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OLD POWER PLANTS PUT INDIA IN 11TH SLOT IN ENERGY EFFICIENCY

NEW DELHI: Germany is the global leader in energy efficiency while ageing power plants and inefficient ways of electricity generation and industrial practices put India at number 11 in the latest energy efficiency ranking of the world’s 16 largest economies.

The United States, having second highest per capita energy consumption in the world, comes at the 13th position — behind countries such as China, France, Japan, UK, Canada and Australia among others.

Besides the US, four other countries — South Korea, Russia, Brazil and Mexico — are below India in terms of indulging in inefficient ways of energy consumption.

Per-capital energy consumption of all these countries is, however, much

NDA EASES GREEN RULES TO PUSH INVESTMENTS

NEW DELHI: Through a quick series of notifications, the Union environment ministry has eased rules for mining, roads, power and irrigation projects and other industrial sectors. It has diluted a host of regulations related to environment, forest and tribal rights. Besides, sources in the ministry say, more changes in regulations are in the pipeline.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had earlier done away with the requirement of public hearing for coal mines below 16 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) wishing to expand output by up to 50 per cent. This has now been extended to mines above 16 mtpa, permitting them to mine up to five mtpa more without consulting affected people. Public hearings, the only occasion when affected people are

BILL TO REFORM POWER SECTOR IN WINTER SESSION

NEW DELHI: The government will bring a Bill, amending the Central Electricity Act, in winter session of Parliament to improve the tariff policy and regulations in the power sector. The power ministry is working out different tariff structure for different times of the day for easy availability of power for maximum hours in electricity deficit areas. It will soon consult states over the issue as the tariff matter comes under the states’ domain.

Besides, the government has decided to promote domestic power companies to help increase solar power generation in the country. Announcing these decisions in Rajya Sabha, power minister Piyush Goyal said the government will allow only 100% indigenous domestic companies to participate in the

ADANI GROUP IN TALKS WITH INDIAN OIL FOR RS 30,000 CRORE MUNDRA REFINERY JOINT VENTURE

MUMBAI: The Adani Group and Indian Oil Corporation are in talks to build a Rs 30,000-crore joint venture refinery at Mundra, which would give Gautam Adani an entry into the oil sector while the state-run company would get land port facilities for the proposed export-focused unit.

The proposed 30-million-tonne refinery at Mundra will make Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s native state, Gujarat, a bigger energy hub. It already has refineries of Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Indian Oil, apart from two LNG terminals and the country’s biggest city-gas distribution network.

Industry sources said Gautam Adani has held initial talks with top executives at IOC and offered around 3,500-4,000 acres of land for th

Tiny Village Struggles to Revive Kurdish Life

The village of Kerwas, or Yalaza in Turkish, located near the town of Lice in Turkey’s southeast. Ayla Albayrak for The Wall Street Journal A sleepy little village in Turkey’s southeast has an ambitious project for the country’s estimated 15 million Kurds: to build the country’s first Kurdish-language primary school and set a model for modern Kurdish village life. In a country where Kurdish-language public education remains […]

TO CAPITALISE PSBs, GOVT WILLING TO PRUNE ITS STAKE TO 52 PER CENT

The finance ministry is likely to put out a note soon, detailing its road map to capitalise state-run lenders while explicitly stating the government’s intent to maintain control over public sector banks with at least 52% stake.

This marks a shift from the previous UPA government’s decision to keep 58% shareholding in state-run banks. It is in keeping with the Narendra Modi-led government’s stand articulated in the Budget 2014-15 that it would encourage banks to raise capital from the market.

The government will push banks this way to the point of its own stake falling to 52%, to reduce reliance on the budget.

It has set aside only Rs 11,200 crore for bank capitalisation this f

POWER MINISTRY MULLS FUND TO FINANCE HYDRO PROJECTS

NEW DELHI: The power ministry plans to create a fund to provide long-term finances to hydropower developers, and aims to play an active role in resolving state level sues that are blocking such projects.

“Hydropower did not get the desired attention as concerned ministries and departments were working in silos, and problems with states and central authorities could be resolved.

However, the new government is working in tandem as a team and we are hopeful to resolve pending issues to give conducive environment to hydropower sector,” power, coal and renewable energy minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

He said one of his first projects Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated was the

RAJASTHAN GOVERNMENT BANKS ON HPCL DATA TO NULLIFY LATTER’S CLAIM

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government while censuring previous Congress government for ignoring state’s interests while signing memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), has banked on the HPCL’s own consulting firm, SBI Caps’ report.

Chief minister, Vasundhara Raje, during her budget speech, said that based on appraisal report, the project will earn revenue of more than 68,000 crore within 15 years, from the day of production.

