Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Jal Shakti Abhiyan implemented in 5,807 village panchayats in TN

The Tamil Nadu government is implementing the Jal Shakti Abhiyan, a campaign for water conservation, in 5,807 village panchayats spread over 249 rural blocks, official sources told PTI on Thursday. They claimed the state is performing better than others on construction of integrated water bodies and their management and has made rain-water harvesting a people's movement. TN recently launched a Rs 1000-crore “Tamil Nadu Water Resources, Conservation and Augmentation Mission” to rejuvenate water bodies with public participation. Another Rs 750 crore will be utilised from MGNREGS to... Read more..

Works to be undertaken in Dehradun, Pithoragarh and Udham Singh Nagar districts in first phase

The Government of India has approved Rs 1,400 crore (US$ 200 million) under Urban Infrastructure Development scheme for Secondary Towns for 16 urban areas of Uttarakhand. Expressing happiness at this development, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat thanked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Rawat said that this will help expedite infrastructural development works especially those related to drinking water, sewerage, drainage, roads, transport, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in urban areas. He said that the PM has maintained... Read more..

S-CCI India eyeing CV market to fuel growth

Commencing operations in 1985, S-CCI India Limited is setting up a plant at Gujarat to expand its reach in the CV market. Set up in collaboration with CCI Corporation, Japan, the company, a leading manufacturer of coolants and brake fluids, is catering to OEMs like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors, Force Motors, Mercedes-Benz, SML Isuzu, TAFE, Komatsu India, Nissan, Ford, Hindustan Motors and Toyota. Enjoying a good presence in the aftermarket, the company is eyeing a larger pie of the CV market to fuel growth. As the CV industry shifts gears, introduces new products that comply with BSVI... Read more..

Maruti treads cautiously on EV launch plan; Electric WagonR will go for further trials

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) is treading cautiously on the launch of its electric vehicle by 2020 due to not enough support from the government and lack of infrastructure. The company, however, may launch the vehicle only for transporting people (cab aggregators) next year. The company had earlier announced plans to launch electric car based on WagonR by 2020, which is being tested on the Indian roads since last year. However, MSIL now says by next year the vehicle, will be “at a stage which can go to the next stage of trials and testing”. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the... Read more..

Busting the myth: Increased penetration of rooftop solar power benefits discoms

If power distribution companies think increased penetration of rooftop solar power in their area will hurt them due to loss of revenue and the expenditure involved in creating supporting infrastructure for such plants, they need to think again. A power discom in Delhi rather gains 22 paise for every unit of electricity generated from a rooftop system, outweighing the revenue loss, according to a new analysis.

The gain accrues through a combination of benefit parameters including the avoided generation capacity cost, power purchase cost (PPC), transmission charges, distribution... Read more..

Wind to become largest power source by 2050, says Irena

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has released a new report named 'Future of Wind' in which it has suggested that wind energy could be the single largest source of power generation by mid-century. The report says that wind has the capability of satiating one-third of global power needs and reducing a quarter of energy-related carbon emissions. This is possible if global wind energy installations upsurge over ten times at about 6,000 Gigawatt (GW) by 2050 from the 2018 level of 500 GW. This entails advancement in certain key factors like economies of scale, more competitive... Read more..

An Environmentally Friendly Firecracker? India Is Willing to Try.

Diwali is the Hindu festival of light, and during the height of the celebrations in India each autumn, much of that illumination is coming from barely controlled explosions: the firecrackers, sparklers and other fireworks that millions here love to ignite as night falls. But beyond the light, it all adds fumes and smoke to India’s already toxic air. So changes are coming. Facing expanding evidence that India’s air pollution has become a public health disaster, the government has dramatically rewritten rules on fireworks sales, stringently enforcing a Supreme Court ban on most pyrotechnics... Read more..

How IT, communication can boost sustainable farming in India

Agriculture has been recognised as the core of the Union Budget for the year 2019-20. The Government of India has planned to invest widely in agriculture infrastructure to provide assured income to small and marginal farmers. It has made Niti Aayog a national think tank to establish and conduct programmes and research on technologies of the future namely, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to facilitate the economic development of our country. Uzhavan app, Ag mobile, CCMobile app, IFFCO Kisan are some of the applications developed keeping in mind the need of the hour... Read more..

Delhi Metro Stations Will Soon Get Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities to Boost Last Mile Connectivity: LG

Anil Baijal, Lt. Governor of Delhi chaired a meeting recently to review the progress of implementation of Multi-Modal Integration (MMI) plans on DMRC metro stations. The meeting was attended by Secretary-cum-Commissioner (Transport), GNCTD; Spl. Commissioner of Police (Traffic), MD (DIMTS); MD (DTIDC), Pr. Chief Engineer (PWD); Chief Architect (DMRC) and other concerned officers. In the meeting, LG asked the authorities to install charging facilities for the e-vehicle at each metro station to encourage e-vehicles for the last mile connectivity. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) recently... Read more..

Indian refiners' crude processing falls 6.9% in Sept year-on-year

India’s crude processing in September fell 6.89% from a year earlier, its biggest decline since June, as refiners shut units for maintenance and fuel upgrades, provisional government data showed on Tuesday. India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has set an April 1, 2020 deadline to migrate to Euro VI-compliant fuels to cut its carbon emissions. Indian refiners processed about 19.41 million tonnes or 4.74 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in September, the data showed. While private refiners such as Nayara Energy and Reliance Industries Ltd (RELI.NS) can churn out... Read more..

Chennai Gets Charged Up With Ather e-Scooters

Electric mobility is spreading fast, and the latest manifestation of this is the first batch of Ather Energy’s 450 e-scooter being delivered to customers in Chennai. The Bengaluru-based manufacturer will be delivering nearly 100 scooters this week. The company will also be providing these customers with the Ather Dot home charging system for their vehicles. Meanwhile, 10 fast-charging stations have been installed across the city to alleviate range anxiety. . The brand is offering free charging at all these stations until December this year in order to help build its brand value. Pre-orders... Read more..