UrbanUpdate March 2021

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume VI, Issue XI

Phase Out Coal Fast

March 2021

Let’s commit to making an equal world

Cities’ role primary in increasing uptake of RE

European Union The project is funded by the European Union.

AIILSG The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Magazines & Journals

Energy Efficiency

AMRUT Knowledge Management

Seminars

Project Management Customised Training

Sustainable Development Goals

Policy Research

Advisory Services

Swachh Bharat Mission

ECBC

Smart City Mission Capacity Building

Skill Development

All India Institute of Local Self-Government No. 6, F-Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, TPS Road-12, Bandra-East, Mumbai-400051, Maharashtra Tel.No.: +91-22-26571713, 26571714, 61805600, Fax: +91-22-26572115, Email: contact@aiilsg.org

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate

WE ARE SHAPING INDIA'S

URBAN LANDSCAPE

Urban Update Readers include Indian City Leaders - Municipal Commissioners, Mayors They are the ones who are Top Bureaucrats, Politicians They are rewriting India's Urban Story and Instrumental to drive innovation, technology-driven infra development in new-age cities.

Indian Infra Pipeline to invest in next 10 years.

International organisation-country representative

THEY ARE DRIVING THE SUSTAINABLE AGENDA FOR CITIES TO BUILD BRIGHT FUTURE. CLEARLY, WITH URBAN UPDATE, BECOME PART OF INDIA'S URBAN STORY THAT IS FOR GENERATION BOUND TO CHANGE FOR GOOD.

UrbanUpdate A monthly magazine published by the AIILSG — a project funded by European Union’s ‘Equi-City’ programme for India.

Ranjit Chavan President-AIILSG Rajiv Agarwal Editor-In-Chief Director General-AIILSG Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor Abhishek Pandey Editor Ravi Ranjan Guru Executive Editor

Mail Box Readers’ comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome. Letters to the Editor can be sent by e-mail, or regular mail. They should include name, address, phone number(s), and e-mail address, if available. The subject of the communication should be clearly mentioned, and we reserve the right to edit for sense, style, and space.

Address Urban Update (All India Institute of Local Self-Government) Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area, D Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 FOR SUBSCRIPTION AND ADVERTISING RELATED ASSISTANCE, CONTACT Phone: 011 - 2852 1783/ 5473 (Extn. 37) E-mail: contacturbanupdate@gmail.com

Ashley Paul Reporter Hitesh Nigam Pooja Upadhyay Shrila Pokhariyal Editorial Assistants

UrbanUpdate Volume VI, Issue XI

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

UrbanUpdate Volume VI, Issue IX

Arjun Singh Digital Marketing Associate

ISSN 2349-6266 RNI No DELENG/2014/57384

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

January 2021

Phase Out COal Fast

POWERING AHEAD IN 2021

REsHAPING OuR uRbAN FutuRE, LEssONs LEARNt FROm COVID-19

Meenakshi Rajput Senior Graphic Designer

March 2021

Let’s commit to making an equal world

Cities’ role primary in increasing uptake of RE

Volume VI - Issue XI Printed and published by Ranjit Chavan on behalf of All India Institute of Local Self-Government.

Printed at Artz & Printz, 208, DSIDC Shed, Okhla Industrial Area Phase-I New Delhi-110020 Published at Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area D-Block Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058

European Union

The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The project is funded by the European Union.

WWW

urbanupdate.in urbanupdatemag urbanupdatemgzn

European Union The project is funded by the European Union.

AIILSG The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

4

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

AIILSG The project is implemented by the AIILSG.

Join Urban Update Community Online to read our previous issues, regular posts and news updates.

Note: Subscriptions are only invited from municipal corporations, government bodies, academic & research institutions, etc. working in the domain of urban development.

We only levy courier and handling charges. We may fully waive-off the charges for municipalities and academic institutions upon receiving such request and approval from our management.

Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy of the contents. The magazine assumes no liability or responsibility of any kind in connection with the information thereof. The views expressed in the articles are the personal opinions of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the All India Institute of Local Self-Government. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher.

AIILSG

European Union The project is funded by the European Union.

Editorial

Rajiv Agarwal | Editor-In-Chief | dg@aiilsg.org

Clean energy for a safer world Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Telangana have emerged as the front runners in the race to build India’s renewable energy capacity of 175 GW by 2022. So far the country has achieved a cumulative capacity of about 91.1 GW (excluding large hydro power capacity) as of December 31, 2020. Solar energy dominates the clean energy landscape in the country with over 75% share; the total potential for solar is estimated at 750 GW given the abundant sunshine in most parts of the country for most of the year. Wind makes up most of the balance with a share of about 19%.

Rapid and transformative shift to renewable energy is critical in order to prevent the disastrous outcomes of climate change (the recent Uttarakhand disaster is an example of the extreme pain and suffering this can cause), achievements of the Paris Agreement, and the overarching targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. In addition, developing world countries such as India could be freed from their extreme dependence on imported fossil fuels and its impact on the nation’s economy. Developing countries depend in a big way on what may be called ‘dirty fuel’ – coal for power generation, oil for transportation and industry, and gas (not so dirty) for cooking. All these depend on extracting limited natural resources from the planet and therefore alternatives are required urgently.

India is playing a key role in the global transition towards renewable energy by piloting the International Solar Alliance. The launch was announced by Prime Minister Modi and French President Francois Hollande at COP-21 in Paris. The Alliance with over 85 member countries is a notable global partnership which will pool in capabilities and resources to leverage the large potential of this clean and abundant renewable energy source and thus address energy security needs of large sections of the global population.

Indian government has incentivised the sector by allowing 100% FDI through automatic route, and waiving some of the transmission charge, among others. We need to do all that is necessary to enable the sector access the best technology and finance at attractive terms.

Local governments can play key roles in promoting the use of solar energy by incentivising/ subsidizing rooftop installations; many already do. In addition, they can encourage the setting up of mini-grids or micro-grids which can satisfy power needs of small groups of consumers.

This can be particularly beneficial in rural areas to provide dependable, affordable energy.

Local governments must drive the move towards renewable energy by themselves using such sources in both urban and rural settings.

In addition to solar and wind, local governments can promote other sources such as wasteto-energy projects possibly in PPP mode; this could also address the growing burden of urban waste management. In summary, the subject of renewable energy offers immense scope for new ideas and innovation to harvest nature’s bounty to meet our growing energy needs in a clean and sustainable manner. We are on the cusp of a rare opportunity in history. Let’s grab it with both hands.

In this issue of Urban Update we bring you several thoughts, ideas, and reports on this subject of great relevance to our planet.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

5

Quotes

India is devoting great importance to solar energy. Our gains in solar energy ensure: A stronger fight against climate change.Work is also underway to connect our hardworking farmers with the solar sector - make our Annadatas (farmers) also Urjadatas

The US needs to come to COP26 with a strong commitment: the urgency of the crisis is clear, and this means a new US target of at least 50% GHG cuts on 2005 levels by 2030, ideally more

Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

Laurence Tubiana CEO, European Climate Foundation

PIN POINT

Our per capita income is one third of world average, despite that we are the only major economy whose actions are on track to preventing the global temperature from rising above 2 degrees Celsius

Raj Kumar Singh MoS (IC) for Power & New & Renewable Energy, GoI

About 18-20 vaccine candidates against COVID-19 are in the pipeline and are in preclinical, clinical and advanced stages. It is crucial that people continue to follow COVID appropriate behaviour which I had called a social vaccine Dr Harsh Vardhan Minister of Health and Family Welfare, GoI

BUZZ Nature Research

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Dr Praveen Kumar, PhD

Saurabh Kumar

@nresearchnews

Director General, WHO

Senior Manager, WRI India

Executive Vice Chairperson, EESL Group

@DrTedros

@kparveen79

@Saurabh_KumR

In Delhi, the share of #ElectricVehicles in total registration has increased from 0.2% to 2.21%, since the launch of the Delhi EV policy. Huge jump in EVs registration

E-mobility is bound to play a pivotal role in enabling the country to meet its ambitious international commitments on climate change. I laud the #GoElectric campaign by @ beeindiadigital as it’ll help promote the uptake of #EVs among the general public

Increases in daily temperature variability could reduce economic growth. An analysis @ NatureClimate shows that higher temperature variability reduces annual income, with greatest vulnerability in low-latitude regions

6

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

#VaccineEquity is a political choice.

I’m calling on leaders to step up and prioritize the equitable rollout of COVID19 vaccines, starting with health workers in every country

Content

Inside Volume 6, Issue 11

6 10 13

8

Girl Power projects helps in achieving SDGs objectives

9

Facilitating development through discussion

Numerograph Urban Agenda

City Image

Special Feature

30

Cover Story Phase out coal fast Cities are power guzzlers. The electricity that runs our cities comes majorly from coal. Can governments stop burning coal for power? New technologies and conventional wisdom have given governments worldwide alternatives to switch from coal to renewable sources for their energy requirements. The change on the ground is happening but gradually. Is it happening fast enough and in sync with the timelines of our international agendas on climate change?

The governments will also have to find out a feasible solution to the stranded asset problem in coal. An analysis of the present situation

LEADERSPEAK

28

Newscan

23 46

March 2021

Girl Power Project

24

Pin Point

Let’s commit to making an equal world The world met under UNESCO to discuss gender equality in the year 1913 and came forward to declare 8th March as Women’s Day. Since then, the world has been celebrating International Women’s Day on 8th March. On this day, the world comes together to honour women’s achievements and marks a call to accelerating gender parity. The campaign theme for International Women’s Day-2021 was ‘Choose to Challenge’. All of us had made serious efforts to translate the actions into sincere on-ground implementation

Articles

34 Entering the future with green mobility 36 India’s quest for Sustainable Energy 38 Innovations to make renewable energy more efficient, sustainable, ecological 40 Solar instrumental to India’s transition to clean energy

Cities’ role primary in increasing uptake of RE

Cities will be a key player in accelerating renewable

energy uptake and driving the energy transition movement. City leaders are focusing on using clean energy to build sustainable and liveable cities for future generations. Since India is among the few countries, which have shifted its focus to generate clean energy, the idea must trickle down at the local level to achieve the desired objectives within the targeted timeline

41

E-Dialogues 22.0

42

Waste Segregation & Digitisation at the centre of new India Urban Update and All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), in association with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), and 3R aste Foundation organised 22nd edition of E-Dialogues on the topic, “Digitisation in Waste Management” on February 12

TRAINING WORKSHOP

44

Disaster Mapping – The need of the hour Urban Update and All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), in association with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), and 3R aste Foundation organised 22nd edition of E-Dialogues on the topic, “Digitisation in Waste Management” on February 12

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

7

Girl Power Project

Girl Power projects helps in achieving SDGs objectives Countries around the world are working to meet Sustainable Development Goals. The Girl Power Project being implemented in Jharkhand is also assisting the government in realising some of these goals Team girl power project

P

lanned, inclusive and allround development is the mantra of countless countries in the contemporary world.

However, they need a framework to work on these lines. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals do just that. The concept of SDGs has been so successful that governments and various organisations and projects are also trying to fulfil as many SDGs as they possibly can.

About SDG Agenda

The 17 goals adopted by all UN member states in 2015 are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and improve people’s lives everywhere. The goals were set out as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, setting out a 15- year plan to achieve them.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the role involves targeting the most vulnerable, increasing primary resources and services and supporting communities affected by conflict and climate-related disasters.

Effect of COVID-19 on SDG

As per the findings of the SDG Report 2020, ‘it is estimated that 71 million people are expected to be pushed back into extreme poverty in the year 2020, which is the first rise in global poverty since 1998’.

The global effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected women and

8

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

children with an increase in domestic violence reports against women and children. Each sector has been hit.

More than one in every six people have stopped working since the start of COVID-19, while the rest who are still employed have seen their working hours cut by 23%, directly affecting wages and salaries.

Businesses must find innovative production patterns to understand better environmental and social impact and how they affect the product life cycle and, eventually, people’s lifestyle.

As a responsible consumer of the world, one needs to make informed purchase choices that can make a difference in local businesses adopting sustainable practices.

Why SDGs matter to the Girl Power project?

Girl Power believes in achieving a better and sustainable future by aligning the project activities as per Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations.

Goal 1: No Poverty- The project, through its multipronged interventions around skill development, entrepreneur support groups, market connect, network formation, and policy dialogues, will enable women to engage in the formal economy and move to higher growth and income trajectory.

Goal 5: Promoting Gender Equality by fostering a positive support base for women social entrepreneurs.

Empowering women and girls through their enterprises to be independent and aware of their rights. Girl Power aims to improve women and girls’ lives through gender empowerment and

decision-making both at the household and at the societal level.

Goal 8: Decent Work & Economic Growth- The project is working on developing a standard online marketplace for women social entrepreneurs, an e-commerce site to provide ready access for their goods and services produced.

Goal 12: Responsible Consumption & Production by creating new business opportunities, influencing local business policies and markets to produce new goods and services.

Goal 13: Climate Action- The project focuses on goods and services created by women and girls made from locally available materials and will adhere to sustainable production practices. The project will focus on the sustainable production of goods and services – efforts will also be made to teach women and girls to produce goods and provide services by making use of recycling and reusing existing materials Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals, engaging in policy dialogue with policymakers, CSOs, womenled entrepreneurs for fostering an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ecosystem building of the project by way of networking with larger groups does intent in improving and recognising work of the CSOs in their work areas related to skill building for women and girls. It also intends to strengthen the local policies and strategies related to gender and governance. Along with CSOs, increased synergies with the state’s elected legislators leading to a broader impact of replication to other parts of the country would lead to the project’s larger goal.

CRIC

Facilitating development through discussion Team girl power project

C

RIC Project facilitates the tools of development to help ten pilot cities transition towards climate-resilient and inclusive growth. The tools developed for the cities are adjusted to meet their needs and climate change problems, as elaborated in the Urban Analysis Reports (2020). The recommendations from these reports were discussed with stakeholders who are part of the City Working Group to decide on the priority sector based on the agenda and problems they need to overcome. The tools developed are related to the early warning system, waste management and water & sanitation. CRIC prioritises social inclusion and stakeholders’ involvement, starting from the city to national levels, in the tools development processes.

The FGDs are organised to extract

information on primary issues, challenges and potential solutions from the tool’s development. The tools developed should be well-targeted and concretely address existing problems by considering the different characteristics of each city. The results of these discussions will be used as a primary reference for developing the framework and action plan. The tools development process will take place throughout 2021 by involving experts from Europe and local partners. The tools are then tested, evaluated and implemented in the pilot cities from 2022 to 2024.

