Ram Vinay Shahi, pioneer in India's Power Sector

R.V. Shahi  is the Chairman of Energy Infratech Pvt. Limited, an Engineering & Project Development Consulting Company.He was the Power Secretary of  India from 2002-2007 and the Chairman and Managing Director of Bombay Suburban Electric Supply (BSES) Ltd. from 1994-2002 (the predecessor company to Reliance Energy). As Chairman and Managing Director, Mr. Shahi is known for transforming BSES Ltd. from a small power utility to one of the largest in the nation. As Secretary Power he is widely credited for reforming and revitalizing the Indian power sector through the landmark Electricity Act of 2003, which liberalized the sector and initiated private investment in Indian Power.

Besides being responsible for the entire Indian Power Sector (1,68,000 MW capacity including captive plants), as Secretary, Mr. Shahi was directly responsible for the Central Public Sector Undertakings viz. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Power Grid Corporation of India Limited, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, Tehri Hydro Development Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation, Bhakra Beas Management Board and Damodar Valley Corporation. He was also President of the Governing Council of Central Power Research Institute, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Bureau of Energy Efficiency and Chairman of the Governing Council of National Power Training Institute having 5 large Training Institutes in various parts of the country. Worked as Secretary to the Government of India for almost five years till he relinquished the charge on 31 January 2007.

Prior to taking over the Indian Power Sector as Secretary, R.V. Shahi was Chairman and Managing Director of BSES Ltd  from 1994 to 2002 which he transformed from a small distribution utility to a multi–unit fully integrated power utility having generation, transmission and distribution. BSES subsequently became Reliance Energy.

During the five year tenure as Secretary the Indian electricity sector witnessed a major restructuring of the power industry through formulation and implementation of several legislative and policy initiatives aimed at creation of a competitive market structure. These include Electricity Act (2003), National Electricity Policy (2005), Electricity Tariff Policy (2006) and Accelerated Power Development Reform Programme (2002). Setting and Operationalising of Bureau of Energy Efficiency under Energy Conservation Act (2001), Rural Electrification Policy (2005), Ultra Mega Power Project Policy (2006), Merchant Power Plant Policy (2006). 50,000 MW Hydroelectric Initiative (2003), 100,000 MW Thermal Project Initiative (2004).

 Education

Graduation (Mechanical Engineering)from National Institute of Technology, Jamshedpur, Post Graduation (Industrial Engineering), Post Graduation (Business Management) and Diploma in Advanced Industrial Management (Delft, Holland). He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Sciences, a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India), a Fellow of International Institute of Electrical Engineers, and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Awards & Publications

Mr. Shahi was awarded “BEST POWER MAN of the Millennium Year 2000” Award by National Foundation of Indian Engineers. Other than being on the board of various companies and entities, Mr. Shahi sits on the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow  Mr. Shahi has written several books on Indian power scenario. To name a few,: 1) Towards Powering India: Policy Initiatives and Implementation Strategy 2) Indian Power Sector: Challenge and Response.

Energy Production gets 3rd Priority of Bihar Govt:

Addressing the Bihar Growth Conference, organized by International Growth Centre (IGC) India-Bihar, Sushil Modi, Bihar Dy. CM said that Bihar’s  high growth rate of 11%-plus was based on societal needs. "The biggest issue is to ensure the reach of government projects to every section of the society."   

Growth Areas:

1)Bihar has great potential for small investments. "We would like to concentrate on micro and medium enterprises as well as food-processing industries," he said and added that improvement of public delivery systems would be the government's priority. 

2)Agriculture has emerged as a major growth propeller as illustrated by China's example. It can play a decisive role in poverty alleviation. " Our aim is to double the farm output through scientific interventions," Modi said.

3)Another major area that warrants government attention, Modi agreed, is energy production. "We are on the job, looking for coal linkages and power purchase agreements," he said and added one such agreement is through for a 450-MW power plant to start generation by 2014. 

4)Roads have been constructed, but their maintenance is another challenge facing the government. Vocational education and skill development for generating quality human resource are also on the government's radar, the deputy CM said and stressed the need to check migration of Biharis to Gulf countries. 

Arunish Chawla, secretary to Planing Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, predicted that Bihar would be a developed state by 2015. "The Central government has accelerated the development expenditure for Bihar," he said but cautioned that the quality of expenditure is equally important to sustain a double-digit growth. Central allocations have been increasing as the Planning Commission also realizes that Bihar is growing very fast, the Bihar-cadre IAS official said. 

JNU's economics teacher Satish Jain pleaded for increased private investments in education sector and stress on skill enhancement if Bihar has to grow. The charitable contributions towards education have almost dried up and too much emphasis is being put on award of degrees than attainment of knowledge and skill," the professor pointed out. 

IGC India-Bihar's Anjan Mukherji said their two major areas of research have been structural transformation and resource mobilization. "We will provide all logistical and research support needed by policy makers and other stake holders for the state's growth," IGC's advisory board chairman Shaibal Gupta said as he advocated for result-oriented governance for the simple reason of people having very high expectations. 

Progress on -- carbon emissions and managing ecosystems as the price of solar cells continues to come down: Carl Pope

There has been some progress in the past one year on carbon emissions and managing ecosystemas, as  the price of solar cells continues to come down.

Any rational projection of likely carbon emissions for the next decade is smaller, much smaller, than it would have been a year ago. Economics, not climate concern, is the reason. Coal is no longer the obvious low-cost electricity source. Coal power plant fleet all over the world  will be retired  sooner than later, because the plants are old, outmoded, and in need of billions of dollars in upgrades. With natural gas prices down and coal prices up, they're not worth the investment.

