Sustainability Outlook Headlines

Climate change a 'threat multiplier for farming-dependent nations: report

Climate change and food insecurity are "threat multipliers", and 32 countries dependent on farming face an "extreme risk" of conflict or civil unrest in the next 30 years, a global analytics firm said on Wednesday. Food shortages and rising prices have the potential to worsen political, ethnic, class and religious tensions, the risk advisory firm Maplecroft reported in its annual "Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas (CCERA)".
 
Analysts noted that several nations' military leaders are ahead of their governments in focusing on such risks. In Nigeria, for instance, the... Read more..

NComputing can contribute to cost efficiency in Digital India, Smart City projects

NComputing, a desktop virtualization company that offers mobility solutions to organizations, is banking on Narendra Modi's pet projects - Digital India and Smart City - for growth and said it could contribute to both initiatives in a cost and energy efficient manner.

The US-headquartered company is already working closely with various state governments and many non-government agencies to facilitate digitization in the country with their affordable computing solutions, and is primarily working in the education space.

"Digital India initiative is a way that helps in developing... Read more..

State yet to Tap Gold Mine in e-Waste

How many are aware that a throwaway computer carries 0.3 to 0.5 gm of gold. While Bangalore generates as much as 80 kg of gold from e-scarp every year with an annual turnover of `4.8 crore, the Kerala Government plans to sell e-scrap at `5 per kg to private agencies.

Minister for Urban Affairs Manjalam Kuzhi Ali on Wednesday announced that the Clean Kerala Company would collect e-scrap from houses, offices and other joints for `5 per kg and hand them over to private agencies for disposal.  Even the Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) does not have a clear picture of the... Read more..

Will coal or solar power fuel India's drive to bring electricity to its villages? - The Guardian

The village of Geer in Madhya Pradesh is about to undergo the simplest of revolutions. After 25 years of being told electricity is coming, it is finally here. “After sunset we can’t do anything so we sit in the darkness. The children cannot study. We go to bed early,” says Chotelal Gupta, who runs the nearest thing Geer has to a shop. It is no more than a cupboard really, selling sweets and biscuits. But in the last few weeks Gupta has started to stock lightbulbs as the villagers wire up their homes.
A small crowd of villagers stand around the transformer for the big switch-on. This... Read more..

Wind sector VC funding drops to $2.4 billion

Corporate funding activity in the wind sector globally dropped to $2.4 billion in the third quarter of 2014 from $4 billion in the second quarter of the year, according to a report by global clean energy communications and consulting firm Mercom Capital Group. 
 
Wind venture capital (VC) funding came in at $140 million in one deal, compared to $48 million in four deals in last quarter. The only VC deal this quarter was India-based ReNew Power Ventures' $140 million raise from Goldman Sachs Group, Asian Development Bank and GEF SACEF India. 
 
Large-scale project... Read more..

Adaptation, capacity building can address climate change: Javadekar - Big News Network.com

Adaptation, capacity building and strengthening rural capacities are the government's foremost concerns for addressing the challenges to climate change, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said Monday.
 
"The government stood committed to the 'Clean India, green India' philosophy outlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi," the minister of state (independent charge) for environment, forest and climate change said.
 
Javadekar was speaking at the national workshop on scaling up good practices for climate change adaptation here.
 
He said that the... Read more..

Ganga lock on polluting units

The Supreme Court today asked the National Green Tribunal to take steps to close down an estimated 763 industrial units discharging effluents into the Ganga if they had not complied with anti-pollution directives.

A bench headed by Justice T.S. Thakur asked the tribunal to examine whether the 17 categories of industries spread over 11 states had complied with the repeated directives of the apex court since 1992 to take anti-pollution measures and install effluent treatment plants.

The court said if the units had not complied with the directives by March 31, 2014, steps should... Read more..

Clean-up mission opens a river of opportunity for entrepreneurs

The Indian economy is picking up momentum and the present government seems to have its heart and mind in the right place, with a special thrust on cleaning of rivers, contributing towards water security. The new government’s “Cleaning of the Ganga” and pollution free rivers agenda has come at an opportune time, when the world is having several dialogues, with all roads leading to the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015, where in, there would be important discussions on frameworks to limit global warming to below 2°C, The sanction of INR 2037 crores for ‘Namami Gange’, is clearly... Read more..

AT&C loss levels in various discoms remain higher in FY13:ICRA

Despite steps taken by various state discoms to reduce distribution losses, average aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) loss levels have been higher at 27 per cent in FY13, a recent study by ICRA said. 

According to the rating agency, improvement has been observed in distribution loss levels for discoms in 12 states during FY07-13, while a deterioration or limited progress in reducing loss levels has been seen in five states and in the remaining two states, loss levels have remained almost unchanged. 

"Despite this improvement, the distribution losses remain... Read more..

Solar cheaper in India than imported Australian coal

The results of India’s latest solar auction are in, and it is bad news for developers of Australian coal projects – solar PV is cheaper for Indian users than the electricity price needed to pay for imports of coal from Australia.

A tender for 500MW of solar capacity in the sunny, south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh, resulted in First Solar submitting the cheapest bids in an auction that was oversubscribed by more than double – 63 bids, totalling 1291MW in proposed solar developments.

First Solar submitted bids of just over 8 cents US per kilowatt-hour – $0... Read more..

REC Pays Rs. 113.43 Crore as Final Dividend to Government

Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC) a Navratna Public Sector Undertaking has paid to the Government the final dividend of Rs. 113.43 crore for the Financial Year 2013-14, on its share capital held by the Government. A cheque of the amount was handed over to Sh. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy (Independent charge) by Sh. Shri Rajeev Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of Rural Electrification Corporation Limited (REC), in presence of Director (Technical) and Director (Finance) of the Company here yesterday. 
 
This is... Read more..

Government aims to make $15 billion Internet of Things industry in India by 2020

The government is working on an ambitious plan to create USD 15 billion 'Internet of Things' industry in the next six years. Internet of Things, or IoT, can be loosely described as a network of inter-connected devices that can be accessed through the Internet.
 
For instance, with IoT, street lights will automatically go off when they sense no traffic on the roads and consequently save power. Another application could be a smart band that will automatically alert physician when body vitals go to abnormal levels.
 
"Among other things, IoT can help automate solutions... Read more..