Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who also heads the Maharashtra Congress Party election committee, said in New York on Friday that despite some irritants between Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar, seat adjustments would be done between the two parties for the coming assembly election.
Newly appointed Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was rewarded with the plum post on a day when the country faced its worst power crisis. Not ready to take the responsibility for the failure of three grids he rates himself as a successful power minister in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN's editor-in-chief Rajdeep Sardesai. The excerpts:
NTPC has taken RIL to court seeking performance of a bid by the Mukesh Ambani firm to supply 12 million standard cubic meters per day of gas to its Kawas and Gandhar expansion projects at $2.34 per mmBtu. However, the oil ministry has opposed the same price in case of supplies to be made to Anil Ambani Group firm RNRL on the basis of a private family agreement.
After visits to the US and Europe, a power ministry delegation is headed for Japan, Singapore and Malaysia for conducting roadshows to attract foreign investors in the country's power sector.
"It looks like some states withdrew more power than required. I have constituted a committee of experts and they will examine and file a report on the entire issue in detail. We will take stern action against the erring states. This has happened despite 5000 megawatt additional electricity availability in the northern grid," the minister said.
Power supply has been restored fully in the north-east and it will take a few more hours to resume supplies in other parts of country hit by the outages, Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Tuesday. Grids in the northern, eastern and north-eastern regions failed at 1 am today, causing power crisis for nearly half of the country's population, spread across 22 states and union territories.
Minutes after Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh announced that he had offered to step down, Union Minister and senior leader from the state Sushil Kumar Shinde met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
P Chidambaram was on Tuesday made the finance minister as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertook a minor reshuffle in portfolios in the Union Cabinet, necessitated by the exit of Pranab Mukherjee in June. According to the announcement, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is the new home minister in place of Chidambaram.
With 37,000 mw of existing power capacity lying unutilised, the additional 88,000 mw announced by the power minister will find few takers unless tariffs go up.
State-run Power Finance Corporation on Thursday awarded the 4,000 MW Sasan and Mundra ultra mega power projects to the two successful bidders Lanco Infratech and Tata Power respectively.
There was no 'power' for Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday while the promotion of Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde as his successor on a day when unprecedented electricity failure hit the country was described as an 'irony'.
Shinde said the average plant load factor of Indian generation units improved to 77.5 per cent during 2009-10 from 73.6 per cent in 2006.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power, which emerged as the lowest bidder for the 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, will be awarded the contract in a few days, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Tuesday.
Back after roadshows across the globe, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday exuded confidence that foreign investors will line up for the government's ambitious ultra mega power projects.
The plant started operations after Supreme Court vacated a stay granted by Gujarat High Court on pooling of LNG prices to make fuel affordable to the power plant.
Amid sharp criticism over his elevation as home minister on a day the nation faced its worst electricity blackout, the outgoing Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday said that people should appreciate that the electricity supply was restored within hours.
Amid sharp criticism over his elevation as home minister on a day the nation faced its worst electricity blackout, the outgoing Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday said that people should appreciate that the electricity supply was restored within hours.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Power, which emerged as the lowest bidder for the 4,000 MW ultra mega power project at Krishnapatnam, will be awarded the contract in a few days.
India has set a new record by crossing 10,000 Mw of capacity addition in a single financial year since Independence.
Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, the new owner of Dabhol power plant, will restart generation in October after a three-month gap, but the cost of power will jump to about Rs 6.25 per unit from Rs 4.25 earlier.
India faces over 12 per cent peak power shortage despite 7.3 per cent rise in generation, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.
Energy-hungry India, which currently faces huge power deficit, will become an electricity surplus country in next four-five years, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Rajya Sabha on Monday.
The government on Wednesday said that the power generation capacity addition in the XI five-year plan, ending 2012, would be about 74,000 MW, close to the original target of 78,577 MW.
PGCIL planned to take a loan of about $2 billion (Rs 8,350 crore) from World Bank and $1 billion (Rs 4,150 crore) from Asian Development Bank, Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
"We have set a target of 5,653 MW capacity addition in the first 100 days of this government. We have already achieved 2,300 MW... We hope to achieve the target," Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in New Delhi. The power ministry has added a meagre 15,000 MW capacity out of the targeted 78,700 MW, during the XIth Plan period (2007-12). "With proper planning and time bound implementation, we can achieve the target," Shinde said.
The Congress is all set to come back to power in Maharashtra for a third term.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the government grappled with the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's sit-in.
Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday told the judicial panel probing the Adarsh Society Housing scam that the land where the controversial building stands belongs to the Maharashtra government and was never reserved for defence personnel or Kargil war heroes.
The beleaguered Dabhol power plant is unlikely to be restarted this month as was earlier expected
Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
A team of five Central Bureau of Investigation officials from Mumbai are camping in New Delhi to further the investigations into the Adarsh Co-operative Housing society. After months of anticipation, the CBI has finally questioned the Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde. The man next in line is former Maharashtra chief minister and newly-appointed Science and Technology Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. What is stated in Deshmukh's affidavit?
The Energy Co-ordination Committee, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, would meet on Tuesday with gas pricing, gas sourcing and gas allocation as the main topics on the agenda, an official source said.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday expressed satisfaction over the recent statement by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde wherein he had said that 'the state government would be taken on board over the revocation of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
No comments could be obtained from the spokespersons of either Reliance Industries Limited or Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has constituted a ministers' group to monitor the government's stand on the Ambani gas dispute in the Supreme Court.
Govt concerned about market conditions ahead of REC IPO as three major IPOs were withdrawn in January and few others have been shelved.
Facing criticism from his cabinet and party colleague Narayan Rane over the functioning of the state government, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Wednesday said he will abide by the directives of his party leadership.
India and European Union will discuss issues of mutual interest during the first joint industrial energy conference in New Delhi next month.
The government plans to operate a second unit of Dabhol project on naphtha from May to partly tide over the massive electricity shortages in Maharashtra during summer.
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