For some fans of Modi, so far, so disappointing

BY SANJEEV MIGLANI

NEW DELHI Wed Aug 13, 2014 2:41am IST

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi reacts during a meeting with Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff 

(not pictured) on the sidelines of the 6th BRICS summit at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia July 16, 

Reuters) - As an election campaigner, Narendra Modi promised sweeping market reforms to revive India's economy and put the country to work. As prime minister, he has dismayed admirers, apparently reverting to the script of the hapless government he defeated.

INDIAN POLITICS - A DIVISIVE POLITICS

Divide and rule, the famous punch line attributed to British has been the eternal weapon of Indian polity in the short history of independent India.It appears the present and past polity had either no clue to mitigation of  poverty or never had any inclination to do it in a meaningful manner. So they took refuge in the politics of division and appeasement.So issues like agriculturist vs non agriculturist, rural vs urban, rich vs poor, One State Resident vs Other State Resident, Dalit vs OBC vs Others, Male vs Female, Hindu vs Muslim and similar minority cards. In short they always worked against the first and foremost pillar of all equalities enshrined in the Indian constitution i.e all individuals will be treated at par for all purposes irrespective of their gender, colour, caste, creed, religion and place of birth to fulfill their own baser instincts ( money, wine, woman and power )

India has seen a lot of hooliganism and riots in the name of these demeaning divisive slogans patronized by different hues of Indian polity from time to time. Need less to emphasize that such crooked activities are resorted to to win elections or topple the governments of your adversaries.All violent activities are organised and encouraged to fulfill the  desires of politicians and have little or negligible contribution to the welfare of the masses. Reservation policy is a typical case in point. All political parties are guilty of using this card for their own benefit. But what has happened to the so called beneficiary group. Dalits and scheduled tribes constitute more than 22% of the Indian population. But to date hardly 2.0 lakh individuals could be benefited during the last 67 years as a result of this policy out of 30 crores. At this rate the Dalit upliftment program seems to be designed for couple of thousand years of rule by this dishonest and insincere polity.

"Riots have been deliberately created, increased after Modi's government came to power", says Sonia Gandhi..Yes, that is a fact and nobody denies it. Congress and all parties have been guilty of such manipulations from time to time. But has anybody after a big electoral success indulged in such disruptive activity to put his own government in jeopardy or is it that those who get decimated in electoral process indulge in this to regain lost ground. Most of the anti Modi parties have been prophesying that  Modi's coming to power will be a disaster and doom for India. It appears now they are working overtime to prove their prophesy right.

Subsidies kill, but are less murderous than political intentions

R BALAKRISHNAN | 02/08/2014 03:43 PM |   

The government's idea to get people to voluntarily forgo their LPG subsidy as an exercise in "nation building" has raised peoples' hackles.  The SMS from oil companies says, "Want to join Nation Building? It's simple - just give up LPG subsidy." Now if only the minister or the prime minister had said, "I am giving up my LPG subsidy. Join me in nation building"

The Union Government wants me to forgo my subsidy of around Rs500 per LPG cylinder. And it thinks that if I ignore the SMS, it will ‘expose’ the ‘rich’ who want to hang on to benefits meant for the poor.  If all of us filthy rich people who save fortunes due to this subsidy on cooking gas decide to give it up, it will add up to a princely sum of Rs3,500 crore. Mr Narendra Modi, thank you. I have no guilt in enjoying this subsidy. In fact, I get a small vicarious pleasure in getting something back from a system that has only taken from me all my life. Why is it that the system favours those who are parasitical to the extreme?

Given the noise about the Gujarat model, I thought that the age of meritocracy had to come. Alas, the Modi government seems to be bent on pushing honest citizens against the wall. Encouraging parasites to thrive through subsidies is surely not the way Gujarat has reached where it has, but the message this time is all wrong. If the Modi government is serious about the “Gujarat model”, we should actually see all subsidies being banished and that there are rewards for honesty and merit.