Purposes

The FGD aimed to collect constructive inputs from participants and build a consensus on the scope of tools to be developed. The FGD’s purposes were to: 1. Facilitate policy dialogue and knowledge exchange between Indonesian policymakers at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, local governments of ten (10) pilot cities, UCLG ASPAC, CRIC Project, APEKSI and other relevant stakeholders in the strategic sectors; 2.

Engage with experts and key actors from Indonesian, European and South Asian respective agencies and bring their expertise to developing climate change tools; 3.

Propose tool recommendations from the European experts to reach an agreement on the tools and the scope; 4.

Solicit ideas and input from all involved as the basis for CRIC to strengthen its programme delivery and intervention.

Methodology

FGD method was selected to gain clarity and reach an agreement among diverse participants (cities, national governments and experts) on tools developed in the waste management, early warning system (EWS) and water and sanitation sectors. The selection of these three sectors referred to the Urban Analysis Reports, input and recommendation matrix document and cities’ development planning documents.

Before the FGD, a technical meeting with cities was conducted to help cities prepare presentation materials based on the agreed template. The template guided cities to include critical information about the tools expected by cities. The key information to be presented were: 1. Goal that cities want to achieve through the tool adoption; 2. The scope of tools; 3. Modality in cities; 4. Tool gaps in the priority sector; 5. Proposed location where the tools will be tested and adopted; 6. Potential programme/policy.

The FGD was divided into three main parts: presentation from the cities, tools presentation from experts and discussion. The moderator facilitated the sessions in a bid to obtain responses from the participants. The moderator guided the discussion process by allowing all stakeholders to express their opinions and insights. During the discussion, the moderator verified the findings and paraphrased the responses from the participants. The meeting was directed to bring forward potential solutions to tackle cities’ urban challenges in the water and sanitation, EWS and waste management sectors.

The FGD was recorded, and the results were then analysed and utilised as a reference to design the framework of tools development.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

9

NEWSCAN

Goyal allocates `1000 crore for 88 railway projects NEW DELHI: Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, Government of India, on February 21, allocated a host of infrastructure projects related to passenger amenities and facilities at several railway stations in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka via video conferencing.

The projects include various infrastructure projects and projects related to passenger amenities and facilities at various railway stations.

Goyal launched the Rewa-Itwari train via video conferencing. He said that the inaugural of these projects demonstrates speed of execution of various service-oriented passenger and freight projects that Indian Railways is undertaking across the nation.

While launching the rail projects in Kerala, Goyal said that it is essential to enhance connectivity in the state that is a keeper of Indian heritage and for the railway passengers using the various conveniences in the state.

He added that their effort is that they give a massive boost to the railway infrastructure in Kerala. They also aim to boost the facilities connecting Kerala with the rest of the country. The Centre also intend to ignite more economic activity in the area and transform the

10

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

railway network through the state of Kerala. The budget being allocated for Kerala is continuously increasing year on year. As per Goyal, they are committed to having a vibrant railway network across the state in the days and months to come.

In Kerala, foot-over-bridges have been built at a total expense of Rs 9.56 crore at Kollam, Kundara and Kochuveli. In addition, lifts have been provided at Kanhangad and Aluva at a total cost of Rs 1.60 crore to facilitate ease of access to platforms and concourse areas, particularly for senior citizens, sick and disadvantaged ones. At two stations in Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram Central and Thrissur, airport type illumination of covered platforms has been provided at a total expense of Rs 42 lakh.

According to the Ministry of Railways, platform raising works have been completed at Tanur at a cost of Rs 1.39 crore for convenience of boarding and deboarding of passengers, especially the elderly and divyang passengers.

Under energy efficient and power saving measure, 100 kilowatts peak solar plants have been authorised in Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram at a cost of Rs 42 lakh.

According to a statement by Ministry

of Railways, Goyal, on February 21, also highlighted that railway tracks in West Bengal (WB) would be fully electrified in three years. He dedicated several infrastructure development and works related to passenger amenities in North Bengal. He said that Railways has taken up on itself to contribute tremendously to the mission of Sonar Bangla. He added that North Bengal is naturally beautiful; enhancement of this region would attract more tourists. Indian Railways is committed for holistic development of the region.

The railways ministry said that the 126 kilometre electrified section from New Jalpaiguri to New Coochbehar was among the dedicated projects in the state of West Bengal. It is part of the railway electrification work, which is aiming to achieve 100 per cent electrification of Indian Railways’ network. This section is vital for train movement towards northeastern states.

The statement said that this project is estimated at Rs 287 crore and is said to lead to “huge savings” in consumption of fossil fuels. Railway electrification of the whole of Northeast Frontier Railway was sanctioned in the budget of 2018 and it is targeted to be completed

by December 2023.

NEWSCAN | BRIEFS

Trials underway to take all transport services online in Delhi NEW DELHI: Kailash Gahlot, Minister of Transport, Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, said on February 19 that the Delhi Government is working on a project to shift all the transport services in the capital to faceless or online service from April. The project is aimed at decongesting all the 13 Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) of the city and it will enable the people to get vital documents, including renewal of driving licenses or transfer of ownership, from the comfort of their homes.

Gahlot said that the project for transformation to online services will be conducted in two phases. Once the programme is implemented, only people seeking the permanent driver’s license, learner’s license or vehicle

fitness certificate will have to visit the RTO physically. 12 services will be made 100 per cent online in Phase 1. Trial and testing of the software is under progress.

The second phase will make 58 services online. He mentioned, “Our aim is to shift all transport services online from April 1.”

The Delhi government offers a total of 70 transport services among which, appointment booking facility is available online. The services which will be made online in the first phase include renewal of driver’s license and its change of address, duplicate driver’s license, transfer of registration certificate for resale of vehicles, etc. Services including permit transfer, no objection certificate for other states, and yearly authorization will be made online in the second phase.

MOHFW launches Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0 NEW DELHI: Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India, launched ‘Intensified Mission Indradhanush 3.0’ on February 19.

The said mission will be conducted in two rounds across 250 districts/urban areas starting from February 22 and March 22, where each round will last for 15 days. He launched the IMI 3.0 portal as well at the event. Dr Vardhan introduced operational guidelines for IMI.30 and the awareness material, also called as IEC package, which has been developed as a part of the campaign. An official release stated that IMI3.0 has been launched in a bid to vaccinate children and pregnant women who missed their vaccine doses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr Vardhan commented that implementing large campaigns like IMI 3.0 even during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine clearly indicates that India’s health system is getting stronger day by day. He said that the importance of a vaccine has never been so strongly felt as the country carries the drive for two indigenous vaccines to contain COVID-19. He also informed that every year, Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) vaccinates around 2.65 crore children and 2.9 crore pregnant women against 12 Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPDs) known in the nation.

Dr Vardhan said that this programme will aim to reach the section of the population which has remained unreachable so far with all the available vaccines under UIP and will thereby accelerate full immunization and ensure complete wellbeing of children and pregnant women. He said that the aim of MoHFW is to have 100 per cent immunization coverage and ensure that not even one child or pregnant woman dies of VPDs.

Jal Survekshan launched under Jal Jeevan Mission The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched the Pilot Pey Jal Survekshan under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM-U) on February 16. Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary of MoHUA, said that the survekshan will be conducted in ten cities including Bhubaneshwar, Agra, Kochi, Madurai, Surat, Tumkar and Patiala, to determine the unbiased distribution of water, reuse of wastewater and mapping of water bodies concerning quantity of water through a challenging process. The mission will be examined through a technology-based platform on which the beneficiary’s response will be tracked along with progress and outcome.

Circular economy can improve planet’s ecology

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inauguration of India-Australia Circular Economy Hackathon (I-ACE), jointly organised by Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia. PM Modi said that recycling and reusing things, eliminating waste and improving resource efficiency should become a part of our lifestyle.

It was organised to enable start-ups and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises of both the nations in fostering innovative solutions for the development of circular economy to improve the ecological health and resilience of the planet.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

11

NEWSCAN

BMC announces budget for FY 2021 MUMBAI: Iqbal Singh Chahal, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), presented the civic body’s budget for the financial year (FY) 2021-22 on February 17. BMC’s budget always causes a stir as it is the country’s richest civic body and its allocation is more than many states’ entire budget. The budgetary assessment for the present FY has been secured at Rs 39,038.83 crore, which is 16.74 per cent more than the Rs 33441.02 crore budget for FY 2020-21. Only 48 per cent of last year’s allocation could be spent on various development projects, attributable to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The state government has made infrastructure and transportation the two priority areas as the city of Mumbai gears up for civic polls in 2022. BMC has reserved Rs 200 crore for the beautification of footpaths, traffic island, spaces flyovers and the Mumbai Street Food Hub project. An amount

12

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

of Rs 150 crore has been assigned for the emending of the flood spots in the city, a key promise made by the ruling Shiv Sena ahead of the February 2022 Mumbai civic polls.

Aditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena leader, has articulated his vision for a “sponge city, with aquifer recharge, rainwater percolation and holding tanks”. A total of Rs 961 crore have been allocated for the Bridges department. BMC has also made provision of Rs 750 crore for Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport undertaking, marking a decrease from the Rs 1500 crore reserved last year. Two major road projects, the Mumbai coastal road project and the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, have been granted Rs 2000.07 crore and Rs 1300 crore, respectively.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade has been allotted Rs 199 crore, which marks an increase from the Rs 104 crore allocated last year. Rs 627 crore have been assigned for the solid waste

management department of Mumbai.

BMC has also set aside Rs 100 crore as financial disbursement for people who will be affected by various infra projects.

The civic body has allocated Rs 4278 crore to Mumbai’s healthcare for the year 2021-22, with Rs 822.72 crore to be invested in healthcare infrastructure.

This shows a minuscule increase from the Rs 4260 crore that had been granted last year. The corporation spends Rs 2840 per capita on health, much higher than the state at Rs 1266 per capita.

The BMC has spent Rs 1533 crore on COVID-19 treatment so far.

Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC, said that the expenditure has been made using contingency funds, but the expenses will be eventually transferred to the health budget. The expenditure by the civic body had improved slightly, and the BMC is still way behind when it comes to using an enormous chunk of the budget to improve facilities. In the past five years, the actual money spent by the health department was 52 per cent of the actual allocation at Rs 293.99 crore only in 2017-18.

BMC granted Rs 2945.78 crore to education, which is barely higher than last year’s, which stood at Rs 2,944.59 crore. A total of Rs 15.90 crore have been set aside by the civic body for supplying schools with soaps and hand sanitizers to help schools foster COVID-19 preventative behaviour as schools have started to reopen. A sum of Rs 2 crore has been set aside for opening 10 Central Board of Secondary Education schools in existing BMC buildings.

According to officials, considering it to be an election year, neither new taxes would be imposed, nor will any increase in the existing taxes be witnessed.

In King Edward Memorial Hospital, a new building has been proposed; work is expected to begin this year. In Nair Hospital, work will be undertaken to create a comprehensive cancer centre, a building with new lecture rooms, canteens according to the Medical Council of India’s guidelines.

City Image

Surat City introduces Pink Auto service for women Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has initiated a Pink Auto Service for women in Surat. Surat Municipal Corporation has trained 70 women drivers to operate the Pink Autos of

which, 15 are already driving the autos.

The other 55 will soon take up the role of auto drivers.

This initiative has been taken to promote women empowerment and

to keep a check on cases of female harassment. A body has also been constituted to help women apply for driver’s licenses and also to apply for loans to purchase autos.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

13

BRIEFS | NEWSCAN

Rajasthan introduces healthcare schemes Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot assured on February 24 that every family will get an insurance benefit of Rs 5 lakh under the Universal Healthcare Scheme. People covered under Ayushman Bharat Mahatama Gandhi Rajasthan Swasthya Bima Yojana can avail the benefits of this scheme for free, including contract workers, small and marginal farmers.

He also announced a ‘Special COVID-19 Package’ where Rs 2000 each and an interest-free loan up to Rs 50,000 will be provided to 33 lakh families.

Rs 50 crore of funds will be provided to entrepreneurs under Mukhyamantri Laghu Udyog Protsahan Yojna.

UP gets its third international airport

Nurturing Neighbourhood Challenge launched by MoHUA NEW DELHI: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has shortlisted 25 cities for the ‘Nurturing Neighbourhood Challenge’ cohort including Agartala, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Dharamshala, Erode, etc. This three-year challenge is aimed at supporting early childhood-friendly neighbourhoods under the Smart Cities Mission.

The MoHUA had announced the ‘Nurturing Neighbourhood Challenge’ cohort in collaboration with Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) India as the technical partner. The challenge was launched on November 4, 2020, inviting participation from all smart cities, capitals and cities with more than 5 lakh population. The cohort will be provided technical assistance, capacity building and scale-up support to experiment and implement the trials and pilots in the next six months. The first stage, which closed on February 7, involved an open call for applications from cities. 63 cities submitted the application from across the country.

The cities have proposed the neighbourhood level pilot projects considering public space, mobility and access to services to enhance the physical and psychological health of young children.

Cities have proposed a diverse set of pilot projects which include creating childfriendly walking corridors in residential neighbourhoods, safe commute for related childhood services in urban slums, increasing opportunities for nature play and sensory stimulation and adapting open spaces in government school grounds for public play after school hours. Other proposed pilot projects include early childhood amenities in government offices, bus shelters and transit hubs, outdoor waiting areas for Primary Health Centres (PHCs) with shade, and seating and lactation cubicles.

MoRTH launches Go Electric campaign Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India, on February 23, announced completion of construction of third international airport of Uttar Pradesh in Kushinagar.

The minister added that it got the necessary clearances from Directorate General of Civil Aviation and that the move will boost tourism in the region.

It is itself a Buddhist cultural site and this development will improve connectivity to the region and also provide wider choice of competitive cost to the air-travellers, the state government said. Last year, upgrade of Kushinagar airport to an international one was given the go ahead by the Centre.

14

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

NEW DELHI: Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, launched the ‘Go Electric’ campaign to spread awareness on the benefits of e-mobility and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure as well as electric cooking on February 19. The programme was launched in the presence of R K Singh, Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

Gadkari said at the launch event that electric fuel is the most important alternative of fossil fuels which have an import bill of almost Rs 8 lakh crore.

He added that power ministry should promote generation of green power from agriculture waste and biomass which can benefit farmers across the country.

The goal of the programme is to sensitise people at pan-India level and it is also expected to boost the confidence of EV manufacturers.

‘Go Electric’ logo was also unveiled at the launch event which depicts the evolution of e-mobility ecosystem. An

exhibition was also organised by the industry players to showcase different EV, including charging infrastructure such as fast chargers and slow chargers.

The launch was attended by important delegates from state governments, public sector undertakings (PSUs), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), and other industry players from various sectors. Gadkari suggested that the use of electric vehicles should be made mandatory for all government officials.

