INDIA NEWS
Aug 16-31, 2021 - Vol 2, Issue 4
MAKE IN INDIA
India’s Rising Solar Sector
As world economies restart their engines in a bid to regain lost ground due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India too shows signs of economic buoyancy and promise. India’s Make in India initiative holds a key to the global economic revival, something that should interest Australian government ministries, corporate sector, entrepreneurs, institutions seeking R&D collaborations and Australia Inc in general, among others. India assumes greater importance as several major world economies including American, Japanese, German, British and South Korean look to move out and diversify their businesses from China. India has jumped to 63rd rank in the World Bank’s Ease of Development 2020 report, and has also been ranked as the 9th largest recipient of Foreign Direct Investment Destination in 2019 by the World Investment Report 2020 of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
By Kanika Verma and Arushi Agarwal
I
ndia experiences clear sunny weather for 250 to 300 days a year. This exposure to the sun is estimated to be worth 5,000 Tn Kilowatt Hour (kWh) of energy in a year over India’s land area, of which most parts receive 4-7 kWh per square metre (sq. m) each day. If India were to capture even a fraction of this energy potential, it could far exceed the energy demands of the country. Given India’s long sunny days and prevalent clear weather conditions, solar energy holds tremendous potential in and for India. As a pollutionfree clean energy with zero emissions, successful harnessing of solar power can be India’s answer to rural electrification, rapid urbanisation and grid -decentralisation. The government of Prime Minister Modi has prioritised enhancing India's renewable energy capacity, and solar energy in particular. Rapid expansion of solar power in the country will help us in meeting the projected energy demand of 2,785 TWh by 2030. This report is a deep dive into India’s solar sector and the opportunities it presents. While underscoring the advancements in India’s renewable energy sector, the report details the strength of the solar segment and its growing presence in India. It also provides briefs on the various central and state government schemes that have and continue to play an important role in expanding solar power generation in India. Smart Agriculture in India Agriculture and allied sectors are the primary source of livelihood for nearly 55 per cent of India’s population (Census 2011) but accounted only for approximately 17.8 per cent of the country’s Gross Value Added in 2019-20. The average size of farm holdings in the country are just over one hectare, with small and marginal farmers holding nearly 86 per
www.indianews.com.au
cent of the total land holding. Small holders find it particularly difficult to invest in expensive technologies and other inputs that would improve efficiency. Additionally, the existence of many intermediaries across the value chain, challenges in access to credit and technology, limited sales channels, and lack of digital infrastructure have inhibited agricultural potential. With agricultural output being utilised as important input for various industries, including retail and e-commerce, the importance of agriculture and improving yields becomes all the more urgent. These distinctive attributes of the agriculture sector in India have made it imperative to look towards policies that improve yield, simplify value chain networks, democratise digital infrastructure, and improve access to credit and insurance. An important solution lies in the rapid adoption of AgriTech, defined here as technologies and tools that improve yield, efficiency, and profitability by leveraging Internet of Things (IoT), big data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), drones, and sensors in agricultural processes to track, monitor, automate and analyse. Dubbed broadly as ‘Smart Agriculture’, wherein emerging technologies are utilised to minimise the impact of the ‘unknown’ within agriculture. For instance, weather, soil, and climatic conditions have historically been an important determinant of the agricultural processes in India. Using predictive technologies to detect erratic weather, sensors to map the specific type of climate and soil in an area, and ML algorithms that determine the appropriate crops based on this data, can substantially improve the quality and quantity of yield. The improvements in the domain of agriculture over the recent years, especially Smart Agriculture in India during the last century or so,
have occurred hugely at the expense of exhaustive and unobstructed use of natural resources. While concern for the same was expressed much earlier, the technological advancements of the current epoch, such as those entailed within smart agriculture possess the true potential to navigate the agricultural domain on a path that is much less intrusive to the natural resources. These technological advancements (like Precision Farming) are largely dependent on an integrated system which is managed by software and driven by sensors at the backend. Furthermore, the continuous, rigorous, and robust monitoring and surveillance capabilities exhibited by drones and sensors largely surpass the once-in-a-while superficial inspections carried out manually. This enhancement is especially relevant to monitoring of farmlands and the supervision of produce stored in warehouses. This opportunity paper delves into the current agriculture scenario in India by