10 Digital Solutions to Make India the Best-Governed Nation - Moneylife

A 10-point digital roadmap for Mr Narendra Modi, that protects our assets, ensures that the right projects are undertaken, and delivers justice, equality, and liberty for all

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inherited an India with major challenges: an economy that fails to distribute the needs but pushes the wants; an environment that is being irreversibly stripped off; a hassle-filled life where red tape, fraud, corruption and indifference are ever increasing; failed land-use management is destroying India’s forests, mountains, rivers, streams, and farms, and at the same time flooding its courts with disputes. Over and above all this, it is almost impossible to make the right projects happen in the right place at the right time wasting thousands of crores of tax-payers’ money

To remove all these ills, Mr Modi has to redesign the way governance works. What should he do to redesign governance quickly? Here is a roadmap that focuses on the need to protect the assets of the country, and to ensure that the right projects are being undertaken, where no one is denied benefits, where justice, equality, and liberty are within reach, the future scenarios are shared, and democracy is not a distant dream.

Black economy now amounts to 75% of GDP - The Hindu

Black economy now amounts to 75% of GDP - The Hindu

Driven substantially by the higher education sector, real estate deals and mining income, India’s black economy could now be nearly three-quarters the size of its reported Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These are among the findings of a confidential report commissioned by the government and accessed exclusively by The Hindu.

Since there were no “reliable” estimates of black money generated in India and held within and outside the country, the UPA government commissioned the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) to estimate the black money in India and held overseas by Indians.

INDIAN BUDGET AND INDIAN POLITY

Today, the finance minister of India, Sh Arun Jetley presented budget 2014 in the parliament. The budget did have some positives but under the circumstances, with little money available for development, courtesy the ten years' economic mess created by the previous government. The approach of the previous government to the problems India is faced with was not only against all basic tenets of economics by the so called economists of world repute, it was void of even the common sense and they chose even to flirt with the age old adage 'cut your coat according to your cloth'. 

In politics one is either with the government or against it. But there has got to be some difference between opposing and simple howling. All the stalwarts of the previous government have been crying themselves hoarse over everything that the new finance minister has put up on the plea that he has hijacked their agenda, the never ending agenda of the last sixty five years of independent India, the agenda of  poverty eradication which was shamelessly diluted to poverty alleviation by this nobility in the service of mankind. All other programs whether of imparting skill and education or providing drinking water or providing good health services or providing food and shelter are the patents of Congress party and all other political parties of the country should perhaps say that they will not provide these otherwise they will be taken to task for infringement of  the patent rights.

A dark, bustling business: How India's black money racket runs

Gaurav Choudhury, Hindustan Times  New Delhi, June 30, 2014

First Published: 14:39 IST(30/6/2014) | Last Updated: 19:42 IST(30/6/2014)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is moving fast to repatriate hundreds of billions of dollars in slush funds or black money stashed abroad, as part of a wider clampdown on corruption that he promised during his election campaign.

The Indian government has written to Switzerland seeking details of Indians who have stashed away unaccounted money in the country. (Photo representative/Thinkstock)

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The government is building pressure particularly on Switzerland, seeking details of Indians who have parked unaccounted for money in the Alpine country's highly secretive banks. It has quickly implemented a Supreme Court directive to set up a high-powered special investigation team, headed by retired judge MB Shah, to look into the issue of black money that is said to run a parallel economy in India.

The efforts to rid India of corruption comes at a time when public patience with graft has run thin, underlined by massive street protests across the country three years ago that forced political parties to start addressing the scourge.

Read | Easier said than done: Busting India's black money racket

Hindustan Times presents a lowdown on how deals thrive outside the financial system in a bustling cash economy, hoodwinking authorities by creating a web of transactions to obscure the source of slush funds.


What is black money
Black money arises mainly from incomes not disclosed to the government usually to avoid taxation, and, sometimes, because of its criminal links

Solar Light Improves Lives of India’s Urban Poor

Ted Swagerty | November 11, 2013 12:30 pm 

One of the major consequences of industrial agriculture is the steady flight of rural populations to urban centers. Economists have widely encouraged this mass movement of people as a sign of a developing economies “specializing.”