According to Gadkari, use of 10,000 electric vehicles in Delhi alone can save around Rs 30 crore per month. On this occasion, Singh also announced launch of a fuel cell bus service from Delhi to Agra and Delhi to Jaipur soon.

NEWSCAN

PM Modi launches several development projects in Tamil Nadu The Prime Minister had tweeted before his visit that the Government of India is honored to be working for Tamil Nadu’s growth

PUDUCHERRY: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of various centrally sponsored development projects on February 14. He also addressed a public meeting organised by the Bhartiya Janata Party in the state. The Prime Minister’s Office informed that the PM will lay the foundation stone for 4 laning of NH45-A - 56 km Sattanathapuram Nagapattinam package of Villupuram to Nagapattinam project covering Karaikal district in Puducherry. The capital cost to be incurred in this project is estimated to be at `2426 crores. The Prime Minister had tweeted before his visit that the Government of India is honored to be working for Tamil Nadu’s growth.

Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Medical College Building at Karaikal New Campus-Phase-I, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Karaikal district, and Minor Port in Puducherry under the Sagarmala Scheme. The cost for the project of the Medical College Building at JIPMER has been estimated at `491 crore.

Additionally, the PM also inaugurated the Blood Centre at the JIPMER, Puducherry, which is all set to function

as a research laboratory and a training centre for short-term and continuous blood bank personnel training in all aspects of transfusion.

The PM also dedicated the Neyveli New Thermal Power Project to the nation. This thermal project is a lignitebased power plant designed for power generation capacity of 1000 MW. This plant has two units of 500 MW capacity each. According to an official release, the plant has been built at a cost of around `8000 crore; the pit head power plant will utilize lignite as fuel from the existing mines of Neyveli; and it has been designed for 100 per cent ash utilisation. Neyveli, the release added, has sufficient lignite reserves for meeting the lifetime requirement of the project. The plant is set to benefit Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Puducherry, where Tamil Nadu will have a major share of the power generated from the plant, amounting to 65 per cent of the total.

The PM also dedicated a 709 MW solar power project of NLCIL to the country, which has been set up over an area of about 2670 acres of land, covering the districts of Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, Ramanathapuram, and Virudhunagar. This project has been

established at a cost of around `3000 crore. He also laid the foundation stone for the extension, renovation, and modernisation of the Lower Bhavani Project System. This project, comprising the Lower Bhavani Project Canal System, Arakankottai and Thadapalli Channels, and Kalingarayan Channel, has been taken up at a cost of `934 crore under the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development Infrastructure Development Assistance.

Along with this, he inaugurated the 8-laning of Korampallam Bridge and rail over bridge (ROB) at VO Chidambaranar Port.

The foundation stone for design, supply, installation, and commissioning of a 5MW grid-connected groundbased solar power plant at VO Chidambaranar Port was also laid

by Modi which is expected to cost `20 crore. He inaugurated the tenements constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) scheme as well.

Additionally, he laid foundation stone for the development of Integrated Command and Control Centres (ICCC) in nine Smart Cities including Salem, Thanjavur, Vellore, Madurai, Tiruppur, Tiruchirappali, Thoothukudi, and Tirunelveli.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

15

BRIEFS | NEWSCAN

Programme introduced to boost women entrepreneurship Local commerce platform eSamudaay has set up a unique women entrepreneurship programme to enable dynamic and aspiring young women to launch and administer independent e-commerce marketplaces in small towns in India. The women entrepreneurs will be provided four months of enhancement, business mentorship, credit facilities, and free access to software worth Rs 1 lakh to empower them to set up horizontal e-commerce marketplaces in their home towns. It added that the applicants will go through a selection process and ten will be selected from among the ambitious entrepreneurs who apply for the project.

Bangladesh secures 2 million doses of SII

Skill development university to be set up in Maharashtra MUMBAI: The Government of Maharashtra approved a proposal on February 17 to set up the state’s first Public Skill Development University and six Centres of Excellence (CoE), which will offer degree and postgraduate courses. The approval came as a bid to increase skilled manpower and employment opportunities in the state.

The government is set to introduce a bill on this decision in the budget session of the state legislature, which is scheduled to start from March 1. Nawab Malik, Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of Maharashtra, said that currently, courses on skill development are largely limited to diploma courses. According to him, the proposed university will provide courses in line with the requirement of the day and the future. Malik mentioned that there will be degree and postgraduate courses offered through the

university and additionally, different colleges will be allowed to offer skill development courses.

He added that these courses will be designed keeping in mind the requirement of the industries so that more and more people get trained and can get jobs. He informed that the state will also have six CoEs, which will be sub-centres of the university, and campus training and courses will be conducted at these sub-centres. The CoEs are to be set up in each of the six revenue divisions of the state.

According to Nawab, the government will provide annual funding of `50 crore to the university for the first 10 years, following which it will become a selfsustainable university. He added that the government is still deliberating on locations where the university will be set up and has so far listed Thane, Pune, and Mumbai.

PM Modi launches several development projects in Assam

Bangladesh obtained two million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the Serum Institute of India (SII) on February 23. This is the second batch of the vaccine from SII as part of the tripartite deal with Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited and the Government of Bangladesh to supply 30 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine produced by it. Previously, a consignment of five million doses of the vaccine was received by Bangladesh in January from the SII. India had also gifted 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Bangladesh.

16

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

DISPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Mahabahu-Brahmaputra, laid the foundation stone of Dhubri-Phulbari Bridge and performed Bhoomi Poojan for construction of Majuli Bridge in Assam on February 18 through video conferencing.

Modi remarked in his tweet that it was a landmark day for development journey of Assam because the Mahabahu-Brahmaputra initiative was to be launched.

Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India; and other dignitaries were present at the occasion.The launch of Mahabahu-Brahmaputra was marked by the inauguration of the Ro-Pax vessel operations between Neematighat and Majuli, North and South Guwahati and Dhubri-Hatsingimari. In order to boost employment and tourism, it is set to include shilanyas for construction of tourist jetties at four locations. It will also include various development activities for the people living around River Brahmaputra and River Barak. The Ro-Pax services, by providing connectivity between banks, will help in reducing the time taken to travel and thus reduce the distance to be travelled by road. The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stone of the longest river bridge in India. The bridge will be built over the Brahmaputra river between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya. The planned bridge will be 19 kilometers long with 4 lanes, and will thus reduce the distance of 205 km to be travelled by road, to 19 km only. Narendra Modi also performed Bhumi-pujan for the much awaited 8 km long JorhatMajuli Bridge today, which will connect the river island Majuli with mainland Assam.

Subscribe to

UrbanUpdate

For 3 Years (36 Issues) Rs 2520 For 2 Years (24 Issues) Rs 1920

A magazine dedicated to Urban Infrastructure, Governance & Sustainability

For 1 Year (12 Issues) Rs 1080

Yes, I want to subscribe to Urban Update Tick

Year 1 2 3

Monthly Courier Issue/Year & Handling 12 Charges 24

100

36

Charges/Annum 1200 2400 3600

You pay Discount 1080 10% 1920 20% 2520 30%

Please fill this form in Capital Letters Name Organisation Designation Address

Mobile

City E-mail

Pin Code

Cheque/DD/MO No For Rupees

Drawn on Dated

State

(specify bank)

In favour of ‘All India Institute of Local Self-Government’ is enclosed.

Mail this form along with your Cheque/DD to the following address All India Institute of Local Self-Government Sardar Patel Bhavan, 22-23, Institutional Area, D Block, Pankha Road, Janakpuri, Delhi-110058 You can pay Subscription charges through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT). Details for NEFT transfer are: Axis Bank Limited A/C Name: All India Institute of Local Self-Government Please e-mail your details (Name, Address, duration of subscription, transaction no.) to contacturbanupdate@gmail.com for initiating A/C No: 207010100182768 subscription after the NEFT transfer.

IFSC: UTIB0000207 Terms and Conditions

For any query, please contact our Subscription Department Phone No.: 011-2852 1783 / 5473 (Extn. 37) Or e-mail at contacturbanupdate@gmail.com

• Subscriptions are only invited from municipal corporations, government bodies, academic & research institutions, etc. working in the domain of urban development. We only charge courier and handling charges. We may fully wave-off the charges for municipalities and academic institutions upon receiving such request and approval from our management.• Allow one week for processing of your subscription • All disputes shall be subject to Delhi jurisdiction only

BRIEFS | NEWSCAN

Outdoor air-purifier installed by CSIR Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CSIRCMERI), Durgapur installed an Outdoor Air Purifier with a radial range of 5 metres at its residential campus in Durgapur. Dr Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR-CMERI, said that emissions from industries and automobiles are the major contributor to air pollution. He mentioned that the machine is cheap and has a low maintenance cost which can be easily cleaned by a vacuum cleaner. They have been installed on the street poles focusing on the narrow lanes of the campus and it can run on solar power, he added.

56,368 new houses approved under PMAY(U)

PMC allocates `1,500 cr budget PATNA: Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC), on February 17, authorised a budget incorporating a disbursement of approximately `1500 crore in the fiscal year 2021-22, which includes `780 crore on infrastructure development alone.

The budget was presented in a special meeting of the PMC’s board comprising of all 75 ward-councilors, including Sita Sahu, Mayor of PMC, and senior officials of the civic body, including Himanshu Sharma, Commissioner, PMC. While the aggregate estimated expense in the ongoing fiscal year has been valued at `1499.85 crore, the revenue of the civic body from different sources has been estimated at `1359.23 crore.

According to the budget document, the PMC is targeting to spend `256.80 crore on solid waste management works, including garbage removal and drainage cleaning. The salient feature of this year’s PMC budget is air pollution control disbursements, under which the civic body has targeted to expend `204 crore. Financial resources to the tune of `102 crore are intended to be spent on composting and recycling plants, waste to energy, road pavement, footpath,

green buffering and other expenses for reducing air pollution. Another `14.4 crore will be spent on operations and maintenance of sweeping machines. `110 crore is being estimated to be spent on construction of roads and drains in the state’s capital. The budget has specifically allocated `10 crore for prevention of waterlogging and mitigation works. The PMC has also allocated an amount of `1.5 crore for purchase of boats, which will ply on river Ganga along the city.

Addressing the occasion, Sahu said that the budget is dedicated to sanitation workers who worked in a dedicated manner at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. She added that the sanitation workers ensured that our city remained clean for a better fight against the pandemic.

Development projects launched for Ludhiana Smart City Construction of 56,368 new houses has been approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana - Urban (PMAY-U) at the 53rd Central Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee Meeting held on February 22. Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, said that the nation has to go into the mode of execution and implementation and also urged the states and UTs to ensure 100 per cent construction and delivery of PMAY-U houses. Mishra also reviewed the progress of Light House Projects (LHPs) and Demonstration House Projects.

18

March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

LUDHIANA: Under the Smart City Mission and Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) Programmes, three development projects were launched in Ludhiana on February 22. The mega projects worth `64.6 crore aim at paving way into a new era of world-class infrastructure in the industrial hub of Punjab.

These projects are part of the municipal projects worth `1078 crore, which were recently launched by Captain Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister of Punjab, via videoconferencing.

The announced projects include establishment of Municipal Corporation control centre, beautification and refurbishment of Mini Rose Garden, development of a 29 million litres per day sewage treatment plant (STP), and augmentation of Ludhiana Safe City project. The Ludhiana Safe City Project has been allocated `35.96 crore.

Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Minister of Food & Civil Supplie, Government of Punjab, mentioned that 300 more such surveillance cameras would be installed at garbage dumping sites, critical and vantage points in the city, and STPs. Besides this, he said, 30 vehicle-mounted camera systems and 600 external IR illuminators, having a range of 200 m for better monitoring during zero visibility, would be installed for municipal monitoring of encroachments and garbage dumps in the city.

The beautification and refurbishment of the Mini Rose Garden project will involve work on soft-scaping, plantation, grass, amphitheatre, fountains, badminton court, pergolas, canopy, kids play, open gym and other areas. The minister said that all this would be carried out in the next 12 month at an estimated cost of `3.48 crore.

NEWSCAN | BRIEFS

70% decline in COVID cases after Pfizer shots LONDON: British health officials said on February 22 that there has been a drop of around 70 per cent in infections among healthcare workers who were administered with their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. According to data analysis by Public Health England (PHE), the Pfizer vaccine provided a high level of protection against infection with even a single dose. The analysis also said that hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 will be reduced by more than 75 per cent in elderly people who have had their first dose. Findings of the PHE study came from two different analysis conducted by their team – one is an ongoing analysis of cases among healthcare workers and the other is an assessment of testing data in people above 80 years of age.

The assessment on elderly people showed that one shot of the Pfizer vaccine is 57 per cent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 cases, and according to an early data, the second dose improves protection to more than 85 per cent against the infection.

Susan Hopkins, Strategic Response Director, PHE, said that overall, the nation is seeing a really strong effect in terms of reducing any infection, be it asymptomatic and symptomatic, and that the vaccine campaign is significantly reducing cases of COVID-19. An official statement from PHE said that hospitalisations and death rates have been falling in all age groups and the vaccine also provides protection against the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 found in Britain.

COP26 President visits India to advance talks on climate change NEW DELHI: Alok Sharma, the United Kingdom’s minister responsible for the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021 or COP26, arrived in India on February 15 for a two-day visit for climate discussions with Indian leaders. Sharma is also the President of COP26. In his first visit to Asia as COP President, Sharma welcomed India’s significant progress on climate action and clean energy transition. He will also focussed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s global leadership in establishing the International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, which is co-chaired by the UK. The statement also read that India’s

proficiency is expected to be of great significance to global discussions on clean energy transition as part of COP preparations.

Sharma highlighted opportunities in the low carbon economy, celebrate current commitments to achieve net-zero emissions and motivate influential businesses to promote the growing movement of corporate climate action throughout their sector and supply chain. He also met civil society experts and young thinkers to talk about the challenges and possible solutions to climate change.

In accordance with the statement, Sharma’s visit indicates a step-change in momentum to COP26 preparations and reinforces his ambition to run a comprehensive negotiating process that incorporates the views of all countries. Sharma said that when it comes to climate action, India is an important partner and a global leader.

MoU signed for transportation of LPG through inland waterways

The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) and Mitsui O.S.K Lines (MOT) (Asia Oceania) Pte Limited, inked a memorandum of understanding on February 25 for the transportation of Liquified Natural Gas (LPG) via inland waterways. As part of the agreement, IWAI will accommodate adequate fairway and handling of LPG cargo on IWAI terminals and Multimodal Terminals at Haldia, Sahibganj and Varanasi according to notified provisions and rates on the request of MOL. MOL Group, the world’s largest gas carrier company, will invest in the construction and operation of dedicated LPG barges under the Centre’s Make in India initiative.