According to government officials, the data was cited from the report prepared by HPCL-appointed consulting firm, SBI Caps. Riding on these figures, the government is firming its stand on renegotiating the terms. “These facts came

End of dollar’s ‘extraordinay esteem’

|By K Raveendran| Is the ‘irrational exuberance’ man at it again? Allen Greenspan, whose description of the state of the market during the course of a nondescript banking speech in 1996 presaged a bubble burst three years later, has spoken out again. The former Federal Reserve Chairman has in a TV interview suggested that the ‘extraordinary esteem’ in which dollar is held around the world may not […]

GOVT OPEN TO MINOR CHANGES IN INSURANCE BILL

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the government was open to accommodating minor modifications to the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2008, so that it could be passed in the current session of Parliament. He also said calling a joint session of Parliament was a real option if the Bill was defeated in one of the Houses. After an all-party meeting failed to break the deadlock on the issue between the government and Opposition, Jaitley on Monday reached out to the Congress. But the Congress continued to insist the Bill be sent to a select committee of Parliament, as it now was much changed from the one the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The party added it would be willing to support the legisl

Op-Ed Contributor: Atef Abu Saif: Life and Death in the Gaza Strip

Op-Ed Contributor Eight Days in Gaza: A Wartime Diary By ATEF ABU SAIF August 4, 2014 Sunday, July 27 For the last two hours we’ve heard nothing but sonic booms and the sound of rockets and mortars. Shells have fallen on our street a few hundred yards from my father-in-law’s house, where my wife and I, and our five kids, are staying, and on the street behind us. My wife, […]

CENTRE PLANS CHANGES IN ATOMIC ENERGY LAW FOR NPCIL VENTURES TO TAKE OFF

NEW DELHI: The Centre is looking to move amendments to the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 to enable the licensing of three joint ventures proposed by state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd — with NTPC Ltd, Indian Oil Corporation and National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) — to set up new atomic power projects in the country.

Amid concerns over India’s nuclear liability provisions holding up the deployment of imported Light Water Reactor-based projects in collaboration with global vendors, the proposal by NPCIL to strike joint ventures with cash-rich PSUs is being seen as an alternative strategy to tide over the paucity of funds and ramp up execution capability for new projects using the indigenous pressurised heavy water react

STAKE DILUTION IN GOVT BANKS TO START IN NOVEMBER: SANDHU

New Delhi: The government is likely to start selling its stake in public sector banks (PSBs) in November. It is also expected State Bank of India (SBI), India’s largest lender, will tap the markets this year. Financial Services Secretary G S Sandhu on Thursday said the government would seek a Cabinet nod for stake dilution in PSBs, adding the sale would be in tranches, based on banks’ requirement of funds. “It will be a combination of follow-on public offer (FPO) and, in some cases, it will be through qualified institutional placement. It may start around Diwali, most likely November,” he told reporters after a meeting with the heads of PSBs and other financial institutions. Asked whether large banks such as SBI and Punjab National Bank (PNB) would op

US WANTS TO LINK POWER PACTS WITH CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT

NEW DELHI: A visiting US team has told Indian negotiators it would link pacts on the power sector to the agreement the two countries draw on climate change and one would not happen without the other.

This message was conveyed by the US team to India in a meeting held with the power ministry on Wednesday. Power Minister Piyush Goyal and other ministry officials attended the meeting.

The US team, headed by Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate change, also called on Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar in its bid to stitch an agreement on various climate change issues.

Sources said the meeting with the environment ministry focused on areas where the two countries

PETROL GETS CHEAPER BY RS 1.09 PER LITRE, DIESEL PRICES UP BY 56 PAISE

NEW DELHI: Petrol became cheaper by Rs 1.09 per litre in Delhi from Friday after state oil companies slashed the price of the fuel for the first time since mid-April because benchmark gasoline rates in the international market dropped.

Companies, however, raised the price of diesel by 56 paise in Delhi, helping to reduce the gap between pump and market rates by about Rs 1.50 per litre and increasing the prospects of deregulating the fuel soon.

If the trend continues, diesel pricing could be freed from state control in three months, government and industry officials said. Prices of diesel sold to bulk consumers such as the railways and state transport companies at market rates have been reduced, IOCsaid in a statement.

GAUTAM ADANI PLANS A 5000 MW PUSH INTO POWER SECTOR

NEW DELHI: Gautam Adani plans to acquire power plants with a total capacity of 5,000 mw, but he will avoid aggressive bids to ensure good returns, a source close to the tycoon said a day after Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group outbid him to buy 1,800 mw hydro power capacity from Jaypee Group.

Gautam Adani is directly involved in evaluating offers and negotiations, something he left to company executives in the past, the source said. The company is in talks with several power sector players, including GMR, Lanco, Indiabulls, Avantha Power and Athena, the source said.