We are seeing this trend in all majors cities in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Young men and women leave their villages and move to the city in search of better wages and lifestyle. Unfortunately, the promise of a better livelihood often fails to materialize. Villagers are forced to live permanently in tent cities that are scattered across the city with little or no access to water or electricity. Meals are generally cooked inside the tent using open fires that cause respiratory problems for women and children.

Bangalore is no exception to the effects of a globalized economy, but there is an organization working hard to make life in the tent communities a little brighter:Pollinate Energy.

Pollinate Energy is a social enterprise working with Bangalore’s migrant “tent city” communities selling small, efficient solar panels (10×20 cm) that power LED room lamps that can also charge mobile phones.

India Seeks $500 Million Loan For World’s Largest Solar Array

Brandon Baker | February 11, 2014 8:33 am 

Photo credit: Solar Energy Corp. of India

India could become home to the largest solar array on the planet, but it will take more than $4 billion.

The country made the initial step this week to request a $500 million World Bank loan to help finance the first phase of a solar plant in Rajasthan that would produce 4 gigawatts (GW) of energy. India’s department of economic affairs is evaluating the proposal, according to Indian business magazine, domain-b.com. If approved, the World Bank would then consider loaning $500 million of the project’s $750 million first phase.

Six Indian companies have created a joint venture for the project. They believe the country has the potential to deliver a nearly unfathomable 5,000 trillion kilowatt hours of solar energy.

New Prime Minister Modi: Solar Energy for Every Indian Home by 2019

Brandon Baker | May 21, 2014 11:55 am 

India installed 1 gigawatt (GW) of solar energy in 2013, and now has much bigger goals for the next five years.

Administration members under newly elected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he wants to bring solar energy to every home in the country by 2019. India trails only China in terms of largest populations on the planet.

There are about 400 million people in India without power. That’s more than the combined populations of the U.S. and Canada.

How Solar Panels Could Transform Parking Lots and Roadways Around the World

Brandon Baker | April 28, 2014 4:57 pm 

Are roads and parking lots covered with solar panels that feed power back into the grid actually feasible or does it sound like a green-energy fairy tale?

It’s been about eight years since an electrical engineer and his counselor set out to show that updating our traveling infrastructure with renewable energy is more than a fantasy. Now, they’re on the precipice of releasing their prototype for Solar Roadways, a system that would replace asphalt on our roads, giving them an energy production purpose.

With built-in LED lights, materials sturdy enough for vehicles and heat that would prevent the buildup of excess snow and ice, Solar Roadways is an ambitious project, to be sure. But Scott and Julie Brusaw have believers in the federal government—they have received two phases of funding from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration for research and development, including $100,000 in 2009.

Despite the polls, India still isn’t confronting corruption

With neither the ruling Congress party nor the principal opposition BJP doing anything substantial to weed out this endemic malaise, it is the Aam Aadmi Party — the latest entrant in the political arena — that is expected to be the watchdog in the nation’s fight against graft

• By Laurence Cockcroft
• Published: 20:00 May 7, 2014

• Image Credit: Ramachandra Babu/©Gulf News

In the bear pit of India’s election, voters seem particularly focused on two issues: Economic growth and corruption. However, while growth manifests itself in many different ways, some of them hard for the average voter to comprehend, corruption is a tangible and daily reality. Corruption has played an important part in Indian electoral politics in the past. As early as 1977 and 1989, voters selected the winning parties in national elections in part because they pledged to fight corruption. But public concern about corruption in the run-up to this year’s election has reached a new high.

The current wave of concern found its first outlet in the 2012 campaign for an anti-corruption body with investigative powers (a Lokpal), which was led by Anna Hazare, a civil rights activist in the Gandhian tradition. His hunger strike in support of the Lokpal led to its adoption by parliament in December 2013, albeit in a diluted form. Meanwhile, over the past year, some key players in India’s political and business elite — the sort of people who normally benefit from a widespread culture of impunity — have been found guilty on corruption-related charges and imprisoned, including A. Raja (former minister of telecommunications), B.S. Yeddyurappa (former chief minister of Karnataka) and Jaganmohan Reddy (YSR Congress chief in Andra Pradesh state).