Delhi to face water crisis in March-April Raghav Chadha, Vice Chairman, Delhi Jal Board (DJB), said on February 26 that closure of Nangla hydel channel for repair work will stop the water supply to Delhi, causing a water crisis in the Capital. He said that the Government of NCT of Delhi, Government of Haryana and Bhakra Beas Management Board had written to the Government of India requesting them to postpone the repair work.

Raghav informed that the sudden closure of this channel will affect the supply of 232 million gallons per day of water supply from the Beas river to Delhi for one month in MarchApril. The channel accounts for almost 25 per cent of the water supply in Delhi.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

19

BRIEFS | NEWSCAN

All Delhi govt vehicles to switch to EV by August’21

India added lowest solar capacity in 2020

An order by Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, said that all the vehicles of the Government of Delhi will be replaced by electric vehicles (EV) within the next six months.

Any department or autonomous body of the Delhi government can hire an EV for the first time with the permission of the Department of Finance.

The Department of Transport will oversee the switch to EVs and all departments will have to submit the report to the transport department on how the transition of vehicles to EVs is going on, identify the gaps and give suggestions to complete the target within six months.

NEW DELHI: A report by Mercom India Research said that India added only 3239 megawatt (MW) of solar capacity in 2020, which is down by 56 per cent in comparison to the solar capacity added in previous year, which was 7346 MW. The report established that this year’s addition to solar capacity was the lowest in the last five years.

According to the report, rooftop installation of remaining the 719 MW panels was also down by 22 per cent in comparison to the installations in 2019. It showed that Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Gujarat emerged as top three states for large-scale solar capacity additions and represented around 51 per cent of India’s total installations in 2020.

Raj Prabhu, Chief Executive Officer, Mercom Capital Group, commented that India’s solar installations in 2020 were the lowest in five years. He said that other top solar markets in the world have experienced positive growth in comparison to India, which experienced

Odisha only Indian state in Top 15 urban initiatives

one of the most stringent lockdowns in response to the pandemic. However, he added that the industry in India is expected to experience significant positive growth in 2021, with over 10 gigawatt (GW) of solar installations due to take place.

The report outlined difficulty faced by government agencies in getting distribution companies to sign power sale agreements (PSAs) as an additional challenge in the market besides the COVID-19 pandemic. This bottleneck in the market has left about 17-18 GW of projects without a PSA. Other short-term challenges mentioned in Mercom India’s analysis included rise in module prices, increased shipping and freight charges, which have increased to the range of 500 per cent to 800 per cent, and a surge in costs of raw materials. The report added that as a result, the average large-scale solar project costs have increased by 2 per cent quarter-over-quarter in OctoberNovember 2020.

India, US energy cooperation supports sustainable development Odisha became the only state from India with two initiatives to come in the Top 15 deserving interventions for Global Award.

The state’s two urban innovations include Urban Wage Employment Initiative, implemented in all the 114 Urban Local Bodies, and Faecal Sludge and Septage Management in Berhampur.

These have been shortlisted in the Top 15 Prestigious 2020 Guangzhou International Award for urban innovations exceptional models of innovative policies and practices. Moreover, one more innovative and people-centric model of Government of Odisha, ‘Drink from Tap Mission’ in Puri, has been selected in the Top 30 list of deserving innovations.

20 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

WASHINGTON DC: The United States of America and India have collaborated for research on natural gas, renewable energy, nuclear energy, clean coal technologies, smart grids, and unconventional and clean energy sources. On this, Ned Price, Spokesperson, United States Department of State, at a news conference on February 22 commented that this collaboration has been made for the benefit of ‘our people’, now and in the future. He said that this energy cooperation supports sustainable development, promotes regional and international stability, protects national security, and harnesses sources to meet power needs of the 21st century.

Price, responding to a question on current state of cooperation between India and US on energy, said that the strategic partnership between the two countries is strong and it will continue growing, especially because of the administration prioritizing climate change issues. He mentioned how both the nations have worked closely with each other on the challenges of climate change and how in December 2015, when the Paris Climate Agreement was consummated, US and India worked closely to usher in the Paris Agreement. He said, “We will continue to work closely with India on the challenges of climate change.”

NEWSCAN | BRIEFS

Delhi Metro to go contactless

AIILSG celebrated International Women’s Day. Urban Update team member Arjun Singh, on behalf of the team, presented a token of appreciation ‘Digital Vector Art’ to female colleagues

Puri launches NUDM, other digital initiatives NEW DELHI: The Government of India launched the National Urban Digital Mission (NUDM) and various other digital initiatives on February 23, with an aim to transform urban governance. Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India said that the NUDM will build an ideal space to channel immense synergies from the domain of technology towards creating citizen– centric governance reflecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘minimum government and maximum governance’.

NUDM has been initiated by MoHUA along with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Addressing the launch of NUDM and other initiatives in the national capital, Puri said that the MoHUA must work with and support all urban local bodies, from the largest to the smallest, to deliver on the promise of serving all the citizens. He added that this is what ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’ denotes for urban India presently. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, who was also a part of the event virtually, said that the cities will become smarter only if digital technology is properly established. Prasad added that an important message of this launch is that convergence is a must to ensure good governance through a digital mode. He further stated that the goal of Digital India can be achieved through technology that is domestic, developmental, cost effective and inclusive. A statement from MoHUA said that various other digital initiatives like the India Urban Data Exchange, Smart Code, Smart Cities 2.0 website, and Geo-spatial Management Information System, have also been launched.

M o H U A m e n t i o n e d that this will institutionalise a citizen-centric and ecosystem-driven approach to urban governance and service delivery in 2022 cities by 2022, and across all cities and towns in India by 2024.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has decided to introduce cashless and touchless transaction for its passengers. The DMRC had introduced Quick Response codes and other digital payment methods initially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The DMRC has invited Expression of Interest from some private firms to upgrade its Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) system to enable QR code, bank account and RuPay based ticketing.

Currently, the passengers are allowed to use RuPay debit cards issued in the last 20 months by nearly 23 banks only at the Airport Express Line and this facility will be soon introduced across several different modes of public transport.

Gujarat spends highest on UDD

A five-year budget analysis between 2015 and 2021 revealed that Gujarat spends 6.4 per cent of its budget on projects of the state’s Urban Development Department (UDD). New Delhi and West Bengal have been found to spend 5.7 per cent and 4.5 per cent of their budget respectively on UDD. The report claimed that West Bengal spends the highest share of their budget on social security schemes, amounting to 9 per cent. It stated that Arunachal Pradesh had spent 16 per cent of its budget on roads and bridges, and New Delhi recorded spending 26 per cent of its budget on education.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

21

Event | 5th ASCIVS

Learnings for Smart Cities while defining the role of ULBs The 5th Annual Smart Cities International Virtual Symposium was held on February 23 and 24, 2021, to bring together practitioners and leaders from around the world to analyse the recent developments and technological advances in realising the goal of Smart Cities. It provided a platform for discussion on the new business models and discuss the lessons learned till now in the development of Smart Cities The speakers at the event discussed the experiences of municipal corporations who are doing exceptional jobs at pushing the envelope and moving towards the implementation of the Smart Cities mission. Emphasis was on implementation strategy, case studies, best practices, and the development of innovative business models.

On day one of the event, the session began with discussion on ‘Envisioning the Smart City in Challenging Times”.

Panelists suggested ways to adjust the Smart City vision with respect to the new challenges in the present world. They also talked about the key challenges and issues in the evolution of Smart City. The speakers of the session included Monali Shah, Head of Industry Solutions, Google; and Dan Hoffman, City Manager, City of Winchester, Virginia.

The Second session was conducted on ‘Smart City lessons learned till date and the directions forward’ which included the case studies of Smart

22 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Cities, implementation strategies and best practices of various municipal corporations. David Graham, Chief Innovation Officer, City of Carlsbad; and Michael Hess, Director, Future Ready, City of Orlando were part of the session’s panel.

The next session discussed about ‘Smart City Solutions for a Riskier World’ and the speakers discussed about the key findings from the study of ESI ThoughtLab examining the social, environmental and economic impact of investments in smart technologies. The goal was to provide evidence based roadmap to resilience and sustainability. The speakers of the session included Lou Celi, Chief Executive Officer, ESI ThoughtLab; and Rana Sen, Managing Director and Smart City Initiative Lead, Deloitte.

The last session on day one was on the ‘Future of Mobility’ as the success of Smart Cities relies on various factors including transportation, energy, communications and people.

The mobility transformations will impact the businesses as usual for many industries including energy and utilities, insurance, IT, etc.

Second day of the event began with the session on ‘Smart Cities, TIF Districts and Pursuing a TIF Project’. Tax Increment Financing (TIF) is used as a financing tool to assist the municipal corporations and development works. Speakers discussed about intelligent infrastructure and its need as a foundation of TIF districts. The speakers of the session included Keith Moran, Founder, Moran Economic Development; and James Carlini, President, Carlini and Associates.

‘Leveraging Smart City and Utility Infrastructure to Build Agile Communities’ was the theme of the next session for the day. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an example of the community challenge and the discussion was on the new arising situations to which communities should adapt quickly. The panelists discussed about the role of smart infrastructures in creating agile communities that can adapt to quickly evolving situations.

Jason Anderson, President, Cleantech San Diego; and Brian Dillard, Chief Innovation Officer, City of San Antonio, were part of the session’s panel.

The last session of the event was on ‘Adaptive Reuse and Renewable Energy Strategies’. The speakers discussed about the need to have renewable sources of energy and how it can assist the smart cities in their work towards a sustainable urban space. The speakers in the session included Erika Allen, CoFounder and Chief Executive Officer, Urban Growers Collective; and Sarah Coulter, Executive Director, Calumet Collaborative.

The 5th Annual Smart Cities International Virtual Symposium presented a platform for experts and researchers in the field to share the experiences and address the limitations in developing Smart Cities. The event was attended by industry experts from across the world and various deductions were made for municipal corporations to improve the strategy for implementation of policies.

Numerograph

Municipal budget of Indian cities Post COVID-19 recovery of the cities depend majorly upon the budgetary allocations which also shows the preferences of the authorities with regard to their development. The data mentions some of the important cities of India with their major budget allocations in the year 2020-21 Hitesh Nigam | Editorial Assistant

Mumbai (33,441 crore)

North Delhi Municipal Council (4,126 crore)

4,728.53

1236.1

3600 2,945.78 476.8 342

1,339.94

224.55

852.44

Education

Health

Construction of roads

Sewerge Treatment Plant

Solid Waste Management

Health, Sanitation and SWM

Bengaluru (7,795 crore)

Education

193.88

Electricity

Public works

Civic Amenities

Chandigarh (1,590 crore)

850

80

55

450

43 27

24.9

169 30

Bengaluru suburban rail project

K-100 infrastructure Project

Hospitals and Janarogya centres

Koromangala Valley STP plant upgrade

Building and Roads

Pune (7,650 crore)

Civic works

Sanitaion and allied services

Sewerage

Patna (1500 crore)

223.7

256.8 215

204

145

141 120

Health

Augmentation of city water supply

Transport

Projects under PPP model

Sewage lines in merged villages

105

River beautification

110

Waste Management

Air Pollution control

Construction of roads and drains

Water Supply

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

23

Cover story | Transition to Clean Energy

Phase Out Coal Fast Cities are power guzzlers. The electricity that runs our cities comes majorly from coal. Can governments stop burning coal for power? New technologies and conventional wisdom have given governments worldwide alternatives to switch from coal to renewable sources for their energy requirements. The change on the ground is happening but gradually. Is it happening fast enough and in sync with the timelines of our international agendas on climate change? The governments will also have to find out a feasible solution to the stranded asset problem in coal.

An analysis of the present situation

Abhishek Pandey Editor

A

Cover story | Transition to Clean Energy

Phasing out from coal will bring multiple benefits for everyone. It will reduce the annual emission from coal power plants and make the air in the cities cleaner and the environment safer.

The time for coal is over as cleaner options abound.

Despite understanding the consequences of using coal, it remains the dominant contributor to India’s energy mix. Over 60 per cent of electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. The issue is also serious because the government estimates suggest that India’s energy demand will double in the next decade. India has to intensify its efforts to accelerate the transitional shift for the fight against climate change to be successful.

António Guterres, the UN SecretaryGeneral, recently said, “All planned coal projects around the world must be cancelled to end the “deadly addiction” to the most polluting fossil fuel.

Phasing out coal from the electricity sector is the single most important step to tackle the climate crisis.”

In India, many big cities, including Delhi, have shut down coal-powered plants within the city limits for making the urban environment healthy.

Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS), which was closed in 2018, had been the city’s biggest power generator with an installed capacity of 705 MW for over 45 years.

The reports suggest that it was responsible for 11 per cent of the deadly ultrafine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the city’s air. It was the last one to be closed in the national capital.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) framed strict environmental norms for coal-based power plants under the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The deadline for the TPPs to comply with these norms was by December 2017.

Later, it was extended to 2022. Many research reports by independent bodies suggest that many coal-fired power plants have not fully complied with the norms because of technology’s nonavailability and economic reasons.

26 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Energy transition

India is the second-largest coalproducing and consuming country globally and the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. India is at a crucial juncture and going through the most significant energy transition phase.

Its transition from carbon-intensive resources is critical to global climate change efforts.

In the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, the Government of India has said that it will exceed its renewable energy targets. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated, “Our renewable energy capacity is the fourth largest in the world. It will reach 175 gigawatts before 2022.” He has put numbers to his prediction on another platform, saying that the country will reach 220 gigawatts by 2022.

India’s total installed capacity of renewable energy is 90 gigawatts.

According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the government will add additional 49.59 gigawatts of renewable energy. An additional 27.41 gigawatts of capacity have been tendered—the total capacity of RE projects already commissioned or in the pipeline stands at nearly 167 gigawatts. India targets to achieve 175 GWs by 2022 and 450 GWs by 2030.

With this speed, the 2022 target would be like a walk in the park.

The cost-effectiveness of the electricity generated would also play an important role. The cost of solar energy is continuously coming down. Recently, a 500-megawatt solar auction held by utility Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited sets a record for the lowest price in India of Rs 1.99 kilowatt-hour in December 2020. The earlier lowest was Rs 2 in November 2020 and 2.36 per unit in June 2020.

It is a good sign that renewable energy prices are coming down considerably, making it attractive for all stakeholders, especially the consumers.

But solar alone cannot solve the increasing demand. It has to be supported by innovation in the country’s power sector. To meet the demand sustainably, it must invest in technology and innovations to

generate energy from clean sources and maximize the output with economical cost.

