Shri Piyush Goyal Launches Ujala Scheme in Goa and Vidyut Pravah & Urja Mobile App:-
UJALA Scheme:-
Under India’s commitment to achieving 30-35% reduced carbon emissions, the country has recognized energy efficiency as a key mitigation strategy. Therefore, the government is committed to executing schemes like UJALA.
State governments are voluntarily adopting this scheme and the scheme is already present in over 13 states.
EESL would be starting distribution in three more states within a month.The progress of ongoing LED distribution process can be tracked on http://www.delp.in/
The UJALA scheme has played a significant role in creating awareness about energy efficient lighting. In 2014-15, the total number of LED bulbs that were distributed was mere 30 lakhs. The number of LED bulbs distributed in 2015-16 has crossed 15 crore, where 9 crore LED bulbs were distributed under UJALA and the remaining were contributed by the industry. For this year, the Government of India is confident of distributing an additional 20 crore LED bulbs. Sustained efforts under UJALA, coupled with industry support, will help the government achieve its objective of replacing 77 crore inefficient bulbs by March 2019.
Efficient domestic lighting is one of the largest contributors to energy savings globally and the distribution of 10 crore LED bulbs in India has led to savings of over 1,298 crore kWh annually. This number has also helped the country avoid capacity of about 2,600 MW. Most importantly, the country has benefitted from reduction of CO2 emission by over 1 crore tonnes annually. The scheme is executed by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under Ministry of Power.
LED bulbs consume half the energy as that of CFLs and one tenth as that of incandescent bulbs.
UJALA is the largest non-subsidised LED programme in the world. The programme has led to significant savings to the consumers who are using these bulbs.
National savings under UJALA scheme:
Estimated Annual energy savings 1,298 crore kWh annually
Estimated reduction of peak load 2,600 MW
Estimated Annual cost reduction of bills of consumers INR 5,195 crore annually
Annual estimated greenhouse gas emission reductions 1 crore tonnes of CO2 annually
For enjoying the benefits of the scheme the consumer just needs to visit the UJALA dashboard www.delp.in to locate the closest distribution kiosk to their place. The UJALA scheme has now become a revolution and each person counts. Energy savings achieved from switching to LED bulbs is helping light up a home somewhere in the country.
National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN):-
Details:-
- It is a project to provide broadband connectivity to 250,000 Gram panchayats of India at a cost of Rs.20,000 crore.
- The project provides internet access using existing optical fiber and extending it to the Gram panchayats. Connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats and Blocks will be filled.
- The project was intended to enable the government of India to provide e-services and e-applications nationally.
- A special purpose vehicle Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) was created as a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Companies Act of 1956 for the execution of the project.
- The project will be funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) and was estimated to be completed in 2 years.
- The project envisaged signing a tripartite MoU for free Right of Way (RoW) among the Union Government, State Government and Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL).
- All the Service Providers like Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), ISPs, Cable TV operators etc. will be given non-discriminatory access to the National Optic Fibre Network and can launch various services in rural areas. Various categories of applications like e-health, e-education and e-governance etc. can also be provided by these operators.
Govt. clears civil aviation policy, makes flying cheaper
The Union Cabinet has cleared the Civil Aviation Policy in order to boost the domestic aviation sector and provide passenger-friendly fares.
This new policy aims at providing various benefits to domestic airline passengers.
In a boost for domestic carriers, the government also amended what is called the 5/20 rule, which allowed only airlines that had operated for five years and had 20 aircraft in their fleets to fly internationally.
Objectives:-
- India to become 3rd largest civil aviation market by 2022 from 9th.
- Domestic ticketing to grow from 8 crore in 2015 to 30 crore by 2022.
- Airports having scheduled commercial flights to increase from 77 in 2016 to 127 by 2019.
- Cargo volumes to increase by 4 times to 10 million tonnes by 2027.
- Enhancing ease of doing business through deregulation, simplified procedures and e-governance.
- Promoting ‘Make In India’ in Civil Aviation Sector.
- Ensuring availability of quality certified 3.3 lakh skilled personnel by 2025.
Details of the policy:-
- Capping of fare: Rs 1,200 for 30 minutes and Rs 2,500 for hour-long flights.
- A single window for all aviation related transactions, complaints, etc.
- 5/20 rule scrapped. Under the new rules, airlines must still have 20 planes before they can fly internationally, but no longer need to have operated for five years.
- Start-up airlines can now fly abroad after operating at least 20 planes or 20 per cent of their total flying capacity, whichever is higher, on domestic routes.
- 2% levy on all air tickets to fund regional connectivity scheme and providing viability gap funding for airlines to encourage operations on regional routes.
- Restoration of air strips at a maximum cost of Rs 50 crore through Airports Authority of India (AAI).
- India will have an open-sky policy for countries beyond the 5,000-km radius from Delhi on a reciprocal basis. This means that airlines from European or Saarc countries will have unlimited access, in terms of number of flights and seats, to Indian airports, leading to increased flight frequencies with these countries.
- Permission for Indian carriers to get into code-sharing agreement with foreign carriers for any destination within India.
- More focus on ease-of-doing business as government plans to liberalise regime of regional flights.
- The government will look to develop about 350 dilapidated or underused airstrips across India into “no frills airports“.
- Four heli-hubs to be developed. Helicopter Emergency Medical Services to be facilitated
- Development of greenfield and brownfield airports by State government, private sector or in PPP mode to be encouraged.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.