Even the chairman of the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Narayanaswami Srinivasan, has been implicated in match-fixing scandals. Last month, the Supreme Court required Srinivasan to resign his position. At the same time, under the Right to Information Act of 2005, thousands of applicants have been requesting information on corruption-related issues and pointing fingers at many officials, especially at the state level. (In some cases, those information requests have led to the assassination of those making the applications). At the local level, very successful “right to know” and anti-corruption campaigns — such as the Public Affairs Centre and Janaargha (sponsors of the website “I Paid a Bribe,” which has had two million hits since it was launched four years ago) in Bengaluru — have raised awareness of citizens’ rights to a new level.

Solar farms 'will not spread unrestricted across British countryside' | Environment | theguardian.com

Carmaker Jaguar announced the completion of the UK’s largest rooftop solar array, with 21,000 panels on the roof of their engine factory in Staffordshire providing a capacity of 5.8MW. Photograph: Jaguar Land Rover press office

Solar farms must not spread unrestricted across the British countryside and become as controversial as onshore wind turbines, a minister warned on Friday.

Instead, solar panels will be rolled out on millions of homes, businesses, schools and government buildings, said energy and climate change minister Greg Barker.

Barker, one the greenest Conservative ministers, launched the government's first solar power strategy at the end of a week in which senior Tory sources revealed their plans to heavily curb or even dismantle windfarms after the next election.

The number of large solar farms, often housing more than 100,000 panels, has doubled in the first three months of 2014 but some have attracted local protests.

At the opening of a new Sunsolar panel factory in Birmingham, Barker told the Guardian: "I do not want solar farms to become the new onshore wind. Solar power enjoys huge popularity, so we have to be careful. I do not want to see unrestricted growth of solar farms in the British countryside."

Barker has previously called large farms "monsters" and, due the subsidies they receive, "gold-diggers".

But he said there was a great opportunity elsewhere for solar power, which has fallen in price by two-thirds in the last four years. Barker said he expected the 500,000 homes with solar panels to double by the end of 2015.

He also announced streamlined planning rules to make it simpler to put panels on large industrial and commercial roofs. Putting panels on just one in six roofs would generate electricity equivalent to two nuclear power stations. On Thursday, carmaker Jaguar announced the completion of the UK's largest rooftop solar array, with 21,000 panels on the roof of their engine factory in Staffordshire providing a capacity of 5.8MW.

Barker also announced a programme to put up to 4m solar panels (1GW), on the roofs of government-owned buildings across the UK before the end of the next parliament in 2020. A new unit in the Cabinet Office, under Francis Maude, is working on this programme, which will be funded by the private sector.

Cheap Solar Power Is Fueling Global Renewable Energy Growth: Report

From Climate Central's Bobby Magill:

The share of total global electricity production generated by renewable energy is climbing, mainly because solar photovoltaic systems are becoming less expensive,according to a report released Monday by the United Nations Environment Programme and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Wind, solar and other renewables, excluding hydropower, were 8.5 percent of total global electric power generation last year, up from 7.8 percent in 2012, the report says.

That comes just after Bloomberg and Pew Charitable Trusts issued a report last weeksaying investments in renewables worldwide has been declining since their peak in 2011, with the U.S. lagging behind China in overall investments in wind, solar and other renewables.

The reports come about a week after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the second part to its fifth assessment report, stating with certainty that humans are going to have to adapt to a world enduring climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from people burning fossil fuels. Renewables help reduce the climate-changing, energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.

India's hunger for energy: BJP plans solar power revolution - The Times of India

NEW DELHI: Sunny side up. That's how the BJP plans to serve its menu to satisfy India's hunger for energy, along with incentives for ramping up domestic production of coal, oil and gas. 