Financial implications

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been saying time and again that the uncontrolled use of coal must cease globally by 2050 if warming is to be held below 2°Celsius. Every country will have to move away from coal, eventually to address the impending climate crisis. The major roadblock is the economic aspect of this decision. We know human life and the environment are priceless. Financial numbers cannot determine their value. Practically, it cannot be ignored altogether. All countries, financial institutions and cities have to figure out a feasible way out.

The countries and leaders will have to look at all aspects of the issue for effective handling. As per some estimates, the quantum of stranded assets globally could be as high as USD 900 billion. It raises questions about the financial consequences for corporates, banks and financial institutes that have resources locked in coal assets. If no solution is offered, then the vested interests of different parties will find ways to use coal.

Financial markets do not like uncertainty. With rising concerns on climate change impacts, they need a clear and complete future outlook, a comprehensive view on risks and opportunities presented by climate-related policy, and emerging technologies in our changing world.

Financial markets, most of the times, react on a long-term basis after assessing all the factors. Despite having access to various reports on climate change and its impacts, the financial markets’ actors are not sure how new regulations, new technologies, and customer behaviour will affect the markets and at what scale. But, once technology and policy-driven disruption in the energy sector becomes probable, the market’s reaction will be severe, instant, and long-term.

Indeed, the financial sector is yet to factor in what an alignment with the

Paris Agreement would mean for the use of fossil fuels. Some signs have already started to emerge.

Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company globally, dusted USD 18bn of shareholders’ wealth in 2016, when it went bankrupt. It claimed that it would return with a bang in 2017, but 2019 was another blow to the company as its share plunged 70% again in value.

The event had a lesson for the investors, and as we advance, they would think twice before catching the falling knife.

In response to a global call to exit coal, many financial institutions away from investing in coal companies or related businesses. Over 112 globally significant banks and insurers have coal exit policies in place.

These commitments are invariably accompanied by a commitment to align with the Paris Agreement. As many as 17 biggest insurers of the world have announced coal exit policies. These institutions control over 46% of the reinsurance market and 9.5% of the primary insurance market.

One of the strongest policy decision has come from the European Investment Bank in November 2019.

EIB announced: “The EIB will end financing for fossil fuel energy projects from the end of 2021”. The EIB will accelerate lending to technology

solutions in the RE sector to ensure a just transition. In the last five years, it has provided 65bn Euros of financing to renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy distribution projects.

In November 2019, BNP Paribas, the French banking company, announced a complete coal exit timeframe. It said, “to cease all its financing related to the thermal coal sector in 2030 in the European Union, and worldwide by 2040.” In the same month, UniCredit, the largest bank in Italy, released a new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) target. “UniCredit has committed to exit thermal coal mining projects by 2023 fully. A new coal policy prohibits new projects in thermal coal mining and coal-fired power generation”. It is also committed to developing a system to assess their lending portfolios against the Paris Agreement’s goals, as per the Paris Agreement Capital Transition Assessment (PACTA) for international banks.

In addition, UniCredit has signed up to external monitoring requirements via the Taskforce for Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) to encourage firms to align financial disclosures with investors’ needs and take into account climate risk.

Insurers are not just restricting new investment but also divesting from coal.

Financial markets, most of the times, react on a long-term basis after assessing all the factors. Despite having access to various reports on climate change and its impacts, the financial markets’ actors are not sure how new regulations, new technologies, and customer behaviour will affect the markets and at what scale. But, once technology and policydriven disruption in the energy sector becomes probable, the market’s reaction will be severe, instant, and long-term India’s total installed capacity of renewable energy is 90 gigawatts. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the government will add additional 49.59 gigawatts of renewable energy. An additional 27.41 gigawatts of capacity have been tendered—the total capacity of RE projects already commissioned or in the pipeline stands at nearly 167 gigawatts. India targets to achieve 175 GWs by 2022 and 450 GWs by 2030. With this speed, the 2022 target would be like a walk in the park

They divested roughly $8.9 trillion, almost 37 per cent of the coal industry’s assets globally. There are several financial institutions in the USA, South Korea, Europe and many other countries that have announced the coal exist policies and stopped investing in new coal projects to support global efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

The French Bank, BNP Paribas, is the largest lender for the renewable energy sector in Europe. It has defined a new financing target of €18bn by 2021. The investment by the banks and financial institution is picking up pace. It will undoubtedly accelerate the efforts targeted to reduce fossil fuel and promote sustainable alternatives.

According to a news report, at a time when financial institutions are not assisting coal companies, the renewable infrastructure sector of India significantly expanded its access to the global green bond market in the second half of 2019, with new issues

by Adani Green (US$362m), Greenko (US$350m after just completing a USD 950m issue) and Azure Power (US$350m).

The equity investors are also increasingly becoming aware of the dangers of climate risks. They are considering the impact of their investment on the climate. Global equity investors have launched a new campaign to ‘call out’ the Big Four global audit firms’ role – Ernst & Young, KPMG, Deloitte, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) – for ignoring the financial risks of climate change in their annual report audit sign-offs.

The ordinary person is also concerned about environmental issues and making their day-to-day lives while keeping its impact on the environment.

Though the number of such people could be less but the awareness among the masses is increasing. This is resulting in moving up of these issues on the political priority ladder. If all actors involved, including the public, policymakers, politicians, scientists, come together, there is no stopping to move away from coal swiftly without causing the problem to anyone.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

27

Leaderspeak | Urban Operations & RE

Cities’ role primary in increasing uptake of RE Cities will be a key player in accelerating renewable energy uptake and driving the energy transition movement. City leaders are focusing on using clean energy to build sustainable and liveable cities for future generations. Since India is among the few countries, which have shifted its focus to generate clean energy, the idea must trickle down at the local level to achieve the desired objectives within the targeted timeline

N

ational governments generally decide the policies concerning power generation, supply and preferable energy sources. The role of city governments is no less important. Since most of the countries in the world are considerably urbanised, over 70 per cent of energy is consumed in cities.

Most of the energy is used mainly for industrial activities, running the government and private buildings, powering homes, municipal operations, and transporting people and goods from one place to another, among many other usages. The role of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and government institutions are of great importance to ensure optimal use of energy and promote energy generation from renewable sources. ULBs can play a proactive role in achieving urban renewable energy

targets to encourage the wider uptake of renewables by other stakeholders, including comprehensive policies, awareness-raising and stakeholder dialogue. They should also define their energy targets and work towards achieving them. It will undoubtedly require the devolution of decisive and financial powers allotted to Urban Local Bodies by the central government for advancing in the sector.

Municipalities need to enforce stricter implementation of the Energy Efficiency Building Codes’ norms, so the consumption of energy in urban buildings is optimised effectively, and their energy use becomes sustainable and efficient. It is important to note that buildings consume about 40 per cent of a city’s energy. All India Institute of Local Self-Government is implementing the ECBC codes in several states and training officials of municipalities and other governments’

The pandemic taught us that reversing climate change impacts is possible.

It increased public consciousness to demand clean and healthy environments. Many cities have taken into account the demand of their citizens and have ensured energy efficiency is part of their green recovery plan

28 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

agencies for effective implementation.

Cities are also making initiatives at their level for maximising energy efficiency in urban management.

According to the Renewables in Cities 2021 Global Status Report, at least 834 cities in 72 countries, covering 558 million people, had adopted a renewable energy target in at least one sector by the end of 2020.

Altogether, these cities had a combined total of 1,088 targets, including 653 targets for 100% renewable energy use either in municipal operations or city-wide. While municipal renewable energy targets have grown worldwide, they are most common in Europe and the United States and remain less widespread in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Indian cities and EE

As Indian cities transform their municipal operations and provide better facilities to urban citizens, energy consumption is bound to go up.

Some reports suggest that the energy demand for running urban India would double in the next ten years.

The year 2020 was unusual. The government enforced lockdown directly impacted the cities’ economic activities and resulted in a significant drop in urban energy demand. Urban activities came to a halt and caused a substantial reduction in emissions from cities. People witnessed blue skies and experienced clean air in cities. The pandemic taught us that reversing climate change impacts is possible.

It increased public consciousness to demand clean and healthy

Ranjit S Chavan President, AIILSG

environments. Many cities have taken into account their citizens’ demand and have ensured energy efficiency is part of their green recovery plan.

Citizens have been increasingly active in engaging in the energy transition phase of cities, as well as in creating markets for renewable energy at the local level. It is an excellent time for cities to push for the scaling up of renewable energy generation by encouraging community-led or individual citizen-led initiatives.

Smart City Management is also gaining momentum with the creation of smart cities. The most important aspect of this is understanding Smart Energy Management (SEM) ‘s essential components and how those can be integrated into the existing system. Energy management has different aspects, including the right choices for energy generation, well-organised storage systems, grid management, minimal loss supply chain and sustainable use of energy use, and conservation. India’s Smart Cities ecosystem has adopted several measures like introducing green buildings, increased use of sustainable transport options, energy-efficient municipal operations, promotion of star-rated lighting and electrical equipment, etc.

The Government of India has several plans to accelerate energy efficiency, such as National Solar Mission, National Mission for Sustainable Habitat, National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency, Draft National Energy Policy, and Draft National Cooling Action Plan. The

union government’s plans and mission also help the local governments layout their own plan of actions to ensure energy efficiency in cities.

Energy efficiency index

The Indian government is making sincere efforts to generate energy from clean sources and optimize energy usage. For this, the Government of India has developed the ‘State Energy Efficiency Index 2019’ to track the progress of Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives in its states and union territories based on 97 significant indicators. As per the release by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) has developed the Index to help states contribute towards national goals on energy security and climate action. The Index has also encouraged the states to drive energy efficiency policies and program implementation at the state and local level. It is also tracking progress in managing India’s energy footprint and institutionalizing the data capture and monitoring of EE activities by states.

The first Index, the “State Energy Efficiency Preparedness Index 2018”, was launched in August 2018. Taking it forward, the State Energy Efficiency Index 2019 incorporates qualitative, quantitative and outcome-based indicators to assess energy efficiency initiatives, programs and outcomes in five distinct sectors – buildings, industry, municipalities, transport, agriculture, and DISCOMs. New indicators for this year include the

adoption of the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) 2017, energy efficiency in MSME clusters, etc. The required data was collected from the concerned state departments such as DISCOMs, Urban Development departments and other departments with State Designated Agencies (SDAs).

This year, a total of 36 states and union territories have been assessed based on their efforts and achievements in policy and regulation, financing mechanisms, institutional capacity, adoption of energy efficiency measures, and energy savings achieved.

Under four categories based on Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES), Haryana, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Puducherry, and Chandigarh have been evaluated as progressive states/UTs in the State Energy Efficiency Index 2019. TPES grouping is to help states compare performance and share best practices within their peer group.

The Index categorises states as ‘Front Runner’, ‘Achiever’, ‘Contender’ and ‘Aspirant’ based on their efforts and achievements towards energy efficiency implementation. The top-performing states for 2019 are Haryana, Kerala and Karnataka, which are in the ‘Achiever’ category. Manipur, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand and Rajasthan performed the worst in the Aspirant groups.

The new report for the year in not out yet, but the competition to outperform others in such competition could help accelerate the progress in cities’ energy efficiency. Local governments should keep this on top of their agenda.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

29

Special Feature

Let’s commit to making an equal world The world met under UNESCO to discuss gender equality in the year 1913 and came forward to declare 8th March as Women’s Day. Since then, the world has been celebrating International Women’s Day on 8th March. On this day, the world comes together to honour women’s achievements and marks a call to accelerating gender parity. The campaign theme for International Women’s Day-2021 was ‘Choose to Challenge’.

All of us had made serious efforts to translate the actions into sincere on-ground implementation

30 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Hansa Patel Executive Advisor

A

n official statement from the United Nations introducing 2021’s International Women’s Day theme said that a challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.

This year’s theme involved highlighting the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Women in leadership are paving the way towards achieving an equal future for women worldwide in the post COVID world. The theme celebrated the role women have played at the forefront of the global health crisis as health workers and caregivers, community organizers and innovators.

It signifies and reiterates that the role of women in society is of paramount importance. More than a hundred years of ‘celebrating women’ have passed, but women continue receiving unequal access to education, jobs, pay, and political representation. On one hand, 21 countries had a female head of national governments at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in May 2020; on the other hand, the pandemic disproportionately impacted women.

McKinsey had estimated that women’s jobs were 1.8 times more vulnerable due to COVID-19 than their male counterparts.

While women make up for 70 per cent of healthcare workers across the globe, as stated by UN Women, they remain highly underrepresented politically. Only 21.3 per cent of ministers were women as of January 2020. When looked at India’s situation individually, women representation is far worse than the world’s average.

Only 78 (approximately 14 per cent) of the 545 Lok Sabha members and 25 (just over 10 per cent) of the 245

Rajya Sabha members were women.

Shockingly, even if every woman who was ever a member of the Rajya Sabha, including her multiple terms from 1952 to 2020, counted, the cumulative count would come to a measly 208, not even equaling the Rajya Sabha’s strength of 245. Among these gloomy figures, there is a reason to celebrate. This is the first time in the history of Indian politics, the number of women in the upper and lower houses of the Parliament has crossed 100; a total of 103.

A report by the Election Commission of India visibly states that female candidates’ winnability has been higher than male ones. Nevertheless, political parties have failed to field an adequate number of women candidates during the past elections. Such practices highlight the still existing patriarchal domination in the country that deliberately denies equal political representation. However, the situation is changing gradually.

The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment was critical to women empowerment at the local level. The implementation was bumpy in the initial years with proxy representation and other malice. Still, the situation has significantly improved at the local level with 33 per cent representation in ULBs and panchayats. There are some states where the women reservation is up to 50 per cent. At the central and state level, the country still needs to work to improve female representation.

In many democracies like South Africa, England, Australia, Sweden, and Germany, political parties selfenforce with voluntary quotas or minimum limits of 33 per cent or 50 per cent women in their candidate lists and party leadership roles. Many of our neighbouring countries have also reserved parliamentary seats for women.

PhumzileMlambo-Ngcuka, Director, UN Women, said that gender-balanced cabinets made better decisions not just for women but for society as a whole.

Last year, when the COVID-19 was sweeping the whole world off its feet, countries that stood tall and gave a good

fight mostly had female heads of state.

Germany, led by Angela Merkel, had a far lower death rate than Britain, France, Italy or Spain during May 2020. Finland, where Prime Minister Sanna Marin, 34, governs with a coalition of four femaleled parties, has had fewer than 10 per cent as many deaths as neighbouring Sweden was experiencing.

Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, had presided over one of the world’s most successful efforts at containing the virus, using testing, contact tracing, and isolation measures to control infections without a complete national lockdown.

