Table of Contents
Main articles
• Electronic cars in India
• MSP for farmers
• Role of Civil society in Budget process
• Milk Sector – Karnataka vs other states
• Problem of Bonda Odisha tribe
• COVER Story – ODA in Africa and Asia
Do you feel, like me, that an “Ah Hah” moment is just there, but we keep missing it? Just consider how evehicles are now the talk of the town; how industry has technology to make fuel out of solid waste or even second-generation ethanol from bamboo and rice straw-run vehicles without pollution and change the way we do business with pollution. The technology in reach now promises to convert municipal waste and sewage into fuel. In one stroke, we de-carbonise vehicles, deal with garbage and achieve the best emission standards—better than the BS VI emission standards. The opportunity of these technologies looks immense. Exciting.
But the change on ground is so miniscule that the reality of dirty energy and dirty vehicles swamps the little benefits. Why are we not able to see the transition at the scale and pace needed? Why are we not profiting from the opportunity of a reinvented future? This is when the politician-policy narrative has dramatically changed and there is optimism and drive to push new generation technologies. No longer is the issue of air pollution, for instance, out of the table. But still. No disruption. Not yet.
Take e-vehicles. So much buzz, but in reality, we do not even have a clear policy for what we will promote and how. The Union Cabinet has recently cleared the National Mission on e-vehicles, but as yet there is huge confusion about the direction of the technology roadmap—e-vehicles or hybrid or both. Battery operated electric vehicles run entirely on electricity, while hybrid vehicles (mild, full or plug-in) combine the use of the internal combustion engine with battery. The NITI Aayog has been tasked to come up with this policy.
• But the most important question is how will the transition be supported? The only supportive programme is the government’s Scheme for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles (FAME), with an outlay of Rs 795 crore, of which as of December 2017 some Rs 400 crore was available.
• The scheme has now, rightly, prioritised funding of public transport buses in cities with a high air pollution load.
- Under FAME, initially, there was a discussion to give some 100 buses each to five high impact cities. But now, it is down to 40 buses for nine cities and Jammu and Guwahati will get 15 buses as they are in the special category.
- The government subsidy is capped at Rs 85 lakh to Rs 1 crore per bus, depending on the level of localisation—15 to 35 per cent of the buses would have to be made/assembled in India.
- In addition, each of these 11 cities will have to spend up to Rs 5 crore for setting up the infrastructure for charging.
- FAME India Scheme The Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-India) was launched in 2015 under National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) with an aim to promote eco-friendly vehicles in country
- India’s Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles (FAME) scheme launched in April 2015 identifies four focus areas: technology platform, demand incentives, charging infrastructure, pilot projects, and IEC/operation.
Under FAME scheme, a total of Rs 394 crore was allocated during April 2015-March 2018 and till June 2017, Rs 284 crore was utilized. By end 2017, under the scheme, 1,63,997 electric/hybrid vehicle buyers benefited from demand incentives. - As per the available data, demand incentives amounting to Rs 192.56 crore consumed 67.8 per cent of utilized fund.
- Further, cities such as Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Indore, Kolkata, Jammu and Guwahati have been chosen for pilot project of Multi-Modal Electric Public Transport under FAME. These cities would receive Rs 437-crore financial support for procuring a total of 390 buses, 370 taxis and 720 three wheelers.
Budget 2018-19
Earlier deadline – 31st March 2018 existing policy for Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicles will continue beyond the March 31 deadline.
The first phase of the scheme was launched in 2015 initially for a period of two years with an overall allocation of Rs 795 crore. It was later extended by one more year.
In this year’s budget, the government has taken a number of steps like increasing customs duty on 53 auto components, CKD components for cars and commercial vehicles as also on commercial vehicles themselves, to provide added protection to the domestic industry and encourage investors to set up facilities in the country rather than export goods
• Anant Geete, Minister for Heavy industries and Public Enterprises.
• “Even in the budget 2018-19, Rs 260 crore has been allocated for support of market development for hybrid or electric vehicles through provision of subsidy for purchase of evehicles charging infrastructure, etc. Over 1000 e-vehicles with charging infrastructure in public transport of 11 cities are targeted covering buses, taxis and three-wheelers.”
With the customs duty revision we are trying to strike a balance between attracting investments from outside and providing some protection to the domestic industry. It is not a sign of blanket protectionism
The scheme envisages that the centre government will provide 60 percent funding for the purchase of pollution free vehicles.
In line with the government’s intention to have 100 per cent Electric Vehicles (EVs) by 2030, NITI Aayog is strongly pushing for a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) roadmap.