The party's manifesto indicates a countrywide solar power revolution, building on the model successfully implemented in Gujarat by the state government led by PM candidate Narendra Modi. 

Gujarat was the first state to announce incentives for solar projects in 2009, a year before UPA-2 launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Latest government data shows the state accounted for a third of the growth in green energy projects. 

The Gujarat solar power experience is an inspiration for the party. Though the manifesto does not go into detail, we recognize different regions would require different solutions," BJP's energy advisor Narendra Taneja told TOI. 

The manifesto also indicates giving power to people — a sort of swaraj — for remote, hilly regions by promising to build a network of small hydel projects. 

The manifesto indicates the party's willingness to continue subsidies but target them better. That means pushing ahead with reforms such as market pricing of energy to spur investment and growth, while taking care of the poor through subsidy. 

There is a clear stress on raising coal output, indicating the party would rather bank on building generation capacity on an abundantly available domestic fuel than chasing the uncertainty associated with availability of domestic gas. 

The party promises to replicate throughout the country another success story from Gujarat by unifying the country through a national gas grid for equitable distribution of access to clean fuel. Under Modi, Gujarat was the first state to have planned and implemented a statewide gas pipeline network. It is also the only state in the country to own a blue chip oil and gas company. 

World should prepare for next nuclear power plant accident - The Santa Fe New Mexican: News

TOKYO — Three major atomic accidents in 35 years are forcing the world’s nuclear industry to stop imagining it can prevent more catastrophes and to focus instead on how to contain them.

Of the 176 new reactors planned across the globe, half will be in nations that had no nuclear plants when disaster crippled the U.S. Three Mile Island reactor in 1979 and the Chernobyl reactor blew up in present-day Ukraine in 1986.

As countries such as China and India embrace atomic power even after the Fukushima reactor meltdowns in 2011 caused mass evacuations because of radiation fallout, scientists warn the next nuclear accident is waiting to happen and could be in a country with little experience to deal with it.

“The cold truth is that, no matter what you do on the technological improvements side, accidents will occur — somewhere, someplace,” said Joonhong Ahn, a professor at the Department of Nuclear Engineering of University of California, Berkeley. The consequences of radiation release, contamination and evacuation of people is “clear and obvious,” Ahn said. That means governments and citizens should be prepared, not just nuclear utilities, he said.

While atomic power has fallen from favor in some western European countries since the Fukushima accident — Germany, for example, is shutting all of its nuclear plants — it’s gaining more traction in Asia as an alternative to coal. China has 28 reactors under construction, while Russia, India, and South Korea are building 21 more, according to the World Nuclear Association. Of the 176 reactors planned, 86 are in nations that had no nuclear plants 20 years ago, WNA data show.

Still, the association defends the global safety record of nuclear power, noting that the three high-profile disasters “are the only major accidents to have occurred in over 14,500 cumulative reactor-years of commercial nuclear power operation in 33 countries.”

Congress not interested in bringing back black money: Modi | Business Standard

BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi today alleged that Congress was not interested in bringing back black money stashed in foreign banks as 'it belonged to them'.

"Why is Congress opposing the move to bring back the money? Because it belongs to them. They have been opposing it for the last ten years and they have no intention of bringing it back," Modi said during an election rally here.

"Everyone in the country has been urging the Congress government to bring back black money to India, but they are not taking any initiative though they have promised so in their manifesto," he said.

"Now, in their 2014 manifesto they have mentioned that they will bring back the black money. They have been in power for the last ten years. What stopped them from bringing the money back till now?" he asked.

Accelerating Use of Renewable Energy | Bob Burnett

US energy policy is stuck on reliance on natural gas. Most Americans understand that by the middle of the century most of our energy will have to be supplied by renewables -- wind, water and solar -- but we seem content to use natural gas for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, this is not a realistic policy.

