Energy Deficit to Energy Surplus

Energy Deficit to Energy Surplus

By Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia |  @drlalitsetia  |  drlalitsetia@gmail.com

Import of Crude in India:

The biggest concern which make the Indian Government worried is crude oil imports in quantity followed by falling value of currency; leading to huge increasing burden on economy due to energy deficit. In August 2018, the dollar becomes costlier to Rs. 70.32 and India’s import of crude is quantified to be 227 Million Tonnes (MT) during 2018-19 which was 220.43 MT during 2017-18. It is worth to mention here that India meet its oil needs more than 80% from imports and spent 5 to 6 lac crores of rupees (i.e. 80 to 90 billions of Dollars) every year.

Depreciation in Indian Rupee and Energy Deficit affecting Common Man:

The depreciating value of rupee harms Indian economy because the imports are more than the exports. In case, the exports are increased more than imports, then the depreciating rupee will not pinch the economy because the exporters are benefited with the depreciation in currency as they realize more value from their sales in foreign currencies.

The energy deficit which is due to rise in the demand of energy by the Indians, ultimately making India more dependent by increasing the import of oil and coal, known as fossil fuels. With rise in imports the rupee value depreciates due to increase in the Current Account Deficit of India. It also leads to higher cost of crude for the Oil Marketing Companies and the companies pass the increase in cost to the consumers in form of increasing the prices of Petrol and Diesel products. 

The Government of India (GoI) implemented Rural Electrification to connect the un-electrified villages under its scheme, ‘Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY)’. Further to reduce the burden of energy deficit upon common men, the Government started a movement known as UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) and distributed LED bulbs at subsidized rates. The power reforms through Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana or UDAY transformed the power sector of States by issuing UDAY bonds to Distributing Companies (DISCOMs). Various Apps supported the economy to transform the whole energy sector; such as:

·       Vidyut Pravah (Power Availability & Price) App to provide real-time information both availability and price of electricity;

·   URJA (Urban Jyoti Abhiyaan) App to show the performance of DISCOM along with data of Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS);

·    TARANG (Transmission System Monitoring) App to check the progress of Transmission System;

·      Urja Mitra App to help the citizens accessing the power outage information of the DISCOMs. 

Moving towards Energy Surplus to survive in Global Market:

India can survive in global market only by reducing its imports in comparison with exports in value of money. It is possible to reduce the imports of crude oil by framing policies to reduce the number of vehicles, adopting the e-solutions to meet the requirements, and innovate the products can be replaced for meeting the energy demand instead of increasing the dependency on crude oil.India dreams to be energy surplus and struggling for it from last five decades. Instead of initiatives to fulfill the dream, the energy deficit is increasing year after year. The intellectual persons who can fulfill the dream are setting their life in abroad to live a healthy and wealthy life. It is time to frame and implement initiatives to retain the talent and build the spirit of entrepreneurship. The power sector reforms during the last decade, transformed the whole economy and the focus upon increasing solar energy further making the possibilities of excess electricity generation. In March 2014, India has the total power capacity of 243 GW which increased to 320 GW in March 2017; it made the energy shorage from 42428 Million Units (MUs) to 7459 Million Units (MUs) in March 2017. The energy efficiencies are continuously increasing and India has become self sufficient to meet its rising demand of energy. Soon it will realize the aim of self-sufficiency in power sector. India has already become from net importer to net exporter of electricity and exported 5798 MUs to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar in the year 2016-17.   Employment Generation and Talent Retention:The entrepreneurship skills are the key to generate managers. India has plenty of resources which are not being used due to lack of entrepreneurial skills in Indians and it is required to start the momentum by offering benefits to entrepreneurs particularly who are born in India. The Indians who are being employed around the world should be called back by offering monetary benefits so that they can help India grow professionally at par with the developed nations of the world.

Technology to improve Entrepreneurial Resources:

In order to boost startup India, there are avenues offered by various international companies like Whatsapp offered Rs. 1.8 crores to new Indian Startups in Feb 2019 for those five top winners who win in the competition. It is must to encourage such competition to boost the creativity of the entrepreneurs and support innovation in Indian economy.

Discouraging Excess use of Energy Resources:  

In India, it is required to discourage excess use of energy resources by increasing the rates or tariff for more consumption. However, in case of electricity consumption, the charges or tariff for the more consumption of electricity is higher after first 200 units. Even the consumers are classified into four categories i.e. Domestic, Commercial, Industrial, and Agricultural. 