In 2016-17, 2.53 crore vehicles were produced, out of which 2.19 crore vehicles sold in the domestic market and 34 lakh were exported. Passenger vehicles contributed 37 lakh units; 13.9 per cent of domestic sales. As per the Automotive Mission Plan, the growth of vehicles, particularly passenger vehicles, is expected to reach 9.4 crore units per annum by 2026.
Massive transformation in mobility sector demands serious planning followed by timely execution. Therefore, NITI Aayog identifies critical areas to assess domestic potential for mobility technologies: electric vehicles, fuel cell technology, and strong hybrids.
Initially, survival of Indian manufacturers may largely depend on domestic market opportunities and, India’s domestic market is big enough to drive ZEV revolution in the country. Simultaneously, global markets could provide substantial support to competitive Indian ZEV producers
At a later stage of ZEV product life cycle, Indian producers might exploit possible competitive and comparative advantages. In 2017, China sold 24.7 million passenger cars, which means Chinese market is 6 times bigger than India and emerging Chinese ZEV market could offer scope for export.
The other scheme for scale-up of e-vehicles is under the Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), which has tendered for some 10,000 vehicles and awarded this to Tata and Mahendra Motors (70:30 ratio).
It has received the first lot of 500 cars, specifically for Delhi and the National Capital Region. It is also setting up 125 charging stations in government offices, where these vehicles will be parked.
The question is what is all this adding up to? India registers over 17 million two-wheelers and over 2.5 million cars each year.
The 100 e-buses will get totally lost in the over-crowded, already congested and polluted cities. This strategy of incremental change is not the way to make a transition work.
Let’s then look at what has worked. Countries that have pushed this disruptive technology have set clear and enforceable targets. China’s zero emission vehicle mandate requires every vehicle manufacturer and importer to ensure that 10-12 per cent sales are e-vehicles by 2019-20.
This should not surprise us. The fact is that when Delhi went through its own gas transition, it was done under a specific mandate. The Supreme Court laid down that all buses and three-wheelers would be run on CNG and that diesel buses would be penalised for each operational day. In just two years, the city brought in 100,000 vehicles. But today, we don’t want to discuss any tough mandate as it steps on too many toes.
Then there is the tricky issue of spending lots of money, which makes scaling up possible. There is no doubt that the Government of India should not subsidise private vehicles. Instead, here the approach should be to work with the fiscal structures to incentivise cleaner vehicles. The approach also should be to do what EESL is doing—bulk contracts to drive down price and make vehicles available to select target groups.
But none of this will work for public transport. Here government has to put money down—and much more than what is it thinking of today. The fact is that bus operations in our cities are in the red today. This is even when the bus cost has been fully depreciated. Even if the private sector is allowed to bring these buses, they will need the costs to be recovered from operations.
The current bus ticket rates—the bus competes with the twowheeler cost and even less—will not allow for profitable operations. Therefore, public money is needed to bring in good technology. No half measures will work here. Otherwise, we will have vision (lots of it) and no change.
France offers incentives in the range of Euro 4500 (Rs. 3.55 lakh) to Euro 10000 (Rs 7.9 lakh) for swapping diesel vehicles with electric vehicles.
• To accelerate growth of ZEV, Norway introduced multiple incentives at various stages of ZEV market development: no purchase or import taxes (1990); low annual road tax (1996); no charges on toll roads or ferries (1997 and 2009); free municipal parking (1999); 50 per cent reduced company car tax (2000); exemption from 25 per cent VAT on purchase (2001), access to bus lanes (2005) and exemption from 25 per cent VAT on leasing (2015). Today, Norway is
the leading European EV market.
• ON THE BRINK? Filth choking the Yamuna at Okhla barrage in New Delhi, days after Saraswati Puja. The scene is not unusual for the river that receives raw sewage from villages and unauthorised colonies in Delhi and the National Capital Region.
• Though governments have been trying to clean the river under the Yamuna Action Plan (yap) since 1993, the quality of its water is not even fit for bathing.
• The quality of the river water, in fact, deteriorated in 2017 as compared to that in 2014 and 2016. The Central government is supplementing the efforts of the states to reduce pollution in the Yamuna by providing financial assistance to Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in a phased
manner. So far, more than `3,000 crore have been spent on cleaning and conserving the Yamuna.
Kali, Krishna and the Hindon rivers in western Uttar Pradesh
It should be noted here that The Swaminathan Committee recommended MSP of 1.5 times C2. Farmers’ organisations across the country are demanding MSP over C2. However, on the other hand the government has offered 1.5 times A2+FL only. This is not for the first time that it had been done. At various instances in the past governments have offered 1.5 times A2+FL.