We're running out of time. Writing in Rolling Stone, environmentalist Bill McKibbenwarned that humans can only emit 564 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050 and still have a reasonable chance of keeping the temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius (the threshold for catastrophic consequences). Nonetheless, last year we pumped a record 36 gigatons into the atmosphere; at this rate we'll exceed 564 gigs in about a decade. Writing in the Washington Post, Brad Plumer observed that if we are serious about averting horrific climate change, "[Then] the world can use natural gas for only a brief period before transitioning to carbon-free power. Global gas consumption would have to peak by 2020 or 2030."

What will it take to get us to move aggressively to sole reliance on renewable energy?

First of all, it has to be feasible to move to water, wind and solar. Fortunately, there's a lot of evidence that it is. Speaking on The David Letterman Show, Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson touted his plan to move the US off of fossil fuels by 2050. Jacobson's Solutions Project has developed a detailed plan for each state.

The narrative differs depending upon where you live. The Solutions Project has a plan for California, where 95 percent of our electricity would be generated by renewables by 2050. In the most recent California energy estimates renewables generated 17 percent of our electricity (in-state -- we import some energy). Today, more than 60 percent is developed using natural gas.

Fortunately, California state policy is behind our transition to renewables: by 2020, California plans to generate 33 percent of its electricity from wind, water and solar. Recently, Pacific Gas & Electric, the second largest California public utility, announced that it has "delivered 22.5 percent of its power from eligible renewable resources in 2013 and is on track to meet the state's clean energy goals for 2020 and beyond."

Accelerating Use of Renewable Energy

Posted: 03/29/2014 1:22 pm EDT Updated: 03/29/2014 1:59 pm 

US energy policy is stuck on reliance on natural gas. Most Americans understand that by the middle of the century most of our energy will have to be supplied by renewables -- wind, water and solar -- but we seem content to use natural gas for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, this is not a realistic policy.

We're running out of time. Writing in Rolling Stone, environmentalist Bill McKibbenwarned that humans can only emit 564 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050 and still have a reasonable chance of keeping the temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius (the threshold for catastrophic consequences). Nonetheless, last year we pumped a record 36 gigatons into the atmosphere; at this rate we'll exceed 564 gigs in about a decade. Writing in the Washington Post, Brad Plumer observed that if we are serious about averting horrific climate change, "[Then] the world can use natural gas for only a brief period before transitioning to carbon-free power. Global gas consumption would have to peak by 2020 or 2030."

What will it take to get us to move aggressively to sole reliance on renewable energy?

First of all, it has to be feasible to move to water, wind and solar. Fortunately, there's a lot of evidence that it is. Speaking on The David Letterman Show, Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson touted his plan to move the US off of fossil fuels by 2050. Jacobson's Solutions Project has developed a detailed plan for each state.

The narrative differs depending upon where you live. The Solutions Project has a plan for California, where 95 percent of our electricity would be generated by renewables by 2050. In the most recent California energy estimates renewables generated 17 percent of our electricity (in-state -- we import some energy). Today, more than 60 percent is developed using natural gas.

Fortunately, California state policy is behind our transition to renewables: by 2020, California plans to generate 33 percent of its electricity from wind, water and solar. Recently, Pacific Gas & Electric, the second largest California public utility, announced that it has "delivered 22.5 percent of its power from eligible renewable resources in 2013 and is on track to meet the state's clean energy goals for 2020 and beyond."

Renewables power a rural German village

By Laurie Guevara-Stone on 4 March 2014

RMI

Regardless of debate about the success of Germany’s renewables revolution, there is no denying that a small town in the corner of rural eastern Germany, 40 miles south of Berlin, may be one of the best examples of decentralized self-sufficiency. Feldheim (pop. 150), in the cash-strapped state of Brandenburg, was a communist collective farm back when Germany was still divided into East and West. Now it is a model renewable energy village putting into practice Germany’s vision of a renewably powered future.

In 1995, a local entrepreneur paid for Feldheim’s first wind turbine. As farmers started to worry when prices for their milk, potatoes, and beets began to fall and energy prices started to rise, they learned they could earn cash by renting their land to energy companies wanting to install a wind turbine. A local renewable energy company, Energiequelle GmbH, saw the potential as well, and decided to install a wind farm in Feldheim. Forty-three wind turbines with an installed capacity of 74.1 MW soon dotted the Feldheim landscape, providing income to farmers who leased their land to the energy company.