There is no price on carbon yet, but markets are acting as if there will be.   Globally, coal is looking less like the obvious choice for two reasons. There's not enough of it at the price people expected because coal reserves are not as easy to mine as once estimated.  And meanwhile, the price of solar cells continues to come down so that in many uses and locations solar is already competitive with new coal because it doesn't require the same transmission investments -- and complete grid parity seems likely in the next decade. 

And now let's look at ecosystems. Deforestation is responsible for 20 percent of CO2 emissions globally. And while global dialogue on fossil fuels has bogged down, truly hopeful progress has been made -- and may continue to be made -- on collective action to protect forests. There's considerable doubt that the current UN architecture for saving forests, called REDD, is the real answer, but Norway and Indonesia are well along the way toward a billion dollar deal that would set a model for the rest of us. If, of course, logging interests don't sabotage it. 

Brazil, historically the center of concern for deforestation, has been making major progress without any global partner. Deforestation rates are down almost half in the past year, and down 90 percent from the 2004 peak. Brazil is not alone. Indeed, seven major tropical forest countries (China, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, India and Vietnam) have made a transition from net deforestation to net reforestation. But here again there is a caveat. In six of the seven (India being the exception) the countries substituted imported wood, often illegally sourced, for the domestic logging they had halted.  

The facts on the ground are a good deal brighter than they were a year ago. 

Access to power is a basic human right

 India hopes to become the world’s third largest economy in less than three decades. The country has been witness to phenomenal growth in a relatively short span of time. The progress is clearly reflected in hundreds of millions of Indians rising out of abject poverty, and the country’s ever-burgeoning middle class. The largest in the world, the Indian middle class is expected to grow by over ten times to nearly 583 million by 2025. The economic surge will also make the rich richer; in less than two decades, 23 million Indians will number among the country’s wealthiest citizens.

The flip-side of this growth story is that most of this new wealth will be created in urban areas. Over the past two decades, annual real rural income per household in India has achieved  a  a slow growth rate of 2.8%. In the next two decades, this growth is likely  to change by a mere 1%. Almost 70% of the Indian population will have little benefit from India’s expected rapid GDP growth of  above 8%.

Mahatma Gandhi once said “poverty is the worst form of violence”. Approximately 30% of rural India lives below the poverty line. The Government and people need to join together to help bring the disadvantaged into the mainstream, and ensure that no one is denied their basic rights.

Access to power is a basic human right, and indeed the government has set laudable targets such as ‘Power for All’ by 2012, which aims at bringing light to the homes of 400 million Indians still living in the dark. The challenge here is to maintain the focus on providing for the 47% of the rural populace without electricity, and not just the middle class settled in the cities. This is a classic example of India’s urban-rural divide, and ensuring equitable access is critical to India’s growth story.

A democracy works best when the government and the private sector collaborate to achieve common goals. So, while the government develops the infrastructure and provides supportive policies, the private sector needs to innovate to make  business models more inclusive.

In India, the major cities are crowded and the infrastructure is stretched to the limits. But thousands flock to the cities everyday in search of work and this, in turn, increases the pressure on our cities, threatens our rural way of life and breaks up family units. Solar Power, however, comes up in the remotest parts of the country and it can empower the rural population to create better lives for themselves. This means they can have secure, decent, sustainable livelihoods and don’t add to the migration.

Challenges ahead in the coming decade

India  has achieved 9% growth rate during this decade, but that has not helped  hundreds of millions of Indians to come above poverty line.  India is actively lobbying the powers around the world to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council to secure Peace and Security among countries in the world, but security is not guaranteed on the streets of India's towns and villages. Our Pharmaceutical and Medical Industry is working wonders in healthcare around the world, but a huge percentage of Indians have no access to basic medical facilities. India is producing thousands of Megawatts of electricity, but 90% of Indians have no access to electricity  and there are large number of dark corners in India where kerosene lamps provide light for children's studies during evenings.

We need to meet these challenges in the coming decade.  The tasks are enormous, but the resources are scattered. Let's unite to meet these challenges.

The leadership challenge today is to broadbase success by rapidly transforming agriculture and rural sector.

The principal task before leaders in government, business and civil society in the next decade is to broadbase India's Success Story. It is my firm belief that India will begin to see miracle growth if we can rapidly transform agriculture and the rural sector with enabling policies, infrastructure and institutional support, and empowerment of local communities. As I peer into the next decade, I see exciting new opportunities and also major new responsibilities beckoning India.

Mukesh Ambani

Solar products growth picking up

http://chakauti-rkant.blogspot.com/
A brave new world of gadgets is coming up with a new potential in solar energy. The way growth is picking up and venture capital investments are pouring in, solar products are something you need to watch out for.

There are large number of solar products on offer: iPod chargers, emergency lights, rice cookers, lanterns, water heaters, garden lights, AM/FM radios, rechargeable fans, power fences, water pumps, etc.

Though these gadgets cost more than their conventional counterparts.  But  the upfront price can be compensated in the money saved on electricity bills. Solar products will help you survive power cuts and also have low operating costs. On customary products one needs to pay a regular amount of electricity bill (electronic water heater is usually blamed for yielding soaring bills) whereas solar products involve a one-time installation cost, leading to the cost recovery in the near future.

"The costs are falling  due to plummeting price of solar modules,"  Solar experts and producers say.  Solar modules typically accounts for 50 per cent of a product cost and its price. Further due to increasing competition, prices have dipped to R80 to 100 per watt from R200 to 230 per watt in the past year.