Under the leadership of its Prime Minister, Jacinda Arden, New Zealand completely eradicated rather than only containing the COVID-19 outbreak in the peak month of virus spread-May. While the whole world was quarantined in homes, New Zealand had lifted all the restrictions by June first week by opening schools, offices and colleges, making social distancing not necessary, and allowing public gatherings without any limit on numbers.

Back at home, KK Shailaja, Health Minister of Kerala, made notable efforts to curb the transmission of COVID-19 in her state. She became the only woman from India to be honoured by the United Nations to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Under her leadership, Kerala became the first state in India to flatten the COVID-19 curve while simultaneously maintaining low mortality rates due to early and appropriate interventions, conveying proof of efficient female leadership.

Women’s active participation and their significant contribution to society is a reason to cheer and celebrate. The nation has initiated many programs to bridge the gender gap and make an equitable world. In the last few years, a considerable improvement in the gender population gap and the closing higher education gap in terms of gender has been recorded. A report released

by Catalyst Inc stated that among graduates in 2018-19, 53 per cent were women. Despite this growth, the data established that less than one-quarter of women aged 15 and older participate

in the labour force as of 2020 as women account for only 19.9 per cent of the total labour force in India. Several social and cultural issues require the immediate attention of our social scientists and policymakers. Restrictive cultural norms, the gender wage gap, an increase in women’s time in continuing their education, lack of safety policies and inflexible work offerings, and gender equality in sharing the household workload are critical issues Unequal pay is one of the biggest challenges in not only India but across the globe. A study conducted by the International Labour Organisation in 2018 covered 70 countries. About 80 per cent of women employees worldwide continue to be paid approximately 20 per cent less than men. The report established that in high-income countries, unequal pay is at the high end of the pay scale, that the gender pay gap is more comprehensive, while in low- and middle-income countries, the gender pay gap is wider amongst the lowerpaid workers. Rosalia Vazquez-Alvarez, econometrician and wage specialist at the ILO and one of the authors of the report, said that women are more highly educated in many countries than men.

Even then, they earn lower wages. This gender pay gap, visibly prevalent in all economies, reflects the 21st century’s greatest social injustice.

There is a silver lining. Gender sensitization is being introduced academic curriculum in educational institutions and workplaces; many programmes in India are being launched to empower women financially, like Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs and Start-ups and Women Entrepreneurship Platform; women leadership skills are being highly recognized in the political and business sphere, thereby shattering the patriarchal stereotypes like women belong at homes or at reception desks.

With every 8th March, the world comes closer to giving women their rights and representation, but the pace of movement towards an equal world for all genders is slow and requires urgent attention of all.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

31

Numbrograph | Renewable Energy Consumption

India Paving Way To Meet Paris Agreement Commitments RE is now becoming an attractive option for meeting the energy needs across different sectors of Indian economy as the nation continues making efforts in progressively declining its costs, improving its efficiency and reliability. India has been driving various renewable energy programmes aiming at achieving energy security, energy access, reducing the carbon footprints, and meeting its commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement to achieve 40 per cent of installed electric power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. However, RE technologies are still evolving in terms of technological maturity and cost competitiveness Pooja Upadhyay, Shrila Pokhariyal | Editorial Assistants

Total primary energy demand in India - 2000-2020 Year

Coal

Oil

Traditional Biomass

Natural Gas

Modern Renewables

2000 33 25 26 5 1 2010 40 23 19 8 8 2019 44 26 12 6 3 2020 44 25 13 6 9

Sources: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Mercom India research, Hydropower.org, Press Information Bureau, Central Electricity Authority, International Energy Agency

32 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Other 9 8 9 9

Installations of Re Generation Plants In India (Mw) 40000 32280

35000 30000 25000

34046

35626

37090

38000 34627

28181

26769 23354

21651

20000 12289

15000 10000 5000 0

8782.761

10150 10000 6762.853 9545.91 8181.7 3743.97 4882.33 4550.55 4194.83 5230 4758.46 4506.95 4399.35 4323.33 4161.9 3803.74 2014

2015 Wind

2016 Solar

2017

2018

Small Hydro

2019 Biomass

2020

An official release from the Government of India says that country’s electricity security has improved noticeably through the creation of a single national power system and major investments in thermal and renewable capacity. According to NITI Aayog, India’s power system is presently experiencing a major shift to higher shares of variable RE, consequently prioritizing issue of system integration and flexibility

Contribution By Different Sources In RE Production (April 2019 - March 2020) 366

Others

Source of RE 10908

Biogas 2935

Biomass

9366

Small Hydro

64639

Wind

% of total RE

Solar 36.22 Wind 46.73 Small Hydro 6.77 Biomass 2.12 Biogas 7.89 Others 0.26

50104

Solar 0

10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

33

ARTICLE | Renewable Fuels

Entering the future with green mobility Countries are undertaking various initiatives to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.

It must be realised now, more than ever, that a substantial contributor to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions is transport – both public and private. Only when governments can encourage a switch to eco-friendly transportation modes can they possibly be close to meeting the climate change goals

2

019 was the second warmest year on record and the end to the warmest decade ever recorded.

A report by the United Nations Organisation has claimed that carbon dioxide levels (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions reach a record high every year. This is a significant point of concern as governments’ initiatives worldwide are achieving success; they do not seem sufficient. According to the World Resources Institute’s Climate Watch platform, emissions from transportrelated activities accounted for 16 per cent of the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2019. This translates to about 8078.45 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. To realise the Paris Agreement’s goals, countries must recognise the urgency of promoting vehicles run on renewable energy sources.

The past decade has witnessed a number of teams of scientists trying to develop newer methods of integrating

34 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

transportation and renewable energy.

Apart from the famous electric vehicles (EVs), research is ongoing to develop fuel cells and biofuel vehicles. This acts as a light at the end of the tunnel with newfound hope that we will soon be able to drive without having to worry about carbon emissions, global warming and climate change.

Battery electric vehicles

Battery electric vehicles are currently one of the eco-friendliest modes of transport being produced commercially.

These vehicles are run on electricity stored in a battery and extracted and utilised by an electric motor. Due to the fuel required by electric motors being electricity, these vehicles do not emit carbon or other particulate matter. This makes these vehicles eco-friendly. In India’s case, the push given by both the Centre and state governments to the adoption of electric mobility has shown substantial results. The subsidies provided by the government on the production and sale of electric vehicles has encouraged manufactures to

undertake mass production of electric vehicles. Moreover, the expansion of charging infrastructure, particularly in Delhi, has also become a reason for consumers switching to electric vehicles.

The two policies majorly responsible for consumers switching to electric 2- and 3- wheelers in India are Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric Vehicles in India – Phase II (FAME II) and the Delhi EV Policy 2020. Despite this, the usage of EVs still faces the problem of the range that these cars have. The battery size of an EV, just like that of a vehicle with a combustion engine, is limited. It means that a user can only drive in one full charge for a maximum of 200 kilometres. As more and more original equipment manufacturers take up electric vehicles as their priority, the production cost of these vehicles is likely to reduce, and the range is expected to increase with more R&D. Storage capacity, durability, cost, safety, and recharging times are all still not sufficient for a wide acceptance of

reduce the DTC’s carbon footprint. He said, “The introduction of more electric buses will also reassure Delhiites that the state has a conducive EV ecosystem.”

Fuel cell vehicles

Ashley Paul Reporter

electric vehicles. Lastly, governments need to make sure that the electricity being generated to power EVs should be renewable. If not, the entire basis of EVs being eco-friendly will be falsified.

The Delhi government’s initiative to make electric mobility a part of public transport buses is worth mentioning here. The government approved the procurement of 300 low-floor electric buses in the Delhi Transport Corporation DTC) ‘s fleet of buses on March 1. Delhi’s transport minister Kailash Gahlot assured that these buses’ induction into the fleet would be completed by February next year. This move, experts like Sohinder Gill, Spokesperson of the Society of Manufacturers of EV and Global CEO, Hero Electric, believe, will significantly

These vehicles are the newest addition to the world of sustainable, zero-carbon mobility. Like EVs, fuel cell vehicles, or FCVs, are also run on an electric motor. However, the motor source is pure hydrogen which is usually stored compressed in a tank. As is the case with EVs, FCVs virtually do not emit any CO2 and also do not have the shortcoming of having a limited range.

The power produced by the same quantity of hydrogen-powered vehicles is also more than EVs, and FCVs have also achieved col start ability. This makes them suitable for places with extreme cold and inaccessibility.

In June 2020, the Government of India’s Automotive Industry Standards Committee submitted its final draft on fuel cell vehicles’ regulations in India. Shortly after that, India’s first Hydrogen Fuel Cell prototype vehicle, developed by The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and KPIT – a Pune-based multinational corporation, successfully underwent trials in October last year. The vehicle featured an indigenously developed low-temperature PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) type fuel cell. A statement released by CSIR said that the organisations would jointly try to introduce the engine for commercial

In order to generate the annual electricity demand for a car run on biofuel, we need approximately 5000 square metres of land. For an electric car with similar mileage, the roof of a single-family house with about 20 square metres would suffice

production by the end of this year. If successful, this will help India quickly realise its goal of zero carbon emissions from vehicles, which is still thought to be an impossibility by many.

Since it is still an early stage of introducing FCVs in India, the government must focus extensively on ensuring that hydrogen production for the vehicle’s fuel cells must be environmentally friendly. If produced by electrolysis using renewable sources of energy, FCVs’ overall emissions will be virtually nil.

Vehicles run on biofuel

Using biofuel as a vehicle fuel is a relatively old concept. Scientists have been working on making this a success for long. They have recently achieved great success as biofuel as a diesel additive or ethanol has been initiated.

One of the problems of biofuel is the number of resources required for its production. According to research

by Dr Günther Ebert, Department Head of “Electrical Energy Systems” at Fraunhofer ISE, et al., to generate the annual electricity demand for a car run on biofuel, we need approximately 5000 square metres of land. For an electric car with similar mileage, the roof of a single-family house with about 20 square metres would suffice. This is a big problem for cars run on biofuel.

A relatively new approach is using biofuel to generate substitute natural gas or SNG. Hydrogen, produced by electrolysis using solar or wind energy, is methanated in the presence of CO2.

This methane can then be passed using conventional gas pipelines for local energy generation and the operation of natural gas cars. The advantage of this approach is basing the vehicle’s supply on renewable energies, the uncomplicated long-term storage, the presence of distribution infrastructure and the universal usability of the energy carrier methane.

Thus, the future of using biofuel as a fuel for vehicles is distant. However, with proper intervention from both government and private players, this arena can be conquered soon.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

35

ARTICLE | Renewable Energy in India

India’s quest for Sustainable Energy

The energy sector in India is quickly trying to diminish the supply-demand gap prevalent since long. According to policymakers, India’s challenge lies in dealing with both climate change and the need to switch to renewable sources of energy.

In this regard, India has established the aim of transitioning from conventional to renewable energy sources for power generation by 2030. Recent studies have found that the country could go even further with renewables and reduce overall energy costs Shrila pokhariyal | Editorial Assistant

T

he traditional sources of electricity, like coal, oil, and natural gas, are responsible for one-third of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, the need of the hour is to enhance the living standards by providing cleaner and more reliable electricity.

Rapid urbanisation in India has resulted in increased energy demands to fulfil the economic development plans that are being implemented. According to data compiled and released by the

36 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

International Energy Agency, India is responsible for nearly seven per cent of the total global carbon emissions, ranking third after China (28 per cent) and the United States of America (15 per cent). However, the latest Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) 2021 has placed India among the top ten countries to have adopted substantial measures to mitigate climate change.

The report has ranked India at 10th with a score of 63.98.

India has taken an unprecedented course in renewable energy in the last

few years. India’s priority is to expand the use of clean energy sources. It has already taken various large-scale sustainable energy projects to ensure a massive growth of green energy.

India is the fourth most attractive renewable energy market globally, assessed by Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index 2020.

However, COVID-19 has adversely affected the performance of the renewable energy industry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had set an ambitious aim of installing 175 Gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity by 2022, which was intended to be increased to 450 GW by 2030, at the United National Climate Action Summit.

Wind Energy

The wind energy industry’s growth has given rise to a strong ecosystem, project operation capabilities, and a manufacturing base of about 10,000 Megawatt (MW) per annum. As of October 31 last year, the country has the fourth-highest wind installed capacity globally, with a total installed capacity of 38.26 GW, and had generated around 52.66 billion units between 2017-18.

The wind is an intermittent and sitespecific source of energy, and therefore, an extensive wind resource assessment is essential for selecting potential sites.

Through the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), the government has installed over 800 wind-monitoring stations across the country. It has issued potential wind maps at 50 metres (m), 80m and 100m above ground level. The recent assessment indicates a gross wind power potential of 302 GW in the country at 100 meters above ground level. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, is also developing a strategy and roadmap to utilise the potential of offshore wind energy along the country’s coastline.

Solar Energy

Utilising solar energy is one of the chief components of India’s renewable energy strategy. Most parts of India

receive extensive solar radiation, and the country has an estimated solar energy potential of about 750 GW. The National Solar Mission (NSM), which was launched in 2010 to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, aimed at creating policy conditions for solar technologies diffusion across the country as quickly as possible. Initially, NSM had targeted to install 20 GW solar power by 2022. This was upscaled to 100 GW in early 2015. Various beneficial schemes and programmes under the Mission have escalated solar power’s installed capacity from 25 MW in the year 2010-11 to about 36.32 GW in October 2020. An additional 58.31 GW solar power capacity is currently under installation process.

National Policy On Biofuels (NPB) 2018

The NPB was adopted on May 16, 2018, to augment biofuels’ generation and build a sustainable biofuel ecosystem.

The policy provided central financial assistance for projects using biomass such as agriculture-based industrial residues, wood produced through energy plantations, bagasse, crop residues, wood waste generated from industrial operations, and weeds.

Under this policy, the Biodiesel Blending programme was affected due to lack of sufficient feedstock, coupled with an 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) effective from July 1, 2017.

The high GST resulted in biodiesel’s price being higher than that of conventional diesel, thereby hindering the blending mandates. Most states in India do not allow the free interstate movement of molasses resulting in

artificially depressed prices, besides derailing the Ethanol Blending Petrol programme. NPB 2018 prohibits the import and export of biofuels to other nations resulting in reduced economic efficiency. Foodgrains as feedstock for biofuel production hampers food availability to needy people and adversely affects food prices. These are just some of the reasons why biofuel has not been widely accepted in India yet.

