Bhadla Solar Park snippets

From an elevation, Bhadla is a sea of blue glass in the middle of an arid desertscape. As far as the eye can see, it is just the glistening blue against the near-cloudless sky, also quite blue. The blue grids on the ground are endless rows of silicon solar panels. Bhadla is India’s biggest solar power generating park. At 6,000 hectares it is second, perhaps, only to the Gulmand solar park in China.

The sun does not just shine on Bhadla. It scorches and withers everything it touches. This place, 220km from Jodhpur, bakes at 50 degrees Celsius through summers that seem to last forever. Very little grows on the land, just enough to feed some goats and sheep. About 10 years ago, the Bhadla panchayat almost did not exist on the map. Roads, water and other necessities were a far cry. For local people, the area was of little consequence.

Now, Bhadla is where the sun’s strength is harnessed to generate 2,245MW of energy every day. This solar park is one of India’s new success stories and a decisive step in diverting 40% of the country’s energy consumption towards renewable sources. The Narendra Modi government has set a 500-Gigawatt production target and without Bhadla, that won’t be possible.

In 2013, when Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated the park, it seemed like he had taken a leap of faith. The first phase — out of the four — that came about under the UPA government’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission set a modest target of 70 MW. When the Modi government was elected to office in 2014, it revised the renewable energy generation target to 1-lakh-MW by 2022.

The Centre has missed out the target, but the total solar energy share has risen to 55,000MW out of the total power consumption of 3.95-lakh-MW in the country. Bhadla is hot but also “the hot favourite for solar energy. The park now earns carbon credits of 5 million tonnes annually,” Subodh Agarwal, managing director, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation, said.

Beginning here was not easy, like many beginnings. “The area had no roads, water or electricity. The rough terrain did not make it easy either. It was a gradual, resolute approach that led to the opening of the first phase, the smallest of the four phases in the park,” Agarwal said.

When the projects were auctioned for the first phase, the tariffs they attracted were high at Rs 6.45 a unit, even though it had come down substantially from over Rs 17 when the first projects were installed prior to JNNSM in 2010. “The high radiation and the highest number of sunny days in Bhadla encouraged power developers to offer lower rates to buyers (distribution companies or discoms). That’s why it became the first park in the country to allow the lowest tariff of Rs 2.44 a unit, setting a new benchmark in the country,” Agarwal said.

Power tariff is decided through e-auctions. The Solar Energy Corporation of India conducts e-auctions for states or for itself. In these e-auctions, companies bid to provide power to the discoms of NTPC or other entities. Before the JNNSM was formed, the government used to fix tariffs for solar power and power companies would sell it at that rate to the discoms. After e-auctions started, for the first phase in Bhadla, companies bid to provide power at Rs 6.45 a unit. Later, they offered as low as Rs 2.44 a unit. Recently, the tariff went below Rs 2 a unit for a project in Gujarat but has risen marginally over Rs 2 since then.

As Bhadla started attracting developers, the Power Grid Corporation too connected the park to the green corridor which connects to the national grid from where any state can draw energy from Bhadla. For example, Uttar Pradesh sources 750MW from the park through the network, while the rest of the capacity is used by Rajasthan’s power distributors. The park became the preferred mode of developing solar energy as it saved developers from the hassles of land acquisition, power evacuation bottlenecks and transmission handicaps.

“The comfort that a park offers to a developer is not there for a standalone project. You have all the infrastructure and most importantly, there is no hurdle for land acquisition,” said a senior official of IL&FS, which partnered with the Rajasthan government to develop the third phase of the park with 1,000 MW capacity. 

The concentration of solar projects has attracted several other companies to set up plants outside the park. A senior official of the RRECL said that besides the 2,245MW in the park that has attracted investments of Rs 10,000 crore, projects with an additional capacity of 1,500MW have come up outside the park.

The development has fuelled a demand for land, contractors, vendors, material suppliers and several other ecosystem players. “Bhadla is no longer a village. If you visit the place at night, the lights give you the impression that it is a city without noise and pollution. More than that, the park has changed the face of the area,” Sunil Bansal, president of Rajasthan Solar Association, said.

Demand for land has shot up, raising prices by 10 times. The project development and construction spree have created a demand for cement, steel, sand and equipment for many other civil works. Transportation, hotel accommodation and other services have also witnessed a spike. “The sleepy village is now a buzzing industrial hub. It has created employment for many, some have become engineering, procurement and construction contractors, vendors and project implementing partners. Bhadla created many EPC contractors who are ubiquitous across solar hubs in the country,” Bansal said.

