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Table of Contents

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani‟s visit
 PM Modi‟s visit to Tehran last May
 IranP5+1 nuclear deal ( Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), concluded in 2015.
 Obama to Donald Trump‟s visceral opposition to it.
 Iran is focussed on developments in Syria and Yemen
 India, dealing with China‟s growing footprint in Area
 2003, President Mohammad Khatami was the chief guest at Republic Day- New Delhi Declaration was signed,
 Flagging the role of Chabahar port
 Viding connectivity to Afghanistan and into Central Asia.
 Uncertainties of JCPOA
 JCPOA is not a bilateral deal between Iran and the U.S
 Modi tries find a balance with his stated preference to develop closer ties with both the U.S. and Israel.
 Uncertainties surrounding the JCPOA provide justification for adopting a „wait and watch’ approach.

Canary in coal mine

 Opening up the coal sector to private players is a timely reform
 Forty-•five years after India nationalised its coalmining industry, the Central government has
allowed the re-entry of commercial mining •firms into the sector, turning the clock back.
 Private after Independence until the Indira Gandhi government decided to transfer all coal
holdings to Coal India through the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act, 1973
 Key reason cited for taking coal out of the private sector‟s hands was that it was essential to
meet power needs.
 Now, India‟s coal market is a virtual monopoly for the public sector
 Coal India accounts for over 80% of the country’s coal supply- Another public sector •firm, Singareni Collieries Company
 India has a high dependence on coal for power generation.
 Despite an aggressive push for renewable and nuclear sources, 70% of electricity generation is through coal-•red thermal plants
 In recent years there has been a signifi•cant surge in imports as Coal India, despite its rich coal-bearing belts.
 In September 2014, the Supreme Court cancelled the allocation of 204 coal mines to public
and private players, after the CAG found fault with the allocation mechanism
 Enabling provisions for commercial mining and sale of coal were already included in the Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act of 2015; the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has now allowed their operationalisation
 Government says-will boost energy security, making coal affordable and creating jobs.
 Norms to ensure miners‟ safety must be upgraded.
 Lastly, the integrity of the process is key, so that auctions don’t translate into a winners’ curse as has happened in sectors like telecom.
 The import-dependent energy sector cannot afford it

Grid stability is key

 The ambitious plan to help farmers earn from solar power generation hinges on small details
 Electricity is a major concern in rural India, especially for farmers.
 The Government of India has come up with an original plan to address this problem.
 Instead of transmitting electricity to the farmers, the government, to start with, wants farmers
to use solar energy to power their irrigation pumps.
 According to the January 2018 report of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water,
there are about 142,000 solar pumps in India.
 The government is planning to install one million solar pumps by 2021.
 To achieve this, the Union Budget 2018 has allocated close to •48,000 crore to set up the Kisan
Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)
 Will help set up more than 28 GW of combined solar capacity through these solar pumps.
 Will almost certainly increase agricultural incomes and reduce electricity losses when
transmitting power to remote rural areas.
 Analysts claim that losses from distribution could fall to about 12% from the current
level of at least 23%
 However, the feasibility of purchasing surplus solar power seems problematic.
 There is a need to address the issue of grid stability that this injection of surplus power is
bound to create.
 Advantage of this scheme-that transmission losses and power theft would drop significantly
 Most rural retailers of power also lose money as they sell power at a subsidised rate to poor
and the farm sector
 State-run distribution companies were thus running a loss of •4.3 trillion as of September 2015.
 Solution- All power grids require balancing.
 Variations in weather patterns make it more difficult for the grid operator to predict the balance of electrical energy that will be required to meet the demand.
 Most countries handle inputs from renewable energy sources similarly
 But India is short of power.
 More stability can be achieved by integrating the grids into all-India grids
 Expected advances in storage technology would also significantly improve grid stability
 The plan of the Government of India to purchase solar power from farmers has nevertheless
taken o•on a good note.
 Union Budget 2018, Finance Minister asked governments to put in place adequate procedures to purchase the excess solar power from farmers.

Prelims Focus Facts-News Analysis

 Page-1- U.S. tightens H-1B approval process, IT •firms worried
 Fresh documentary requirements specified for workers at third-party worksites
 Page-1- Govt. schedules meeting on Lokpal for March 1
 Leader of single largest Opposition party too will attend
 In a turnaround from its earlier position, the government will invite the leader of the
single largest Opposition party to attend a meeting scheduled for March 1 to discuss
the long-pending appointments to the anti-corruption ombudsman, Lokpal.
 Elections to 59 RS seats on March 23
 All Kolkata Metro trains to be air-conditioned by 2020
 Maldives presidential polls in September
 Nagaland battle is between BJP friends
 The Congress is no longer the force it was in Nagaland, having struggled to •field 18
candidates for the Assembly election slated for February 27.
 More sanctions on N. Korea: Trump
 U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States would launch the “largest-ever”
package of sanctions against North Korea, intensifying pressure on the reclusive country to give up its nuclear
and missile programmes