Green Energy Corridor

To facilitate renewable power evacuation and reshape the framework for future requirements, the government launched the Green Energy Corridor (GEC) projects. The projects aim at synchronising electricity produced from renewable sources, such as solar and wind, with conventional power stations in the grid.

The first segment of the scheme, Inter-state GEC with target capacity of 3200 circuit kilometre (ckm) transmission lines and 17,000 market value added (MVA) capacity substations, was completed in May 2020.

The second segment - Intra-state GEC with an intended capacity of 9700 ckm transmission lines and 22,600 MVA capacity sub-stations, is expected to be completed by May this year. The gross expense of the project is Rs 10,141 crores. The present efforts are focused on strengthening institutions, resources and protocols, and investing judiciously in grid infrastructure. A total of 7175 ckm of transmission lines have been constructed, and substations of the aggregated capacity of 7825 MVA have been charged.

According to data released by the International Energy Agency, India is responsible for nearly seven per cent of the total global carbon emissions, ranking third after China (28 per cent) and USA (15 per cent)

Generation of power from other renewables

The MNRE is implementing a scheme to support biomass-based generation in sugar mills and other industries. Energy generation from urban, industrial, and agricultural waste/residues is the area of focus. Waste to Energy projects, besides generating useful energy, also help combat pollution.

As of October 31, 2020, the installed capacity of grid-connected biomass power projects stood at about 10.15 GW, waste to energy projects capacity was 168.64 MW (grid-connected), and 204.73 MW equivalent (off-grid), and about 4.74 GW small hydropower capacity from 1133 small hydropower projects was operational.

Conclusion

According to the India Energy Outlook 2021 report, before the pandemic, India’s energy requirement was estimated to escalate by 50 per cent between 2019 and 2030. However, the escalation of energy requirement over this period is now closer in the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS) and 25 per cent in Delayed Recovery Scenario.

The latter would put some of India’s hard-won profits in the fight against energy poverty at risk, as lower-income households are forced to resort to more polluting and inefficient sources of energy.

It would also extend the slump in energy investment, which we estimate to have fallen by 15 per cent in India in 2020.

Even though the pandemic and its aftermath could temporarily suppress emissions, as coal and oil bear the brunt of the demand reduction, it does not move India any closer to its longterm sustainable development goals.

As per the STEPS, within twenty years, more than half of India’s emissions will come from power plants, industrial plants, buildings and automobiles that do not exist today.

This gives us hope and represents a huge opening for policies to navigate the country onto a more secure and sustainable course.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

37

ARTICLE | Hydro & Wind Energy

Innovations to make renewable energy more efficient, sustainable, ecological

The world is working to replace petroleum-based power sources with renewable energy after realising that the ‘ ‘world’s gluttonous appetite for energy is the cause behind climate change and global warming. However, even renewable energy sources do not come without challenges and places to improve upon to make electricity generation sustainable and eco-friendly

T

h The world economy is living through a phase of continuous change. We often fail to notice, but the natural sources of power are all around us, continuously shaping the energy sector, our lives and our future. The transition of the economy to renewable energy has already started, and its evolution is coinciding with a much more visible revolution in the form of digitalisation.

Wind Energy

Wind energy has the potential to serve the global demand for low-cost, clean energy. Research even suggests that wind could provide about half of the world’s electricity by 2050.

According to a report released by Power-technology.com in 2019, India

has the second-highest wind capacity in Asia, with a total capacity of 35 gigawatts (GW). Apart from China, India was the only Asian country to make it to the list. The country has the third- and fourth-largest onshore wind farms in the world - the 1500 megawatt (MW)Muppandal wind farm in Tamil Nadu and the 1064 MW Jaisalmer Wind Park in Rajasthan.

Innovations In Wind Energy

Stationary Energy Storage: For all its virtues, wind at some point, even in the windiest parts of the planet, stops blowing. A stationary battery, which uses chemical interactions between materials to store electricity at a set location for later use, is undergoing revitalisation to deal with this issue.

These batteries make it possible to

Wind turbines have a detrimental effect on the bird population due to migration patterns and birds being caught and injured or even killed by the towering high-speed blade. To fix this issue, the wind lens shroud around the blade helps protect birds from entering the blade’s path, and a mesh has been added to either end to prevent birds from being pulled into its blades

38 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

store the electricity generated when the wind is at its peak to be made available to the grid when there is a supply-demand gap.

Airborne Wind Turbines: One of the two kinds of airborne wind turbines can access stronger and more consistent wind at altitudes near 1000 feet. This turbine, named Makani Airborne Wind Turbine, could also be deployed in deep offshore waters, leading to access to a renewable energy resource four times greater than America’s current electrical generation capacity.

The other kind of turbine, Altaeros Airborne Wind Turbine, uses a heliumfilled, inflatable shell to ascend to high altitudes, giving it access to stronger and more consistent winds than towermounted turbines, and the generated power is sent to the ground via tethers.

Windstalk: It consists of carbon

Pooja Upadhyay Editorial Assistant

fibre reinforced resin poles, which stand 55 meters (180 feet) high and are anchored to the ground in concrete bases. The poles are packed with a stack of piezoelectric ceramic discs. Between the discs are electrodes connected by cables that run the length of each pole – one cable connects the even electrodes, while another connects the odd ones. So, instead of relying on the wind to turn a turbine to generate electricity, when the pole sways in the wind, the stack of piezoelectric discs are compressed, generating a current through the electrodes. To indicate how much power the poles are generating at any given time, each pole’s top is fitted with an LED lamp that glows and dims relative to the amount of power. This is still a concept that uniquely combines aesthetic intrigue and artistic concepts and will not generate low-frequency

vibrations like wind turbines.

Wind Lens: In a bid to make electricity production more efficient and less invasive to humans and nature, a Japanese researcher, Professor Ohya from Kyushu University, has come up with the concept of wind lens. It encircles the wind turbine and speeds air up while protecting the blades from foreign object damage. Studies have shown that the wind lens can have two to five times more power output than traditional wind turbines because it harnesses more wind.

Wind turbines have a detrimental effect on the bird population due to migration patterns and birds being caught and injured or even killed by the towering high-speed blade. To fix this issue, the wind lens shroud around the blade helps protect birds from entering the blade’s path, and a mesh has been added on either end to prevent birds from being pulled into its blades. The addition of this mesh creates a negligible decrease in power production, therefore having more benefits. In addition to the mesh, the wind lens is designed to avoid birds by making it more compact and shorter, making it possible for birds to fly over the wind lens, unlike the wind turbine.

Hydropower

Hydropower is one of the world’s leading sources of power generation and currently generates 20 per cent of electricity worldwide, with countries such as Norway receiving 99 per cent of its electricity from hydropower.

Innovations In Hydro Energy

Fish-friendly turbines: Alden turbines include Archimedes hydrodynamic screws, water wheels and Vortex turbines for low head applications. It has three blades, no gaps, is bigger and rotates more slowly. These measures significantly reduce the danger of trauma or death to fish passing through, yet the ‘ ‘turbine’s larger size and other design considerations are optimised to preserve high efficiency and energy production.

Digitalisation: It is key to enable growth in the hydropower sector by capturing the value of data.

International Hydropower Association says that manufacturers believe that by implementing diagnostic services, acoustic monitoring, and remote expert support, hydropower maintenance can be improved and made more cost-effective. Current estimations show that the digitalisation of the world’s 1225GW installed hydropower capacity could increase annual energy production by 42 trillion-watt hours.

Marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technology: These devices capture energy from ocean water’s natural motion, such as waves or tides. MHK power sources can generate more than 538 terawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power millions of homes.

Cooling towers: One of the primary uses of water in the thermoelectric power industry is to cool the powerproducing equipment. Water is used to cool the equipment along with rotating the turbines. Still, at the same time, the hot equipment heats the cooling water, and then that overly hot water is released back to the water body, which disastrously disturbs the local aquatic system. Modifications have been made in cooling towers to solve temporary heat rejection and thermal pollution problems. Systems in this process reuse cooling water in a second cycle rather than immediately discharging it back to the original water source.

Most commonly, wet-recirculating systems use cooling towers to expose water to ambient air; some of the water evaporates; the rest is then sent back to the condenser in the power plant or back to its source after bringing the temperature back to normal.

It is estimated that 1.1 billion people in the world today have no access to electricity - this is 14 per cent of the world’s population. Increasing access to clean forms of energy makes a critical contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development set by the UN to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services by 2030.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

39

ARTICLE | Solar Energy

Solar instrumental to India’s transition to clean energy Ten years ago, a 150-Megawatt (MW) solar plant tender quoted the average tariff at `12.16 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Today, the tariff is below `2, as per the recent auction conducted by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in November 2020. This is the right time to build on this opportunity

T

his results from steady and effective work towards making solar the centre of renewable energy production in India. Solar energy is one of the most important renewable sources of energy in India, with almost 38.79 Gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity in the country, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

MNRE announced in January this year that solar energy has become the leading source of renewable energy in India, leaving behind wind energy (38.68 GW).

Achievements

The Government of India is working to realise its target of installing 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022. In the budget

2020-21, Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister of Finance, raised the customs duty on solar inverters from 5 per cent to 15 per cent to promote indigenous manufacturing. Moreover, the Ministry of Shipping is also working with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to install grid-connected solar power plants in Indian ports such as Paradip Port Trust, Odisha; Kolkata Port Trust, West Bengal; New Mangalore Port Trust, Karnataka, etc., Solar energy can play an essential role in realising the country’s mission under Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) of reducing the emissions intensity by 33-35 per cent between 2005 and 2030. In this regard, the central government had instructed the Solar Corporation of India (SECI) and the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC)

International Solar Energy has estimated that at the current pace, the share of solar energy in India’s power generation basket will be equal to that of coal-fired by 2040

not to prescribe an upper limit on the tariff in future bids for solar energy.

Additionally, Sitharaman allocated Rs 1000 crore in this year’s Budget to SECI, enabling them to float 15 GW of tenders annually. MNRE also launched the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evem Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM KUSUM) scheme to install solar pumps and grid-connected solar and other renewable power plants in the country. As part of this, the central government provides a 60 per cent subsidy to farmers, and 30 per cent of the cost will be provided by the central government in the form of loans, according to MNRE. According to a report titled ‘Ease of Doing Solar 2020’ by the International Solar Alliance (ISA), India is the most favourable market for solar energy in the world due to its ambitious sustainability targets and robust power infrastructures. India is the third-largest job provider country in the world in renewable energy after China and Brazil, according to a study by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The solar photovoltaic segment provides the largest number of direct and indirect jobs (2,04,000) in India, followed by the on-grid solar sector, which offers more than 1 lakh jobs.

Challenges

This year, the biggest challenge to the growth of solar energy was posed by the pandemic, which hit the market and

40 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Hitesh Nigam Editorial Assistant

economy in all sectors. According to Mercom India, India added just 3.2 GW of solar capacity in 2020, showing a decline of 56 per cent compared to the 7.3 GW of solar energy capacity added in 2019. Large scale solar projects have declined to the toll of 60 per cent from last year, and rooftop installations showed a drop of 35 per cent year-overyear (YOY).

According to MNRE, India receives almost 5000 trillion kWh (kilowatthour) of energy per year. The challenge lies in capping and storing this energy due to solar panels and batteries’ high cost.

Innovations

India has seen various innovative techniques and products in the energy sector, which consistently

help the country improve solar energy production. In September 2020, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CMERI-CSIR), developed and installed the largest solar tree in the world in Durgapur, West Bengal. It can produce 12,000-14,000 units of clean power annually and is made customisable to make it viable for different geographical locations. The largest floating solar power plant in the world is constructed on the Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh with 600 MW. The plant, being built with World Bank aid, will begin operation from 2022-23.

Community participation is critical to make solar energy the most effective form of renewable energy in the country. Kerala has presented an excellent example of community participation with the Soura project’s execution in the state. Under this, authorities convinced the people to switch to solar power with panels installed on the roof of every house.

Soura project, by the Kerala State Electricity Board, aims to install solar panels on the roofs of 75,000 homes in the state which will provide for almost 10 per cent of the state’s power needs, according to KSEB. Sonam Wangchuk, an innovator and the real face of Phunsuk Wangdu from the Bollywood blockbuster’ 3 Idiots’, has designed a solar-powered tent

for the army personnel who work in extremely cold places such as Siachen and Galwan valley. The tent traps solar energy during the day and stores it to keep the soldiers warm at night without any conventional energy source and zero emissions. Such state-of-the-art innovations can bring the country at the forefront of the global market of renewable energy sources.

Global Interventions and Way Forward

In the ‘Ease of Doing Solar’ report

by ISA, India was categorised as ‘Achiever’ among all 80 member countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

India is cruising its way towards becoming the world’s solar giant with continuous efforts from both people and policymakers. International Solar Energy has also estimated that at the current pace, the share of solar energy in India’s power generation basket will be equal to that of coal-fired by 2040.

Power from coal currently constitutes almost 70 per cent of the country’s total energy consumption. Complimenting this, PM Narendra Modi has also said that the central government aims to produce 40 GW of solar power from rooftop installations in the next 1.5 years. Active policy intervention from the government is the prerequisite for the success of a mission in a democracy.

The world recognises India’s potential in solar power generation as the World Bank has also planned guarantee schemes worth $100 million in solar rooftop installations.

Conclusion

Solar energy is quickly taking the front seat in leading the world towards a sustainable source of renewable energy.

With active state interference and community participation, solar energy will soon become the prime source of power. The use of renewable sources is essential to realise the global mission of curbing Green House Gas emissions and stopping Climate Change. Solar energy and innovations in this sector will play a vital role in this.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

41

E-Dialogues 22.0 | Digitalisation in Waste Management

Waste Segregation & Digitisation at the centre of new India Urban Update and All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), in association with United Nations Centre for Regional Development (UNCRD), and 3R aste Foundation organised 22nd edition of E-Dialogues on the topic, “Digitisation in Waste Management” on February 12 Team Urban Update

D

r Kulwant Singh, moderator of the session, started by mentioning how the third decade of the 21st century has a larger focus on digitalisation in all sectors of economy and human activities, and that COVID-19 pandemic really reflected on the ultimate usage of digital technology.

He mentioned the launch of the ‘Waste to Wealth’ Mission by the Government of India in August 2020, to identify, develop, and deploy technologies for better management of waste, recycling of material, and to extend resources of value from it. He also mentioned the specific allocation of budget given to faecal sludge management, source segregation of garbage, wastewater treatment, reduction in single use plastic, etc in the Budget 2021-22, which he said showed that the centre is giving importance to this sector.

