy | Business Standard
www.business-standard.com/.../odisha-defends-psus-in-coal-block-contr...
Oct 25, 2013 - Five coal blocks won by PSUs are under CBI lens. ... The JV formed byOdisha Mining Corporation (OMC) with Sainik Mining has been ...
Odisha holds up land transfer for Mahaguj coal mine project ...
www.business-standard.com/.../odisha-holds-up-land-transfer-for-mahag...
Sep 8, 2013 - The project is to be developed by Mahaguj Collieries in Angul district at an estimated cost of Rs 20000 cr.
Meanwhile, it is projected as an energy crisis that It is a mega discount sale for the festive season. On offer are large power projects at various stages of construction with a combined capacity of 35,000-50,000 megawatts.
Entrepreneurs who rushed in to build power stations five years ago are knocking the doors of large business houses as they see no solution to the acute shortage of coal and natural gas, and are keen cut losses and reduce the debt in their books. The sharp depreciation of the rupee is the latest blow as equipment costs have risen. They are knocking the doors of bigger companies backed by big business houses such as Tata Power, Reliance Power, Adani Power and Essar Power.
Problems in fuel supply, approvals for mining, rupee depreciation, land acquisition, and rising interest burden has stressed the sector, said Essar Power Executive Director KVB Reddy. "This has made many projects unviable and hence many of them may be on the block ... and now only the serious players with a strong financial backing are likely to remain in the fray," Reddy said.
Analysts agree. "There were many groups, for whom power sector was not core business, took exposure as there was lots of euphoria about power sector around 2007-09. Most of these projects are still under development and today's stressful economic scenario is forcing them to exit."said Debasish Mishra, a Senior Director with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India.
Power Ministry has sought CCI intervention on NHPC's Dibang project and Reliance Power's Tilaiya project.
"CCI may take up these projects in this week's meeting," a source privy to the development said.
The 3,000 MW Dibang hydro project has been stalled for a long time in the absence of environment and forest go-ahead. The estimated cost of the project is over Rs 15,000 crore.
The CCI may decide whether the private power producer Reliance Power's 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Tilaiya in Jharkhand should be spared from the responsibility of providing non-forest land to compensate for the loss of forest land to be acquired for the project.
At present, only central government or public sector undertakings have exemption from the obligation to provide non-forest land under the Act.
This is Reliance Power's third UMPP. The company is also executing two more UMPPs -- Sasan (Madhya Pradesh) and Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh).
UMPP is a big-size coal-based power plant with at least 4,000 MW capacity and is built at an approximate cost of Rs 20,000 crore.
CCI, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, aims to fast-track major projects and help boost investor sentiment.
Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had earlier said that as many as 94 hydro power projects are languishing due to tardy progress at various levels in granting them clearances.
Once approved, they can generate 37,000 MW electricity.
Hydro power contributes 39,623 MW of the total 2,25,793 MW capacity in the country.
The cabinet committee on investment (CCI), set up to fast-track projects worth over Rs1,000 crore, is likely to take up this week two stalled power projects with investments worth Rs35,000 crore.
The power ministry has already approached the CCI to exempt the plants from a key provision of the Forests Act, 1980, that requires companies to identify land for compensatory reforestation.
The Dibang project of the National Hydrothermal Power Corp (NHPC) and Reliance Power's Tilaiya project are stuck because of environmental hurdles, and the power ministry has sought the CCI's intervention.
The 3,000 megawatt (MW) Dibang hydro project in Arunachal Pradesh has been stalled for a long time. The estimated cost of the project is over Rs15,000 crore.
The project was originally scheduled for commission by 2017, but the delay in clearances will push it back by a couple of years and lead to a rise in costs, officials said.
As many as 94 hydro power projects are languishing owing to a tardy progress in granting clearances. Sources said the power ministry might also approach the CCI for other hydel projects.
If approved, they can generate 37,000 MW. Hydro power contributes 39,623 MW to the total 2,25,793 MW capacity in the country.
The CCI may decide whether private producer Reliance Power's 4,000 MW project at Tilaiya in Jharkhand should be exempted from providing non-forest land to compensate for the acquisition of forest for the project.
At present, only government undertakings are exempted from the obligation to earmark funds and non-forest land for reforestation.
The provision helps state companies such as National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC) the country's main power producer, but private producers face a number of obstacles in securing approvals and clearances required for identifying the appropriate patch of land to plant trees.
The power ministry now wants the same provision to be applied to all companies. It has proposed that developers of ultra mega power projects be asked to pay for reforestation but the onus of finding the land should rest with the state government.
