Sustainability Outlook Headlines

ONGC Profit Rises 71%, Beating Estimates, on Higher Oil Prices

Oil & Natural Gas Corp., India’s biggest energy explorer, posted a 71 percent increase in fourth- quarter profit, beating estimates, as crude oil prices rose.

Net income climbed to 37.8 billion rupees ($815 million) in the three months ended March 31 from 22.1 billion rupees a year earlier, the New Delhi-based company said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange today. The median of 19 analysts estimates compiled by Bloomberg was a profit of 34.8 billion rupees.

Higher profit will help state-owned ONGC invest in aging fields in India and buy assets overseas as it... Read more..

Sujana Energy To Develop LED Lighting Products For India

Sujana Energy Limited (SE), part of $1.3 billion Sujana Group, declared that it has inked a strategic partnership deal with Japanese Nichia Corporation in order to formulate technology for energy-efficient lighting products in the country.

Under the deal, Sujana will make investment of around $5 million to make LED (light-emitting diode) lighting products for homes, offices and streets at its plant located in Madhapur.

Nichia Corp will provide LEDs whereas Sujana will design the products. Sujana will shortly launch maximum energy-saving street lights, indoor lighting products... Read more..

India seeks global fund to help Third World expand forest cover

India seized the opportunity accorded by the Oslo Conference on Climate and Forests to make a case for a global fund to aid developing countries increase their forest cover. New Delhi maintains that it is not enough to provide compensation and incentives for avoiding deforestation and degradation of forests.

Instead, a comprehensive framework should have positive incentives for afforestation and reforestation and sustainable forest management or the REDD plus approach. The Oslo meet seeks to arrive at an interim partnership arrangement for reducing emissions from deforestation and... Read more..

Neyveli Lignite eyeing Indonesia, South Africa coal mines

Integrated mining and power producer Neyveli Lignite Corporation Thursday said it is exploring possibilities for buying coal mines in Indonesia and South Africa.

The public sector company is also looking at setting up ultra mega power projects along the coast near here while scrapping its Orissa project and giving up nuclear and hydel power ambitions, said a top company official.

"We are exploring the possibilities of acquiring coal mines in Indonesia and South Africa so that we can set up thermal power plants along the coast and need not wait for coal linkages," chairman and... Read more..

GM to Develop New India Electric Car, Ends Reva Deal

General Motors Co. will develop an electric vehicle for India after scrapping a venture to make battery-powered compact models with Reva Electric Car Co.

The carmaker will use technology developed in Detroit, Karl Slym, the head of its local unit, told reporters on a conference call today. It will also consider selling the Chevrolet Volt in India after the model debuts in November, he said.

GM ended its partnership after Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s largest sport-utility vehicle maker, agreed to buy a 55 percent stake in closely held Reva. Warren Buffett-backed BYD... Read more..

HPGCL to venture into solar power generation

The Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has decided to tap the vast solar energy potential of the country by venturing into the field of solar power generation.

Giving details, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Power) Madhusudan Prasad said here today that Solar Energy had great potential as a future energy source. Therefore, the Board of Directors of HPGCL had decided to set up Grid Interactive Solar Power Plants on turnkey basis, on the available land at its Thermal and Hydel generating stations at Panipat, Yamunanagar and Hisar.

Mr Prasad... Read more..

Simple Energy Efficiency Measures Can Eliminate Electricity Shortage in India

Electricity in India can be a dicey proposition. Half the population lacks access or is too poor to afford it. The other half is using so much that demand far outstrips supply, resulting in daily power outages. And with a growing middle class buying more TVs, air conditioners and the like, the situation will only get worse. As chaotic as things are, there is a solution: simple energy efficiency measures, according to a new report from Berkeley Lab, can eliminate the electricity deficit as early as 2013.

What’s more, doing so will add $505 billion to India’s gross domestic product (... Read more..

India's ONGC in talks with energy giants for gas block tie up

Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is in talks with energy majors BP Plc, Exxon Mobil, BG Group, Eni and BHP Billiton (ASX:BHP) for a strategic tie-up for its Krishna Godavari basin gas block.

"We are looking at exploration firms with expertise to produce from deep-sea. We have opened our KG basin block data to global companies and have sought firm offer by May 31," ONGC Director (Exploration) Dinesh Pande said here.

ONGC is looking for a partner after Norway's Statoil and Petrobras of Brazil decided to quit the block KG-DWN-98/2 due to government delays in... Read more..

India, Turkmenistan explore energy cooperation

India and Turkmenistan on Tuesday discussed energy cooperation and signed several agreements signalling the desire of both countries to strengthen bilateral ties.

In a sign of continuing interest in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, New Delhi has offered to host a technical meeting of experts under the aegis of the Asian Development Bank.

In meetings with Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, here on his maiden visit, senior Indian leaders touched upon the progress of the pipeline being constructed by Ashgabat from its gas rich... Read more..

Indo-Pak Water Commissioners to meet next week

After threatening to move World Bank over Kishenganga project, Pakistan is set to rake up with India the issue of two more hydel power units being constructed in Jammu and Kashmir when Indus Water Commissioners of the two countries meet here on May 31. "Pakistan has objections to construction of the Uri-II and Chutak hydel power projects and they will raise the issue during regular meeting of the Indus Water Commission," a source said.

Pakistan alleges that these two projects violate the 1960 Indus Water Treaty that governs rights of the two countries on six common rivers. India... Read more..

Draft national mission for green India released

The government Monday released a draft of the national mission for green India, which aims to increase forest cover across the country to serve as 'carbon sinks' removing green house gases.

The mission, which is one of the eight under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, aims at increasing green house gas removal by India's forests to 6.35 percent of the country's total emissions by 2020.

'Recognising that climate change phenomena will seriously affect and alter the distribution, type and quality of natural resources of the country and the associated livelihoods of the... Read more..

India Mulls Mandatory Solar Energy for Tower Back-Up Power Supplies

­The Indian government is reported to be considering mandating solar panels as a back-up power supply for base stations - replacing the existing diesel-based generators more usually found in the tower housing.

The proposal is being finalised by the renewable energy ministry and expects to be put to the cabinet shortly.

Although solar power generated electricity is essentially free and hence the OPEX costs to the operators are substantially lowered - the initial CAPEX costs generally make solar based back-ups uneconomical, even over a very long time frame. It has been feared... Read more..