The panel of the webinar consisted of five eminent scholars including, CP Singh, Co-founder, Eswach Integrated

42 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Solutions Pvt Ltd; Dr BR Yadav, Scientist, Technology Development Centre, Council of Scientific & Indian Research -National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIRNEERI); Dr Debishree Khan, Director’s Research Cell, CSIR-NEERI; Dr Shalini Sharma, Co-founder and CEO, Sanshodhan: An E-Waste exchange; and Dr Swapnil Patel, Assistant Nodal Officer, Surat Municipal Corporation.

Dr Yadav’s session on digitalization in the sector of wastewater management elaborated how the digitalization can be introduced in two ways, including real time monitoring of the aquatic bodies along with the discharge released by several industries and municipal bodies. His presentation elaborated on three types of wastewater, which is categorized on the basis of its source domestic (residential, shops, offices, from toilets, sinks, and bathrooms), industrial, and storm water (from rain, fields). He talked about how even domestic wastewater is of two types – grey water (from sinks, baths, and washing machines which has low pollutant load) and black water (from

flushed toilets and has high pollutant load). He added that currently in India, there is no provision for segregation of these two types of domestic wastewater.

Dr Yadav elaborated on the three components of a wastewater treatment plant – collection, treatment, and disposal. He further talked about how digitisation can be put use into effective functioning of these sectors. According to him, in the collection sector, realtime quality measurement can be introduced using which, flow and quality of wastewater can be measured and recorded. Next step would be, he said, to assess quality parameters in the treatment process to save energy. He highlighted the limitations of current methods of measuring quality of wastewater and said that “to overcome all the (current) issues, we need physical instruments which can give instant results.” He also shed light on the various processes of treating wastewater. He then appreciated the various advancements that have been made towards digitisation of wastewater management and explained its field adaptation.

Dr Singh then invited Dr Debishree Khan to throw light on the topic of digitalisation of urban solid waste management (DUSWM). She started her presentation by defining waste, its management and its challenges and later highlighted the components of solid waste management and scope for its improvement. She also talked about the ‘Waste to Wealth’ idea, explaining how technology driven management of domestic, agricultural and industrial waste can lead to commercial benefits.

She stressed on the need for innovative waste management and described

various features of integrated solid waste management. She then gave a detailed account of how, by using new technologies, we can find alternative solutions to existing problems in waste management. She also argued for a shift to “circular economy” model, using digital technologies in managing waste and utilising waste to create energy, roads, fuels, etc to give a ‘new life’ to waste. She appreciated government programmes like Swatch Bharat Mission (SBM) and Digital India and said that these initiatives will contribute heavily to the DUSWM. The next speaker, Dr. Shalini Sharma, began her presentation by giving a brief description of her organisation, highlighted the various challenges persisting in e-waste management, and explained her organisation’s role in solving them. She mentioned the issue of unrestricted mining for obtaining

resources for electronic products.

According to her, the biggest challenge exists in lack of infrstructure in India for proper channeling of e-waste so it can be recycled and properly treated.

She added that people are not aware of whatever few channels are available in the nation due to which, electronic waste ends up in the hands of informal players where no heed is paid to child labour and GHG emissions.

Dr Singh called Dr Patel as the next speaker who began his presentation by giving a brief background of Surat’s achievements in meeting SBM goals.

He highlighted the various problems in waste management in Surat and presented Smart Solid Waste Management System(SSWMS) as it’s solution. He explained how adopting SSWMS will lead to increase in waste collection, end malpractices and improve field level compliance. He

The importance and urgency of waste segregation and appropriate management is reflected by the fact that for the first time in independent India, the Budget 2021-22 mentioned and allocated separate funds for the same

concluded his presentation by stressing on the benefits and advantages of SSWMS. C.P. Singh, founder of organization “Swachh”, which provides solutions for integrated waste management, began his session by pointing to the huge amount of untreated waste in India and the need for segregating waste at its source.

He showed how “Swachh” has worked extensively towards this end by using Internet of Things (IoT) for contactless segregated waste collection and the benefits of adopting this model. He then highlighted the accuracy of this model by presenting a progress report showing a gradual adoption of practicing waste segregation by all residents in a society within a month. This feat was made possible by spreading awareness among residents and semi-skilling workers.

He also exhibited the role of their mobile application in implementing the process. He concluded his presentation by explaining how “Swachh” treats the collected waste in a reliable manner and talked about Zero Waste Gurugram, a programme launched by Swachh and Municipal Corporation of Gurugram.

He said that the focus is being put on segregation of waste at the source by sensitising the residents. He mentioned that all the wet waste collected from the city is treated by his organisation and converted into manure through environmentally friendly processes.

During the conclusion of the Webinar, the panelists referred to the importance of segregation of waste to ensure feasibility of biomethanation plants installed in the country, thus reiterating the significance of waste segregation at the source. Dr Singh was of the opinion that the importance and urgency of waste segregation and appropriate management is reflected by the fact that for the first time in independent India, the Union Budget mentioned and allocated funds for the same. He said that improvements need to be made in the country with respect to waste management while keeping in mind the importance of stopping practices like biomining and bioremediation of numerous dumpsites across the country.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

43

TRAINING WORKSHOP | Managing Disasters

Disaster Mapping – The need of the hour The proper disaster mapping of the regions and related risks can be helpful in long-term preparedness at the local level, and executing relief and rescue operations with greater accuracy, thus saving lives and minimising the population’s suffering. Various factors such as intensity of disaster risks, exposure of the geographical area to the disasters, vulnerability matrix of population based on potential socio-economic impact, etc., need to be considered for mapping disaster risks

N

ational Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), in association with the All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG), Foundation EMDA Southasia and Urban Update, organised the third edition of training workshops on “Mapping the Disaster Risks in Indian Cities” on Wednesday, February 23, 2021 The workshop was moderated by Mohanna Manna, Young Professional, NIDM. The panel of eminent speakers included Dr Sekhar L Kuriakose, Member Secretary of Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA); Dr VS Prakash, Founder and Special Director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC); and Mihir R Bhatt, Director, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute.

Manna began the workshop by stating the importance of mapping disaster risks. Prof Santosh, Head (G&IDRR), NIDM, inaugurated the workshop while addressing the participants and said that this workshop will address how local selfgovernments, which is a key body in terms of urban governance, can and should handle disasters. Prof Santosh Kumar went on to say that by 2050, India will be the world’s most populous and urbanised country. He said, “We must work towards addressing the challenges of the future instead of waiting for them to happen. Moreover, urban grids are getting more complex.

Hence, we must pay attention to predisaster planning.” In order to do this, he suggested, we must engage risk mapping and assessment in order reduce vulnerabilities and risks.

44 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, then briefly explained the importance of the series of workshops being organised by the three organisations and how they will help representatives of local government attending the conference in preparing better for disasters and making their cities and towns more disaster resilient. Pandey also elaborated on the rich history of AIILSH and how, since 1926, the organisation has been functioning to supplement the work of local government bodies across India.

Post his, Manna invited Mihir Bhatt as the first speaker of the workshop.

Bhatt commenced the discussion by stating that he will be addressing mapping issues which are focused very much on local authorities. “Mapping disaster risk needs more direct focus on education,” Bhatt said. The next area that needs more attention is mapping and its management in tribal areas by the local authorities. Further, he said that mapping should not only be to capture and record data but also to transform the process of governance.

He stressed on the need for a digital transformation of the disaster mapping infrastructure in order to make it more accessible and inclusive.

Lastly, Bhatt stressed on some urban mapping opportunities for local authorities and communities that can transform our lives ahead. First is that a system-wide analytical and holistic mapping needs to take place; second is that investment in high profile risk mapping areas and communities needs to take place; third is improving and enhancing risk mapping communication and information; and fourth is finding new forms of public interest and public-private partnership in mapping.

Continuing the discussion, Dr Prakash, in his session on ‘Techniques and Tools for Risk Mapping and Assessment’, shared his firsthand experience with risk mapping through various pictures. With the help of his presentation, he pointed out that risk mapping really only depends on data.

He said that realising community participation in data collection is very essential. He also showed the tools and techniques which were personally used by him for various assessments. Dr Prakash said that even though disaster mapping technology is undergoing widespread changes, we continue to hold onto old equipment while following imperial methods set out by the British in India.

Dr Prakash highlighted that disaster risk management requires a combination of the following: adoption of science and knowledge, technology-led innovations in tools and products, improvements in technology, and translation of technology led innovations into business and industries. Explaining the Climate Connection Hydrological Cycle around a Lake Tank, he said that science, administration and political system needs to work together to reduce disaster risks.

The last speaker of the workshop, Dr Sekhar L Kuriakose updated everyone on the work of local self-government in Kerala in terms of risk management planning. He said that in 2019, Kerala decided that its local self-government should have a disaster management plan of their own. He also shared a link including templates which had clear guidance document, under each category it mentioned what has to be done and how. He said that they also conducted massive online/offline

Team Urban Update

training programmes to capacitate the local self-governments by facilitating them with local resources to conduct these programmes. Dr Kuriakose stressed that in Kerala, local selfgovernments are very powerful and they control a majority of development processes, starting from planning to execution.

Lastly, he said that the focus should be on providing and capacitating the local self-governments with information so that they can make use of it for disaster risk planning. This was what KSDMA did in Kerala and they were successful because Kerala stands on three big pillars when it comes to disaster management viz, a strong mechanism and institutional framework of the local self-governments; a high level of education of the majority of masses; and a strong healthcare mechanism.

“If people are healthy and educated, they are aware of the destruction a disaster can cause. As a result, the prevalent risks are greatly decreased.” said Dr Kuriakose while ending the session.

Conclusion

The workshop helped participants understand how risk mapping is done and what are the challenges and solutions to the problems faced by the authorities in disaster risk management and mapping. The speakers talked about holistic understanding of risk mapping and challenges that are faced in disaster risk mapping. Lastly, a successfully story of Kerala’s local selfgovernment structure was discussed.

The conclusion of the workshop, based on the discussions and presentations that took place during the different sessions, can be summarised in the following points:

♦♦ There is an urgent need of publicprivate partnership in this field ♦♦ There needs to be a strong link between science administration and political system ♦♦ A disaster must first be monitored and only then should authorities move forward ♦♦ To attain risk mapping at the local level, we should focus on developing our LSGs, strengthening them, and then building their capacities ♦♦ The focus should also be on enhancing health and education infrastructure in order it build the capacity of the local selfgovernments

♦♦ The data collected by mapping disaster prone areas must be shared with the local self-governments so that they can be prepared and also point out any discrepancies based on what is experienced by the inhabitants of the area The series of workshops organised by the organisations are aimed at helping urban local body officials in understanding the importance of advanced disaster planning, mapping and mitigation. Through the series, the organisations intend on spreading awareness among the general public too in order for them to be able to act in the event of a disaster.

www.urbanupdate.in | March 2021

45

Urban Agenda

Progress towards a world with universal access to clean energy The adoption of Goal 7 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 was a statement made by leaders of the world that they realise the importance of developing the energy sector sustainably

Goal 7 of the SDGs, for the first time, set tangible targets for countries to achieve by 2030 in the sectors of electricity generation, vehicular and clean cooking fuels.

Ashok Wankhade Managing Editor

Access to clean cooking fuel

What must also be noted is that more than 2.6 billion people lacked access to clean fuels for cooking.

Although this number has dropped from 2.9 billion in 2010, it still poses a big problem. They were exposed to harmful impacts of using unclean fuels like wood while cooking spreads pollution while at the same time also endangering the lives of other family members. Therefore, world leaders must realise that the UN SDG Goal 7 is not concerned only with renewable energy for electricity generation but also for ensuring universal access to clean cooking fuels.

Data by the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows a reduction of 10 percentage points in India’s share of population relying on biomass and kerosene between 2010 and 2015, which is worth noting.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana has resulted in an additional 80 million free LPG connections being provided to poor households. Overall, data by the International Energy Agency shows that over 49 per cent of India’s total population has access to clean cooking facilities. This makes India one of the few Asian nations to have achieved such a high number.

Access to clean electricity

A report by the IEA revealed that in 2019, the number of people without access to electricity dropped to 770 million. This is the lowest value that the world has been able to achieve in recent years. Despite this, the progress of governments in providing electricity to those lacking access has remained uneven.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only widened this gap and risks reversing the positive trend that countries worldwide have managed to achieve so far.

Data by the BP Statistical Review of World Energy showed that as compared to 2015, when the SDGs were launched, the share of primary energy generated using renewable sources of energy grew by 1.57 percentage points from 9.84 per cent to 11.41 per cent. In the same period, India’s share of renewable energy generation also increased by 1.49 per cent, close to the world average. Numerous places worldwide like the Aller-Leine Valley, Germany, and Colorado, United States of America, source 100 per cent of their electricity demands from renewable sources of energy. Here, the case of our neighbouring country Bhutan deserves special mention. The country exports 70 per cent of the hydroelectricity it produces to other countries due to excess supply.

The share of people with access to electricity in Asia has increased from 67 per cent in 2000 to 96 per cent in 2019, with almost 1.2 billion people gaining access to electricity in the region. Close to twothirds of this progress has taken place in India, with the government announcing that over 99 per cent of the country’s population had access to electricity by the year 2019. The government is now targeting a 24/7 supply of electricity, and such accelerated progress can serve as a case in point to inspire efforts in other areas of the world. Thus, the aim of witnessing the widespread transition to renewable sources of energy is not far-fetched. The examples mentioned above stand as a testimony to the world. What then is stopping us from achieving Goal 7 of the SDGs? According to the 2013 Post Carbon Pathways report, the main obstacles are not technological but political. The key roadblocks are: Climate change denial, efforts of the fossil fuel sector to obstruct the switch to clean energy, unsustainable consumption practices, outdated infrastructure, and financial and governance constraints To ensure a successful switch to renewable sources of energy, world leaders must find a way to overcome these obstacles. Then and only then is renewable energy going to be beneficial, going to help in making electricity universally accessible, and going to help in reducing pollution.

46 March 2021 | www.urbanupdate.in

cso

UrbanUpdate

Setting The Agenda For Tomorrow’s Cities

weekly E-newsletter

Urban Update is a leading magazine on sustainable development of cities brought out by All India Institute of Local Self-Government (AIILSG). Bringing together the experience of the multilateral sector with that of the private sector and the local governments themselves, the magazine focuses on the challenges and solutions for city leaders and local governments.

Urban Update plays a special role — that of a primary, indispensable link among stakeholders that nurtures community. A wellspring of writing and imagery reinforces our vision of evangelizing Urban Infrastructure, Governance, Culture and Sustainability.

To get the weekly dose of Urban News

SUBSCRIBE NOW www.urbanupdate.in

urbanupdatemag

urbanupdatemgzn

For any query, please contact our Subscription Department e-mail at contacturbanupdate@gmail.com

urbanupdatemag