This forms about 7.5 per cent of India's projected investment of Rs 5,28,316 crore (Rs 5,283.16 billion) in overall infrastructure during the next financial year and over a fourth of the Rs 1,59,000-crore (Rs 1,590-billion) investment to be made in the electricity sector alone in 2011-12, the terminal year of the current Plan period.
Favours stricter impact mitigation rules, monitoring.
The government's initiative to have trading of electricity with Sri Lanka is likely to bear fruit by mid-2014, with the commissioning of a high capacity power transmission link between the two countries. The two countries are likely to sign an MoU for a Rs 2,500-crore (Rs 25 billion) project.
The central government plans to set up a group of public sector banks headed by State Bank of India (SBI), which would brainstorm on ways to make low-cost funding available for power projects that are being set up under the National Solar Mission.
Areva has 60-Mw of biomass-based power capacity in India. It is looking to also tap the market for nuclear power in a big way.
Even as hackers attacked more than 5,500 websites in the first six months this year, security agencies are groping in the dark to find a way to tackle the problem.
In a setback to initial public offer (IPO)-ready Coal India, the Jharkhand government has rejected a forest clearance for a railway link being planned for evacuation of coal from the North Karanpura coalfield operated by the coal miner.
Timely commissioning of over 50,000 Mw of power generation capacity has been jeopardised owing to the environment ministry's latest move to classify India's coal-bearing regions as "go" and "no-go" areas. This comes at a time when the country is striving to bridge the widening gap in the demand and supply of electricity.
While the government is pushing for the use of renewable energy in rural areas to address the twin problems of climate change and scarcity of power, the nodal ministry for carrying out the exercise has not been performing well.
The government has decided to use new generation non-lethal weapons to take on stone-throwing protestors in Jammu and Kashmir. Both central security forces and the state police have been asked to train their personnel in using pepper balls, chilli grenades, 20-feet high movable iron walls, electronic guns and water cannons.
For the first time, anti-Naxal forces are to be deployed in Assam and Uttar Pradesh. According to senior Union home ministry officials, 65 underground members of the CPI (Maoist) were arrested in UP between 2005 and August 15 this year.
While the mechanism of auctioning commodities like coal and electricity and telecom spectrum at electronic platforms has brought in transparency in their allocation, experts believe that the strategy cannot fructify until the prevailing shortfall in their availability is met.
This comes at a time when the country's total commercial energy requirement is expected to grow at 5-6 per cent to a massive 1,667 million tonne oil equivalent (Mtoe) required to achieve and sustain a 9 per cent gross domestic product growth rate in the next two decades, as per planning commission's projection.
PFC provides loan syndication, along with 18 other institutions, mostly banks and Life Insurance Corporation and Hudco, under the Power Lenders' Club.
The government's initiative to set up a high-capacity power transmission link between India and Sri Lanka is likely to be completed by 2013.
Coal-based generators plan upgrades, clean tech over 5 years.
Power is one of the six major sectors contributing to the country's infrastructure in addition to cement, steel, coal, crude oil and petroleum products. The growth of these sectors account for more than a quarter in the IIP.
Fresh power capacity addition has fallen short of target by nearly a third in the first half (April-September) of the current fiscal, owing to delays in the supply of critical components in thermal projects, delayed forest clearances and non-availability of fuel for a nuclear power project.
Meeting will confine discussion to processes involved in building consensus among members.
The delay in the monsoon arrival had caused water storage to touch a historic low of 9 per cent in June (see table), as per data from the Central Water Commission. The latest data of Central Electricity Authority shows daily power availability in the country was 0.7 per cent ahead of demand on August 12 from an 8-10 per cent deficit last month.