The local people, who do not want to sell their land and would rather lease out, have also benefited. Ramakant Jangid, an EPC contractor, said: “Ten years ago, a hectare used to cost Rs 2,500. Now, the price has gone up to Rs 2.5 lakh. Those who do not want to sell their land, lease it. From an acre of land, the annual income for a farmer used to be around Rs 5,000. But they are getting Rs 25,000. ”

In order to promote solar power generation, the Rajasthan government has made it easy for developers by exempting them from land conversion. Some local people say they have not benefited as much as the region has developed. Raza Khan, the sarpanch of Bhadla, said: “Water is a big issue. The companies use water to clean the solar panels. Secondly, because the whole area has been used for solar plants, there is no space for us to graze goats, sheep and cows. We want the government and the companies to compensate us. I had 100 sheep, now there are 10 left. ”

In recent years, robots are being used to clean the panels and that does not require water. But the technology is still unfit for panels mounted on uneven surfaces, so it is not widely used.

India votes for 15th Prez

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former PM Manmohan Singh, who came in a wheelchair, were among the early voters in the polls held on Monday to elect India’s 15th President. There was a 99% turnout in the election that pitted NDA’s Droupadi Murmu against Opposition’s joint candidate, Yashwant Sinha. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived in Parliament in a PPE suit, as did her ministerial colleague, R K Singh, who is recovering from Covid. In all, 4,796 MPs and MLAs across the country cast their vote, with as many as 11 states and one UT reporting 100% turnout, the Election Commission said. The poll result will be declared on Thursday (July 21). Crossvoting in favour of the NDA nominee in several states and absenteeism by MLAs in some others created a sideshow of dissidence in the opposition ranks. There were reports of cross-voting from UP (by some SP members), Gujarat (by the lone NCP MLA) and Odisha (by a Cong member). In Bengal, BJP declared its MLA count as 70 instead of 75, anticipating cross-voting by those who had unofficially defected, amid cross-vote allegations by both the ruling TMC and BJP. A Congress MLA in Telangana said he had ‘mistakenly’ voted for Murmu. Across the country, several MLAs abstained, including at least eight from the northeast and a Shiromani Akali Dal member in Punjab who said he was boycotting the polls in protest.

Voting for the presidential election also marked the start of Parliament's monsoon session, with PM Modi saying this was a particularly important period. “It is the period of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. There is a special significance of August 15 and the coming 25 years, when the nation would celebrate 100 years of independence,” he said, urging lawmakers to hold discussions on various issues with an open mind

RBI wants crypto to be prohibited: FM

The RBI is of the view that cryptocurrencies should be prohibited. And, given the concerns expressed by the central bank on the destabilising effect of cryptocurrencies on the monetary and fiscal stability of a country, it has recommended framing of legislation on this sector, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

This is the first official statement acknowledging RBI’s views backing a ban on cryptocurrencies, although it was known that the central bank wanted cryptocurrencies to be barred. “Yes sir. RBI has registered its concern over the adverse effect of cryptocurrency on Indian economy. RBI mentioned that cryptocurrencies are not a currency because every modern currency needs to be issued by the central bank / government,” Sitharaman said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. She said that the central bank has said that the value of fiat currencies is anchored by monetary policy and their status as legal tender. However, the value of cryptocurrencies rests solely on the speculations and expectations of high returns that are not well anchored, so it will have a destabilising effect on the monetary and fiscal stability of a country.

Sitharaman said cryptocurrencies are by definition borderless and require international collaboration to prevent regulatory arbitrage. “Therefore any legislation for regulation or for banning can be effective only after significant international collaboration on evaluation of the risks and benefits and evolution of common taxonomy and standards,” she said.

The finance minister said the RBI has been cautioning users, holders and traders of virtual currencies through notices that dealing in VCs is associated with potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks.

She said the RBI had also issued a circular on April 6, 2018, prohibiting its regulated entities to deal in VCs or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs. That circular had been set aside by the Supreme Court on March 4, 2020.

RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had said last month that cryptocurrencies are a clear danger and anything that derives value based on make believe, without any underlying, is just speculation under a sophisticated name.

Stage set for 5G spectrum auction

The stage is set for 5G auctions, with companies making the mandated earnest money deposits totalling Rs 21,800 crore. Though talks around the much-anticipated Ambani-Adani confrontation fizzled out with newcomer Gautam Adani-led group refusing to make heavy commitments towards the airwave sale.

While Jio, the country’s biggest mobile operator, submitted an EMD of Rs 14,000 crore, the Adani Group — represented by Adani Data Networks — committed just Rs 100 crore. This indicates that it may go for limited bandwidth capacity in few circles where it sees potential for captive enterprise telephony. Any big expansion move is likely to be unveiled after the auctions.

Bharti Airtel, the second-largest operator, submitted an EMD of Rs 5,500 crore, while Vodafone Idea deposited Rs 2,200 crore.

The EMD collections of all the four applicants are substantially higher than the Rs 13,475 crore deposited in the 2021 auctions when three players (minus Adani) were in fray. In the last auctions, Jio spent Rs 57,123 crore for spectrum buy, Airtel Rs 18,699 crore, and Vodafone Idea Rs 1,993 crore.