- See more at: http://www.domain-b.com/industry/power/20131105_power_projects.html#sthash.daiCAXiw.dpuf
| |||||||||||||||
| |
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi are likely to attend the 86th annual general meeting (AGM) of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) on December 21.
According to Ficci sources, Singh has confirmed his presence, while Gandhi is yet to do so.
A Congress party source told Business Standard : "We have got an invitation. But it is too early to confirm whether Rahul would be attending the meeting."
Gandhi had met the top brass at Ficci, including president Naina Lal Kidwai and secretary-general
A Didar Singh, on October 26. He had said he wanted to engage business in the country's growth. Gandhi's moves to engage with the business community is seen as a strategy against the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) much-hyped model of economic growth. "Rahul Gandhi's endorsement of the importance of projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and National Industrial Manufacturing Zones are well placed as these will create an enabling environment for industrial growth," Kidwai had told Business Standard.
Apart from the two Congress leaders, BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley is also likely to attend the upcoming annual general meeting.
It was the prime minister who inaugurated the Ficci annual general meeting on December 15 last year, followed by marking his presence at the Confederation of Indian Industry AGM in April and Assocham annual general meeting in July.
In April, Gujarat chief minister and the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had taken a dig at Gandhi at a Ficci Ladies Organisation function, commenting on his "Kalavati" remark in Parliament and the subsequent media attention on it.
Coal files of power projects of big firms still untraceable
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Reliance Power, Tata Sponge and Iron among players
Though the Coal Ministry has handed over a set of files and documents on the allocation of coal blocks to the CBI, which is probing Coalgate, files and documents pertaining to meetings of the Screening Committee, mega power projects involving corporate giants like Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power, Tata Sponge and Iron, Rathi Steel and Power Limited and others continue to remain untraceable.
Despite many files and documents continue to remain missing and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh having stated in Parliament that a complaint would be filed if documents remain untraceable, the Ministry has been reluctant to ask the CBI to file an FIR.
The Ministry handed over files and documents to the CBI on Monday after a two-week deadline set by the Supreme Court ended. Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati sent to the Ministry on September 2 the list of documents and files that were to be submitted to the CBI. The Search Committee, headed by an Additional Secretary (Coal), and Secretary (Coal) S.K. Srivastava, had undertaken a hectic search for the files that extended to the Steel and Power Ministries, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.
The CBI had sought files and documents on the present status of Reliance Power-owned 4,000 MW Sasan ultra mega power project (UMPP), when was it commissioned, when coal extraction began in all three captive blocks, how much incremental coal has been used so far in the Chitrangi project from the captive blocks allocated to Sasan UMPP. .
In the case of the Radhikapur East coal block of Tata Sponge Iron Ltd. and SCAW Industries, files pertaining to application for block allocations, and change of name of the company are not complete and these have not been provided despite the claims made in August by the Ministry to the CBI of having supplied these files and documents.
Ministry reluctant to ask CBI to file FIR
Minutes of 26th Screening Committee final meeting are also missing
Gireesh Babu | Chennai
April 9, 2013 Last Updated at 00:48 IST
India Inc flags stalled projects with FM, expects 'big bang' steps
Finance minister reviews hundreds of stalled schemes with bankers, industrialists; gives assurance of action at his level
RELATED NEWS
With a little more than Rs 7 lakh crore of projects reportedly stalled at various stages of implementation, leaders of corporate India on Monday complained to the finance minister of the problems they faced on the reasons why. Environmental clearances were one major grouse.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday met the bankers and leaders of India Inc to discuss issues regarding the stalled projects, with the aim of resolving these issues and refuelling the investment cycle. The finance ministry had identified 215 projects stalled projects, each of Rs 250 crore and above. These are mostly financed by public sector banks. Apart from environmental clearances, the projects are also stalled due to fuel linkages and land acquisition hurdles, said bankers.
One of the chief executives (CEOs) who attended on Monday's meeting said the minister assured them he would take up the matter with his counterpart in the environment ministry. Some of the biggest road and power projects are awaiting clearances from the latter ministry.
The FM was also apprised about delays in land acquisition delaying many infrastructural projects, such as the Navi Mumbai airport. After on Monday's meeting, CEOs say they now expect the government to take "big bang" steps in re-starting stalled projects. A CEO of an infrastructure company said the National Highways Authority of India would soon float tenders for road projects worth Rs 30,000 crore for construction of 3,000 km of highways, a big confidence booster.
"We are sitting with bankers and the industry to find why a particular project has been stalled and I am noting that down, to go back and try to remove that block," Chidambaram told reporters, after attending the closed-door meeting at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba.
'Into the nitty-gritty'
Industry captains seemed satisfied with the minister's effort to address the issues. "He went into a lot of nitty-gritty (over stalled projects). He was very concerned and, overall, a very clear mandate was that these projects need to be completed," Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla told reporters.