discussing the persisting challenges on the demand and supply side of the AgriTech space. Being cognizant of the context within which the sector operates equips us to then think about the future of AgriTech in India. The report concludes by charting out a roadmap for the incorporation of smart agriculture in India, emphasising the need for a multi-stakeholder effort towards achieving this goal. The roles of the government, private entities, and startups are discussed, and the necessity of a synergistic relationship between these players, as well as the farmers themselves. The paper also highlights certain potential solutions to the existing challenges in the sector, to start this important conversation, especially considering the novel challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic brings. Source: Intelligent Farms: Opportunities, Obstacles and Ideas for Smart Agriculture in India Strategic Investment Research Unit (SIRU) KEY INITIATVES Accelerating Growth of New India’s Innovations (AGNIi) AGNIi helps commercialize Indian Innovative Technologies. It convenes India's finest technologists and their deployment-ready technologies - from startups and laboratories - with top technology users from Indian and global enterprise,
facebook.com/indianewsaustralia
government, and non-profit sectors. We help those who have the technology, deliver it where it is needed. We help those who need technology, find it. AGNIi is a programme of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, a Mission under the Prime Minister's Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) and is executed at Invest India. Bonded Manufacturing India allows manufacturing and other operations in a bonded manufacturing facility. With the Government’s continuous efforts to promote India as the manufacturing hub globally and the commitment towards ease of doing business, another initiative in this direction by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes (CBIC) is allowing import of raw materials and capital goods without payment of duty for manufacturing and other operations in a bonded manufacturing facility. When the raw materials or capital goods are imported, the import duty on them is deferred. If these imported inputs are utilised for exports, the deferred duty is exempted. Only when the finished goods are cleared to the domestic market, import duty is to be paid on the imported raw materials used in the production. Import duty on capital goods is to be paid if and when the capital goods are cleared to the domestic market. Financial Investor’s Initiative India received $209 bn in private capital investments between 2014-2020; with inflows of $62.2 bn in 2020 in comparison to $592 bn institutional investment globally. India focused funds have been able to generate higher returns at 14.4% when compared to other markets in Asia. Over the last five years, key sectors such as infrastructure, eCommerce and financial services have attracted the highest investment from institutional investors. India Investment Grid India Investment Grid (IIG) is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, and Invest India. IIG showcases the best of opportunities across states and sectors in India on a single dynamic platform. A tool to enhance the Ease of Doing Business (EoDB), IIG helps in directly connecting potential investors and promoters. IIG also
exclusively hosts the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), is a first-of-its-kind, whole-ofgovernment exercise to provide world-class infrastructure to citizens and improve their quality of life. It aims to improve project preparation and attract investments into infrastructure, with real-time tracking on the ground. The portal also hosts 3,000+ Stressed Assets projects and 750+ CSR opportunities, curated directly from states. Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) The Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC), is an overarching Council that facilitates the Principal Scientific Adviser’s Office to assess the status in specific science and technology domains, comprehend challenges in hand, formulate specific interventions, develop a futuristic roadmap and advise the Prime Minister accordingly. The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India coordinates to facilitate and ensure the implementation of significant interventions by concerned government departments, agencies, and ministries. The PM-STIAC Secretariat is based at Invest India and provides support to the Office of the PSA on project management and monitoring of the aforesaid interventions and national missions. Project Monitoring Group Project Monitoring Group (PMG) is an institutional mechanism for expedited resolution of issues and regulatory bottlenecks in projects with an investment of INR 500 crores and above in India. It was set up as a special cell in the Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India in 2013 and was subsequently brought under the administrative control of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in 2015. In February 2019, PMG was merged with Invest India, Department of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce. PMG seeks to enlist unresolved project issues of all Public, Private and ‘Public–Private Partnership’ (PPP) Projects and undertakes fast-tracking of approvals, sectoral policy issues and removal of bottlenecks in expeditious commissioning. (To be continued in the next issue) SOURCE: Invest India, National Investment Promotion & Facilitation Agency, Government of India
28