EMD gives an indication of a company’s strategy and gameplan for buying spectrum in the auctions. It also determines the eligibility points for the applicant, based on which a company buys airwaves across the telecom circles. It is estimated companies can spend nearly seven to eight times of the EMDs that they submit. This means that the capacity for the Adani Group to be a great disruptor is next to impossible. On the other hand, Jio’s EMD deposit shows that the company plans to stock up big when it comes to acquiring the next-generation mobile airwaves, which would catapult India to the coveted group of countries offering 5G telephony.

A total 72GHz (gigahertz) of spectrum worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore is being put on the block for the auctions, which begin on July 26. While the entry of Adani in the fray had spiced up pre-auction talks, the group had made it clear that it does not have any immediate plans to be in the consumer mobility space. It had said that its telecom foray is only for creating a private network to support its businesses that span airports to ports, and power as well as data centres. With its EMD at Rs 14,000 crore, the eligibility points assigned to Jio for the auction stand at 1,59,830, the highest in the list of four bidders, according to details given out by the telecom ministry. The eligibility points allocated to Airtel are 66,330, while that to Vodafone Idea are 29,370. Adani Data Networks received eligibility points of 1,650. The auction will be held for spectrum in various low (600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz), mid (3300MHz) and high (26GHz) frequency bands.

SC: Linguistic, religious minorities state-specific

The Supreme Court said it was a settled position that religious and linguistic minority status of a community is to be decided state-wise on the basis of state population and it would be a travesty of justice if, say, Christians who are in a majority in Mizoram and Nagaland are given minority status or Sikhs treated as a minority community in Punjab.

Hearing a PIL seeking directions to declare Hindus as minority community in states where it is outnumbered by other communities, a bench of Justices U U Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia said any such community could be a religious or linguistic minority community. It said Marathi-speaking people would be a minority community outside Maharashtra; Kannada-speaking persons in Maharashtra are a minority. The petitioner said Hindus are minorities in J&K, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal, Lakshadweep, Manipur and Punjab but the Centre has so far declared only Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains as minorities in the country.

IIM Raipur creates history, admits more girls than boys

At a time when management institutes across the world are trying to bring gender parity in male dominated classrooms of business education, a young Indian Institute of Management has made history by admitting more girls than boys this year.

In the cohort of 2022, IIM Raipur has 205 girls compared to 125 boys — thus overturning the gender equation on campus that had admitted 146 boys and 120 girls last year. Now, the institute has 20% more girls than boys in the flagship post graduate programme in management.

Meanwhile, IIM Kozhikode, which for one year in 2019 set aside 60 supernumerary seats for women, has seen the share of women candidates admitted in 2022 at 46.7%.

Apart from Raipur and Kozhikode, while many IIMs have crossed the mark of having 30% women this year, others such as IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Calcutta are slowly inching closer to that. A 2021 application trend survey by GMAC revealed that more women than men had applied to join B-schools around the world. And that is reflective in the incoming batch of B-school freshers in India too.

IIM Raipur is an example where this trend played out imposingly. The institute’s admission process was gender-blind: Neither did it alter its selection process nor the interview panel. No additional marks were doled out to women candidates. “Our BoG (board of governors) chairperson is a woman. Inside the campus, there is a fair amount of change we have brought about that is gender neutral. We have sent out a lot of signals of gender neutrality, directly and indirectly. Raipur is also considered to be a safe location. Some of the women candidates abandoned better institutes and joined Raipur,” said the 12-year-young institute’s director Ramkumar Kakani.

IIM Kozhikode stands alongside Harvard Business School and Oxford Said as one of the most balanced MBA programmes in the world. Diversity sits at its core with strong women power in its board of governors and among faculty.

India’s unparalleled vax drive over 200-cr mark

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed India’s vaccination drive as ‘unparalleled in scale and speed’.

India crossed the 200 crore mark in administering COVID-19 vaccination on Sunday. Congratulating the nation on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that India has created history again. “India creates history again! Congrats to all Indians on crossing the special figure of 200 crore vaccine doses. Proud of those who contributed to making India’s vaccination drive unparalleled in scale and speed. This has strengthened the global fight against COVID-19,” said the Prime Minister in a social media post.

In another post, he added, “Throughout the rollout of the vaccine, the people of India have shown remarkable faith in science. Our doctors, nurses, frontline workers, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs have played a key role in ensuring a safer planet. I appreciate their spirit and determination.”

Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya also congratulated the people on achieving this landmark in only 18 months and said that this extraordinary achievement will be etched in history. “Congratulations India! With everyone’s efforts, the country has crossed the figure of 200 crore vaccines today. India has scripted history under PM @NarendraModi Ji’s visionary leadership. This extraordinary achievement will be etched in the history!” Mandaviya said in a tweet. Union minister of state for health and family welfare, Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar also thanked healthcare workers for their hard work and vision.