Thought for the day
”Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is
right and part with him when he goes wrong."
-
Abraham Lincoln (American, 1809-1865)
Word for the day
Gregarious (adj)
Seeking and enjoying the company of others.
(Source:
Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
Will the SC ruling on coal block allocation in past two
decades mark end of the reign of the Gangs of Wasseypur and Khadi clad Gundey
on Indian natural resources?
"Vote" over "voter" - III
The draft
report of the Expert Committee on Integrated Energy Policy set up by the
Planning Commission submitted in December 2005 explicitly stated that “India
faces formidable challenges in meeting its energy needs and providing adequate
energy of desired quality in various forms to users in a sustainable manner and
at reasonable costs.
India needs to sustain a 8% to 10% economic growth to eradicate
poverty and meet its economic & human development goals. Such economic
growth would call for increased demand for energy and ensuring access to clean,
convenient and reliable energy for all to address human development. To deliver
a sustained growth of 8% through 2031, India would, in the very least, need to
grow its primary energy supply by 3 to 4 times and electricity supply by 5 to 7
times of today’s consumption. The energy challenge is of fundamental
importance to India’s economic growth imperatives (emphasis supplied).
The Expert Committee made suggestions based on the following
approach:
(a) Markets that
promote competition.
(b) Pricing and
resource allocation to take place under market forces under an effective and
credible regulatory oversight, as far as possible.
(c) Subsidies to be
transparent and targeted.
(d) Improved
efficiencies across the energy chain.
(e) Policies that
reflect externalities of energy consumption.
(f) Policies that
rely on incentives and which are implementable
Despite having such a vivid idea about the problems and well
documented approach to the solution, the government not only took a divergent
route but also did all possible things to scuttle the growth of energy sector.
The NDA government had for once effectively dismantled the
administrative pricing mechanism for transportation fuel; de-regulated the oil
and gas exploration and production under New Exploration Licensing Policy
(NELP); allowed private players in retailing of transportation fuel; privatized
power production and related coal mining.
The successive governments however undid most of these steps in
the interest of short term political gains. It dithered for many years on
revision of market price of transportation fuel and LPG. Failed to implement
the coal mining policy; national solar mission remained mostly on papers;
nuclear energy program has seen very little progress despite all the political
hoopla in 2009; subsidies have been misdirected and mostly remained
uncontrolled till tye hot summer of 2013.
A two day trip to rural Bihar, Jharkhand, Eastern UP will prima facie
explain how by making people dependent on subsidized kerosene for lighting and
cooking purposes, successive governments have successfully broken the spines of
millions of households. They walk miles, stand in queue for hours to get a
couple of litters of this health hazard fuel. This time and energy could have
been spent much more productively, if the government subsidy was well planned,
e.g., for roof top solar panel, solar lanterns, solar charging stations closer
to their home...to continue tomorrow
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