In August 2019, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) reduced fixed charges and increased tariffs in Delhi, to control the excess use of energy. For consumers with electricity load up to 2 Kilo Watt i.e. small shopkeepers, BPL families, and small families; the fixed energy charges are slashed significantly i.e. from Rs. 125 to Rs. 20. Even for the consumers with electricity load from 2 KW to 5 KW which covered mostly all domestic and commercial consumers; the fixed energy charges slashed from Rs. 140 to Rs. 50. For the consumers with electricity load from 5 KW to 15 KW which covered domestic consumers and small scale industries, cottage industries etc; the fixed charges slashed from Rs. 175 to Rs. 100. It is to encourage the consumers to not increase their electricity load. Even the consumers with excess load, can decrease their load and get it reexamined to get the benefit of slashed fixed charges. 

In order to discourage the excess use of electricity, for domestic consumers, the tariff for the units above 1200 units made Rs. 8 per unit earlier it was Rs. 7.75 per unit. While in case of industrial consumers, the tariff revised from Rs. 7.25 per unit to Rs. 7.75 per unit*.

*Copyright © 2018 Dr. Lalit Kumar. 

**This information was retrieved from website of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission on 3rd August 2019.

Empowerment of Common Man in India

Empowerment of Common Man in India

Banning Chinese Apps in India:

Yes, the apps are to bound the freedom of Indians particularly if the apps are time consuming and non-productive. In September, 2020; in continuation of earlier step, the Chinese Apps banned by the Government of India. The ALIPAY and PUBG apps are the source of inflow of money in China and even they made the users and viewers involved in various activities not contributing India. Due to surge in the viewers of these apps, the impact is being multiplied. 

Earlier in June 2020, the Indian Government banned 59 Chinese Apps and this time, in September, it banned 118 more Chinese Apps. If such trend goes, the Chinese companies involved in Apps related activities will suffer a lot.

Right to Information Act:

The Right to Information (RTI) Act has been criticized by the government employees due to its features to be misused and making the official work of employees suffered. The provisions of RTI act has been used to hamper the work of organizations. The legislation which are expected to affect the workings of government organizations like RTI are Lokpal, Whistle-blowers Act, Citizen Charter, Grievance Redress etc. Such acts are being seen as a weapon of progress in the hands of common men. No doubt, the common man is being empowered by using these tools of Good Governance enabled through passing the legislation. 

Why RTI Act was enacted?

The organizations earlier the year 2005; maintained the secrecy of information and nobody was easily allowed to look forward the government for any type of information. There was lack of transparency and no information was available even not allowed to seek for analysing the decisions of government officers. In 2005, the RTI act was enacted and it raised the power of common man, an Indian citizen to seek information with regard to government functioning and how the decisions are being taken, what grounds are being used for delivering the public services. The transparency also leads to fixation of accountability of each officer if the common man is not getting the public services properly.

The time-limits for delivering the public services are demanded to be fixed through use of citizen charter.

Movement for Lokpal

The RTI act has been seen as an interference in the functioning of Government and the officers tried to oppose it before its implementation. Even now, the RTI applications are sometimes being dealt with half-hearted efforts of the employees. The demand of public services within a fixed time frame, convince the Government to bring the provision of Citizen Charter in offices. The movement under the guidance and direction of Sh. Anna Hazare stunned the politicians and convinced them to adopt Citizen Charter and Lokpal as new tools of Good Governance, again in the hands of common men. Due to rise in the number of activists, consultants, whistle-blowers; the functioning of government offices has been affected sometimes adversely and sometimes positively also.   

Empowered Indian Citizen

The RTI Act, Citizen Charter, Lokpal, and other initiatives has been empowering the Indian citizen to reform the system of public delivery. The RTI Act exposed the culture of secrecy to a great extent because the section 4(1) of the Act made it mandatory to provide proactive disclosure of information in the form of mission, aims, objectives of each government organization and how the decisions are being taken on the basis of set rules, policies, and guidelines. The confidence of the common men has been rising with such type of information available in the public domain. With the use of RTI Act, the activists have been uncovering the financial irregularities and embezzlements and helping bureaucrats to fix the charges on the employees found guilty. The corruption which was hidden in the files of public sector organizations, now can easily be disclosed by taking a copy of the files through RTI Act. The empowered Indian citizens are coming ahead for debate on issues relating to Governance through media and reforming the Indian society. The inefficiencies are being questioned openly and the politicians are being convinced to answer the questions.

Bright Future of India

The citizen’s movements in the form of bringing RTI Act, Lokpal, and other legislation to further empower the strengths of citizens leading to a bright future of India. The effective use of these new tools of governance helping the nation to proceed on the path of prosperity. The Whistle Blowers Protection Act is protecting the activists and the functions of Government are being exposed more effectively in public domain. 

*Copyright © 2018 Dr. Lalit Kumar. All rights reserved.