Another person in the Adani Group said there are many sellers in the market, offering projects with a combined capacity of nearly 50,000 mw.

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Israel Destroys Home of a Top Political Leader for Hamas

A Palestinian displays a portrait of the deputy chief of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniya, in the rubble of his home in Gaza. By BEN HUBBARD and JODI RUDOREN July 29, 2014 GAZA CITY — Israeli airstrikes flattened the four-story home of Hamas’s top political leader in the Gaza Strip and destroyed offices of the movement’s radio and television station early Tuesday, suggesting a slight operational shift as the battle entered its 22nd […]

Fighting in Gaza Falls Sharply on Muslim Holiday

A man wrote the names of the dead during funerals at a cemetery in Gaza. By ISABEL KERSHNER and FARES AKRAM July 28, 2014 JERUSALEM — Hostilities in Gaza declined sharply on Monday as both Israel and Hamas entered into an informal hiatus for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But several rockets and mortars were fired into Israel on Monday. A Palestinian man and […]

POWER MINISTRY MULLS RS 5,700 CRORE SUBSIDY FOR OPERATIONALISING GAS-BASED IDLE POWER CAPACITY

NEW DELHI: In a big push to 31,000-MW of electricity generation plants stranded without fuel, the power ministry has proposed a Rs 5,700 crore subsidy to help operationalise idle gas-based capacity, a loan restructuring scheme for such plants and the supply of coal to projects that will be commissioned before March 2015.

The proposals will benefit 24,148 MW of gas-based projects and 7,230 MW of plants that run on coal, set up at a total investment of about Rs 1,50,000 crore.

An additional 10,930 MW of coal-based plants that will be commissioned before March are also likely to gain. The ministry will approach the Union cabinet with a proposal to pool prices of imported gas and coal with domestic fuels to help stran

Bound by Bridge, 2 Baghdad Enclaves Drift Far Apart

Slide Show | Two Baghdad Neighborhoods, a World Apart The two neighborhoods, Sunni Adhamiya and Shiute Kadhimiya, once inextricably joined in the imagination of Baghdad residents, are drifting further apart. By ALISSA J. RUBIN July 26, 2014 BAGHDAD — Al Imams Bridge spans the Tigris River between two of the oldest communities in Baghdad — one Sunni, the other Shiite — and on Ramadan evenings it can seem as if […]

NEW MFI BILL AFTER CONSULTING STATES: JAITLEY

New Delhi: The government will come up with a new Bill to regulate the micro-finance institutions after consultation with states, finance minister Arun Jaitley told Lok Sabha on Friday. “We have started the consultation process with everyone, including state governments, to prepare a new Bill,” he said. The Micro Finance Institutions Development and Regulation Bill, 2012, was introduced in Lok Sabha on May 22, 2012, and was referred to the Standing Committee, which submitted its final report on February 17, 2014. The committee had urged the government to have wider consultations with state governments and stakeholders and bring forth a fresh legislation before Parliament, he said. The Bill lapsed due to the dissolution of Lok Sabha and shall have

How can the Green Deal be called a ‘success’?

Households could claim cashback for installing double or triple glazing Photo: Alamy After just six short weeks, the Green Deal Home Improvement fund is no more. The cashback fund, launched on June 9, abruptly closed to new applicants on Thursday night. The Department for Energy and Climate said “overwhelming popular demand” meant the allocation of £120m – meant to last until April 2015 – has already been hoovered […]

CABINET CLEARS 49% FOREIGN INVESTMENT CAP FOR INSURANCE

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared a Bill to raise the foreign investment ceiling in private insurance companies from 26 per cent to 49 per cent, but inserted a provision that the management and control of these companies must be with Indians. This cap will be composite — both foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment. Experts said this meant voting rights of foreign investors would not be capped at 26 per cent but they cannot have contractual agreements for control of insurance companies. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs this morning gave its approval to changes in the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill, which will now be taken up in the current session of Parliament. “The Cabinet has cleared raising the for

POWER PRODUCERS NOT IMPORTING COAL EVEN AT DECADE-LOW PRICES

NEW DELHI: Power plants in India are not importing coal despite global prices of the fuel slumping to decade-low levels. Power generating companies are rather operating at lower capacity on domestic coal that is short in supply, as distribution companies (discoms) are not willing to pay for costly power fuelled by imports.

A Mumbai-based trader, who did not wish to be identified, said global prices had fallen to a 10-year low due to weak demand from China that is reducing dependence on imports by encouraging production from own mines.

He said prices of 4,200 kcal/kg thermal coal in international markets were hovering around $36.50 per million tonne as against $52 per million tonne two years ago.