HIMACHAL PRADESH

Himachal Pradesh power commission revises tariffs

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Regulatory Commission has announced revised tariffs for domestic and commercial consumers. Though there has been an increase in the energy charge rates for domestic category of consumers, but the same has been kept same as last year after accounting for the subsidy provision made in the budget.
There is average increase of 1.5% in tariff for non-domestic and non-commercial power supply, 1.5% for industries, 2.5% for commercial and 3% for domestic water pumping supply. Thes state government has made a provision of Rs 475 crore in the financial budget for 2018-19 for providing rollback subsidy to electricity consumers of domestic and agriculture categories during the year. Therefore, there is no effective increase in energy charges for domestic category and they will continue to pay the same energy charges as earlier.

For agricultural consumers under the irrigation and drinking water pumping supply (IDWPS) category, the energy charges shall be Rs 0.75 per kilo watt hour (kWh) for consumer category up to 20 kW under single part tariff and Rs 0.75 per kVAh only for LT category under a two-part tariff. These revised energy charges on account of government subsidy would only be applicable to agricultural and allied activities and which are paid for by individuals/ user groups but shall not be applicable on government supply.

The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) had projected the annual revenue requirement of Rs 6,954.71 crore for financial year 2018-19, which includes true-up gap of Rs 365.47 crore for financial year 2016 (based on final audited account) and true-up gap of Rs 252.03 crore for financial year 2017 (based on provisional audited account). Total revenue income and expenditure approved for HPSEBL for 2018-19 are Rs 5,396 crore and Rs 5,389.26 crore, respectively.

Considering the revenue from the existing tariff, a revenue gap of Rs 138 crore has been observed for financial year 2019. Therefore, it has approved an overall tariff increase to meet this gap.

INTERNATIONAL

India to attend the SCO Culture Ministers’ meet for the first time

The Minister of State for Culture (I/c) and Minister of state for Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Dr. Mahesh Sharma will be attending Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Cultural Ministers Meeting at Sanya in China on 17^thof May, 2018.

It is the first time that India would be attending the SCO Culture Ministers’ Meeting.

The meeting will showcase India’s initiatives to actively pursue cultural cooperation with other countries including SCO countries.

It will also help to promote cultural relations and people to people contacts with the individual members of this organization through cultural exchange programmes.

India became full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on 9^thJune, 2017 during the SCO Heads of State Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

India 3rd largest solar market in world: Mercom

India emerged as the third largest solar market in the world in 2017 behind China and the US, Mercom Communications India said in a report.

As per the report, India set a new record with 9.6 GW of solar installations in 2017, which was more than double the 4.3 GW installed in 2016.

The robust growth boosted the country’s total solar installed capacity to 19.6 GW as of December 2017, it added.

Delhi projected to become world’s most populous city around 2028: UN report

Delhi is projected to become the most populous city in the world around 2028, according to new United Nations estimates, which said India is expected to add the largest number of urban dwellers by 2050.

The 2018 Revision of World Urbanisation Prospects produced by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) said that 68 per cent of the world population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050.

Currently, 55 per cent of the world’s population lives in urban areas.

NATIONAL

Indore is the cleanest city: cleanliness survey

The Swachh Survekshan 2018 assessed 4203 Urban Local Bodies and was organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), under the aegis of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban).

The exercise undertaken between 4^thJanuary 2018 to 10^th March, 2018 enhanced the scope to cover a record number of Urban Local Bodies impacting around 40 crore urban citizens across length and breadth of the country by 2700 assessors.

As compared to 2017 where Swachh Survekshan was conducted in 434 cities, this year the scope was enhanced manifold.

At the national level, the Top 3 cleanest cities are:

Indore

Bhopal

Chandigarh

Jharkhand is the best performing State.

The awardees under various categories (Population above 10 lakh) are:

India’s Cleanest City – Indore (Madhya Pradesh)

India’s ‘Cleanest Big City’: Vijaywada (Andhra Pradesh)

India’s ‘Fastest Mover’ big city: Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh)

India’s Best City in ‘Citizens Feedback’: Kota (Rajasthan)

India’s Best City in ‘Innovation & Best Practices’: Nagpur (Maharashtra)

India’s Best City in ‘Solid Waste Management: Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra)

The awardees under various categories (Population of 3-10 lakh) are:

India’s Cleanest Medium City: Mysuru (Karnataka)

India’s ‘Fastest Mover’ Medium City: Bhivandi (Maharashtra)

India’s Best City in ‘Citizens Feedback’: Parbhani (Maharashtra)

India’s Best City in ‘Innovation & Best Practices’: Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh)

India’s Best City in ‘Solid Waste Management: Mangalore (Karnataka)

India’s Cleanest Small City: Delhi Municipal Council

The awardees under various categories (Population of 1-3 lakh) are:

India’s ‘Fastest Mover’ Small City: Bhusawal (Maharashtra)

India’s Best City in ‘Citizens Feedback’: Giridih (Jharkhand)

India’s Best City in ‘Innovation & Best Practices’: Ambikapur (Jharkhand)

India’s Best City in ‘Solid Waste Management: Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh)

Cleanest State Capital / UT Capital Cities / Uts: Greater Mumbai (Maharashtra)

Fastest Mover State Capital / UT: Jaipur (Rajasthan)

· Centre now aims to harness big data, AI in agricultural sector

The government and private companies alike are taking the first steps to deploy big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IOT) to gain insights into and offer solutions to problems in India’s agriculture sector.

While many of these privatesector solutions are aimed at agribusinesses and enterprises, the public-sector driven NITI Aayog’s pilot project will aim at improving yields of small landholders.

The project will come up with “climate-aware cognitive farming techniques” and systems of crop monitoring, including early warning on pest attacks and disease outbreaks by harnessing AI, an official said. It also includes deployment of weather advisory, rich satellite and enhanced weather-forecast information along with IT & mobile applications with a focus on improving crop yields and cost savings.

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