Chidambaram went into details on each of those projects, not just at a general level, Birla said. "He asked each of us to talk about the projects and apprise him about the issues. He personally took notes and I am sure he will take actions on whatever is required."
Chiefs of Mumbai-based public sector banks – State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Central Bank of India — attended. Industry was represented by Anil Ambani, chairman, Reliance ADAG group; Prashant Ruia of Esaar; Ajit Gulabchand, chairman of Hindustan Construction and Madhu Kannan of Tata Sons, apart from K M Birla.
Chidambaram further said, "We've identified 215 projects which for one reason or another are stalled. We've identified another 126 which are new projects, to which banks have sanctioned loans but which have not taken off."
There are four or five reasons for which projects have been stalled, Chidambaram said. "The projects are held up due to issues like land acquisition, gas or coal linkages, environmental clearances, forest clearances and, in some cases, the inability or unwillingness of the bank to restructure the loans."
Chidambaram said the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Investment would take up 31 oil and gas projects for clearance, as the ministry of defence, the Defence Research and Development Organisation and the ministry of oil and natural gas had sorted all the contentious issues.
National Security and Economic Growth: A New Plan
November 2nd, 2013 - 4:08 pm
The distinguished venture capitalist Dr. Henry Kressel and I just published a proposal to restore American economic growth in The American Interest. You'll have to subscribe to this excellent magazine to read the whole thing, but the introduction is posted on its website:
America faces a crisis of innovation, and our survival as the world's industrial leader depends on its resolution. Overall research and development spending has stagnated as a proportion of national income since the 1950s, and our competitors are gaining on us. Even worse, the kind of fundamental R&D that produces game-changing innovations rather than incremental improvements has declined sharply relative to the size of the economy.
More is at stake than America's future growth prospects. Scientific innovation and national security have comprised two sides of the same coin since World War II. Not for a generation have America's security requirements begged for innovation as much as they do today. In place of a few large, well-defined threats that America faced in the relatively stable power balance of the Cold War, we now face a very large number of smaller and poorly defined threats in a chaotic world environment. The Bush and Obama Administrations had hoped to foster a new kind of stability, either by promoting democratic regimes in unstable theaters or by fostering multilateral cooperation and engaging prospective adversaries. Those hopes have faded. Reluctantly, America's foreign policy community has come to accept the premise that we will confront a kaleidoscope of shifting threats in an indefinite span of instability.
Regrettably, the military that America built to beat the Soviet Union is in many ways poorly equipped to address the new threat regime, and unfortunately that legacy force has not changed as much as it might have over the past two decades. Even if policymakers chose to expand on the existing platform, the public's perception of poor returns to commitments of blood and treasure during the past decade rules out this option as a viable political stance.
Tentatively and in piecemeal fashion, the American military is introducing a new generation of military technologies. Drones, battlefield robotics and similar technologies cast a wide net over the new threat horizon, but their practical application remains limited. Cyberwar has become a buzzword for defense planners, and in consequence the application of large-scale computation to the vast amount of information acquired by remote sensors ("Big Data") has become a theme du jour for defense research and development, as the volume of prospective threat data swamps existing capacity to process information. But the new threat profile, in which a large number of adversaries with cheap weapons in the service of suicidal fanaticism create an ever-expanding set of low-level risks, presents significant problems for sensing and information processing. Extracting an ever-fainter signal from an ever-greater volume of noise challenges our existing understanding of the problem.
The roots of American growth are dry. Venture capital investing and emerging industries are a shadow of what they were a decade ago. Employment in the companies that make up the Russell 2000 index now stands at half its 2007 level. The S&P 500 has almost restored its employment level to pre-crisis levels, but medium-sized companies are not hiring. Virtually all the employment growth during the Great Expansion that Reagan set in motion came from emerging companies. That engine is stalled out and rusting. If we want to get growth back, we need both the high-tech driver as well as the incentives from entrepreneurs.
My co-author Dr. Kressel, a prominent physicist, was a key leader at RCA Labs for a generation where his teams invented the semiconductor laser, CMOS chip manufacturing, and several other technologies that helped define the digital age. For the past thirty years he has built a strong track record investing in emerging companies at Warburg Pincus, where he is the partner responsible for the technology practice. He was there at the creation, so to speak, translating Defense Department mandates into tech breakthroughs that entrepreneurs later turned into trillions of dollars of market value and tens of millions of new jobs. There's no-one better qualified to make this case.
http://pjmedia.com/spengler/2013/11/02/national-security-and-economic-growth-a-new-plan/
No comments:
Post a Comment