Renewable fervor was catching on, and in 2008 Energiequelle bought a 111-acre former Soviet military site about five miles from Feldheim, cleaned up the toxic military waste and hidden ammunition, and constructed a 284-panel solar farm that produces over 2,700 MWh per year. Its power is fed into the grid at the feed-in-tariff rate.

That same year, the town of Feldheim and Energiequelle established a joint venture, called Feldheim Energie GmbH & Co. The new company built a biogas factory that converts pig manure and unused corn into heat, taking advantage of the community’s 700 pigs and 1,700 acres of arable farmland. The biogas plant is fed from the town’s agricultural cooperative and produces of electricity a year. A 400-kW wood-chip furnace fueled by the byproduct of forest thinning helps to firm the power from wind and biogas.

India to switch 26m water pumps to solar from diesel

By Jeff Spross on 10 February 2014

Climate Progress

The Indian government is aiming to swap out 26 million fossil-fuel-powered groundwater pumps for solar-powered ones, Bloomberg reports.

The pumps are used by farmers throughout the country to pull in water for irrigation, and currently rely on diesel generators or India’s fossil-fuel-reliant electrical grid for power. Pashupathy Gopalan, the regional head of SunEdison, told Bloomberg that 8 million diesel pumps already in use could be replaced right now. And India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy estimates another 700,000 diesel pumps that could be replaced are bought in India every year.

“The potential is huge,” said Tarun Kapoor, the joint secretary at the ministry. “Irrigation pumps may be the single largest application for solar in the country.”

The program works by subsidizing the swap, and operates in different capacities in India’s various states, sometimes subsidizing the solar pumps up to 86 percent. Thanks to that aid, and the dramaticcollapse in prices for solar power, the pumps pay themselves off in one to four years, according to Ajay Goel, the chief executive officer of Tata Power Solar Systems Ltd., a panel maker and contractor. And Stephan Grinzinger, the head of sales for a German solar water pump maker, told Bloomberg the economics will only get better: diesel prices will rise and spike during farming season, and economies of scale will help the swap program.

Two-thirds of India’s electricity is generated by coal, with natural gas and hydroelectric making up most of the rest. But the monsoon season is growing more erratic — likely due to climate change — making power from the hydroelectric dams less reliable as well. Coal is growing in economic cost for India, so power plants often sit idle, and the coal that is easy to reach would require displacing major population centers.

The national grid that relies on those fuels has seen few updates since it was constructed in they 1960s. It’s also under growing stress from India’s rising middle class, which is adopting air conditioning and running water in massive numbers — all in a country prone to heat waves, again thanks in part to climate change. As backup, many Indian residents and businesses rely on diesel generators, which leaves them vulnerable to the fuel market and contributes to fossil fuel emissions.

Even when the grid is working, around 300 million of India’s 1.2 billion inhabitants don’t have access to it. When it’s not, rolling blackouts are common. Many farmers are able to draw only four hours of power a day from the grid, and that often at night. Heat waves in 2013 were accompanied by widespread blackouts, and a two-day grid failure in 2012 left over 600 million Indians without power.

Ironically, thanks to the kind of distributed and sustainable generation the swap program represents, many of India’s rural poor actually faired much better during the blackout than the grid-dependent middle-class. It’s one of the strengths of solar in particular, even before climate change is considered: a more decentralized power system, based around “microgrids” and individual power generation, rather than a centralized system reliant on the good function of large, singular power providers. In India in particular, sunlight is most plentiful at the times when demand tends to peak. That leaves the power system more adaptable, less prone to central failures, and thus more hospitable to those still struggling to overcome poverty in particular.

Beyond India’s pump swap program, other efforts in south Asia and northern Africa are already underway to bypass grid expansion entirely, and bring solar power and microgrids directly to poor people.