In 2006, the Swaminathan Commission recommended that msp be decided on C2+50 per cent as it gives the farmer maximum return on the investment. In 2014 the National Democratic Alliance (nda) came to power promising that it would implement the Commission’s recommendation. Even during the budget announcement, Jaitley claimed that the Union government has been fulfilling the promise of providing 50 per cent higher msp than the cost of production for certain rabi crops. But a calculation by Down To Earth shows that the government is considering A2+FL, and not C2, as the cost of production for calculating msp (see ‘Classification of msp’ p20).
The 2018 budget is a case of another missed opportunity to address the cascading agrarian crisis, which has led to the suicide of a farmer every 40 minutes and 100 farmers leaving agriculture every day. Instead of dealing with the problem, the government is misrepresenting facts keeping upcoming elections in mind.
Ayushmaan Bharat – Doomed to fail
• CAN INSURANCE SOLVE OUR HEALTH NEEDS? BUDGET 2018 announced the grand National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) that aims to provide secondary and tertiary care for free to half-a-billion Indians. This is 40 per cent of the country’s population. While the scheme, touted as the world’s largest government-funded healthcare programme, is still opaque, the beneficiaries would largely be from the poor and vulnerable groups. Under nhps, for which government has announced R2,050 crore, each family would be insured for R5 lakh. The announcement, which appeared too less to benefit the target group, immediately ran into controversy, and analysts wondered who will foot the premium for availing the insurance.
• The next day, niti Aayog called a press meet and clarified that the Centre will pay for the premium along with states, which will cost it R1,200 per family. An analysis by Down To Earth shows even by this claim, nhps would require R12,000 crore, or six times the money assured. Now, let’s estimate the amount the government requires to make its grand announcement a success. As of now, the government offers health insurance cover of R30,000 to each of 300 million families below the poverty line through its Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna
• Why is the transgender community upset?
• The final version of the legislation identifies transgenders as being “partly female or male; or a combination of female and male; or neither female nor male”. This definition which draws a clinical caricature is a departure from the intention of the original Bill to cleanse society of the stigma it placed on transgenders.
• Moreover, to be recognised as transgenders, individuals have to submit themselves to a medical examination by a District Screening Committee comprising of a Chief Medical Officer, a psychiatrist, a social worker, and a member of the transgender community. This is in stark contrast to the 2014 Bill which gives individuals the right to self-identify their sex.
Dairy farmers across the country are losing `30,000 crore a year because of the Karnataka subsidy. Even Amul is losing `300 crore per year to compete with Karnataka Milk Federation
The state government is spending `1,200 crore a year on the stimulus. It has also introduced a `750-crore scheme, Ksheera Bhagya, to provide 150 millilitres of milk daily to its 12 million schoolchildren under the mid-day meal scheme, which has increased the state’s milk demand. These measures are benefitting 2.5 million dairy farmers in Karnataka. Despite turning the fortunes of the state’s dairy farmers, experts believe the stimulus is hurting farmers in other states and is untenable in the long run.
• The Karnataka model of increasing milk production without a market demand is hurting the industry. The state is effectively reducing the price of dairy products, and then compensating
farmers.
• “kmf’s dairy products sold under the brand Nandini are much cheaper than other brands. For example, its ghee is `50 cheaper than comparable brands. Even its milk powder is cheaper by `10-15 a kg,”
• Still, a dairy farmer in Karnataka gets `27-35 for a litre of milk, close to `10 more than what a dairy farmer in Maharashtra earns
Broom sticks
Tapping the potential There are more than 125 species of bamboo in India.
Cultivated in over 11.36 million hectares (ha) in forests and private lands, about 13.50 million tonnes of bamboo are produced annually. There is immense potential to increase the productivity of bamboo resources and utilise it for increased value addition to generate employment and economic activities, primarily in rural areas. New and emerging technologies are available for value added products such as wood substitutes, medium density fibreboard and particle boards, craft and utility products such as incense sticks, food products such as edible bamboo shoot, energy products such as charcoal and activated carbon. As per projections of niti Aayog, bamboo resources in the country have the potential to generate economic activities worth R50,000 crore as well as to create millions of person days of employment in rural and remote parts of the country. As of now bamboo only generates revenue of about R4,000-R5,000 crore.
Naxal-affected Malkangiri to get 1st railway line by 2022: Piyush Goyal
Union Cabinet giving its nod to the project that is expected to cost over Rs 2,676 crore
130-km Jeypore-Malkangiri New Line project
Norway, for instance, pays Brazil $5 for each tonne of carbon emissions avoided when trees that would have been cut anyway are not cut. It uses satellite images to verify the outcomes.
Likewise, the Global Vaccine Alliance, a public-private venture, pays governments $20 for each additional child immunised against diphtheria, whooping cough, and measles.
WhatsApp