Schoolchildren hurt by stone-pelters in Kashmir

Two schoolchildren were injured, one of them critically in the head, when stone-pelters attacked a bus carrying 50 students in Shopian, drawing sharp criticism against the amnesty granted to stone-pelters by chief minister Mehbooba Mufti last year.

Three tourists were injured in other stone-pelting attacks in south Kashmir, and in Memander village, a mob lobbed a petrol bomb at the house of PDP MLA Mohammad Yousuf Bhat. No casualties were reported.

Ritu Devi of Mumbai was hit on her head after stones were pelted at her cab between Awantipora and Bejibehara in Anantnag district.

SSP Shopian Shalender Kumar Mishra said that the school bus of Rainbow International educational institute was attacked by a mob with stones near Zawoora village in Shopian at 9.25 am. The stones hit the children as the glass windows were mostly open.

Of the two children who sustained injuries, 6-year-old Rehan Gorsai, a Class II student was hit in the head. He was shifted to SMHS hospital in Srinagar for specialised treatment. Doctors said his condition was stable. Rehan’s distressed father was heard saying in the hospital, “My son has been injured in stone pelting, this is against humanity. This could have been anyone’s child.”

Anguished by the attack, J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Shocked & angered to hear of the attack on a school bus in Shopian. The perpetrators of this senseless & cowardly act will be brought to justice .”

Former CM and National Conference working president, Omar Abdullah also lashed out. “How does pelting stones on school children or tourist buses help advance the agenda of these stone-pelters? These attacks deserve our unequivocal condemnation,” he tweeted.

In other stone-pelting attacks that took place on Monday evening in Anantnag, three tourists were injured. On the same day, security forces gunned down two Hizb terrorists, including a top commander, Sameer Tiger, triggering protests.

Motown: April 2018

India’s automobile companies started the new financial year on a strong note, with companies posting robust sales in April and predicting continuation of the trend. However, some industry executives said increasing fuel prices could pose challenges to growth.

Maruti Suzuki, which reported a 13.4% increase in sales at 163,434 vehicles in April, continued to drive the market. Though sales of mini cars Alto and WagonR declined 2.8% and those of the utility vehicle portfolio comprising Ertiga, Brezza and S-Cross expanded just 0.8%, the compact section — Swift, Ignis, DZire, Tour S, Baleno and Celerio — posted a strong 31.8% increase in sales.

Maruti Suzuki expects its sales to grow in double digits this fiscal year. It plans to undertake measures to improve productivity at its manufacturing facilities in Haryana to meet demand. Parent Suzuki’s Gujarat facility will chip in with an additional 90,000 units in the year through March 2019.

Korean rival Hyundai Motor posted 4.4% growth in local sales at 46,735 units in April. Director for sales and marketing Rakesh Srivastava attributed the growth to the strong performance of the Grand i10, Elite i20, Verna and Creta. These vehicles comprised 79% of the total sales volume for the company in India. Home-grown Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors registered 13% (selling 21,927 units) and over 34% (17,235 units) expansion, respectively, in the past month.

Several industry insiders expect passenger vehicle sales to grow in strong single-digits this financial year.

But Anurag Mehrotra, Ford India’s managing director, was cautious.The American automaker’s sales in the Indian market dropped 2.5% in April to 7,428 units.

Commercial vehicle sales reported strong growth last month, albeit on a low base — a Supreme Court ruling banning sale and registration of BS III compliant vehicles beyond March 2017 had affected numbers a year earlier.

Core sector growth slows in March

Growth in eight key infrastructure segments slowed to a three-month low in March, dragged down by sluggish output from crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and fertiliser sectors.

The eight core sectors spanning coal, steel, cement, electricity, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products and fertiliser grew an annual 4.1% in March, slower than previous month’s 5.4% and lower than 5.2% in March 2017.

Growth in the sector for 2017-18 was 4.2%, slower than 4.8% posted in the year-earlier period. The eight core sectors account for 40.3% of the index of industrial production and serve as an advance indicator of the performance of industrial output data to be released later in the month. Crude oil output contracted 1.6% during March, while natural gas grew an annual 1.3%. Refinery products rose 1%, while fertiliser sector grew 3.2%. The coal sector rose a robust 9.1%, while the cement sector increased 13% in March. The steel sector grew 4.7% and electricity rose 4.5%.

GST tops ₹1 Lakh crore in April

Revenue from GST crossed the Rs.1 lakh crore mark in April, indicating stabilisation of the new tax reform measure that was implemented in July last year and an increase in compliance. The government has raised Rs.7.4 lakh crore in 2017-18 from GST.

The Rs.1 lakh crore collection figure is for March, 2018 that was paid in April. The total revenue earned by the government and the state governments after settlement in April, 2018 was Rs.32,493 crore for CGST and Rs.40,257 crore for SGST.

Revenue collected in April was Rs.1,03,458 crore, of which CGST was Rs.18,652 crore, SGST Rs.25,704 crore, IGST Rs.50,548 crore (including 21,246 crore collected on imports) and cess was Rs.8,554 crore (including Rs.702 crore collected on imports).

Change Makers

“Poo to Power” may sound awkward and impractical, but Aditya Aggarwal and his brother Amit have achieved it in Karnal. Two industries, one producing wire nails and another tinner rivets, owned by the family run on 100% electricity produced from cattle dung from ‘gaushalas’ or cow sheds.

The dung-based power plant started in 2014 without government support. It generates around 2 MW of power.

Elsewhere, in Silani village of Haryana’s Jhajjar district, Sukhbir Singh stumbled upon the idea of producing power from chicken faeces at his poultry farm to escape the clutches of corrupt electricity department officials in 2010. Today, his bio-gas plants generate enough power to meet most of the electricity needs of four poultry farms.

Change-makers like the Agarwal brothers, Sukhbir Singh and others like them in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu have come in handy for the Modi government to make its “Gobar-Dhan” scheme distinct from other government projects by encouraging entrepreneurs to convert cow dung and other bio-mass available in rural areas to generate electricity, gas and fertiliser and make it a part of their business model. Their case studies have helped the government avoid reinventing the wheel and make the initiative financially sustainable.

According to government estimates, India has a 30-crore cattle population and about 30 lakh tonnes of cattle dung is produced daily. This can be a major source for bio-gas and manure. The government plans to roll out the scheme across 350 districts in the first phase and cover the rest during the second phase.

In 2018-19, the government targets to set up about 700 bio-gas plants across the country by providing performance-based incentives to gram panchayats, selfhelp groups and bulk generators like gaushalas. Officials say government will provide 25% advance amount as incentive for panchayats and SGHs.

Aditya said they initially set up a fertiliser plant close to their industrial units to manage the huge quantities of cattle dung from local ‘gaushalas’. His father was in the managing committee of these cow sheds.

“We used to spend Rs.5 lakh annually to manage the cattle waste. When we started, our focus was to make fertilizer. Later, we realised we can tap the gas to generate electricity for our own consumption. We use 20,000-30,000 kg of cow dung daily. For us, cow dung is ‘green gold’ like people consider milk as ‘white gold’,” said the computer science graduate.

Swachh Bharat Internships Launched

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the youth to join the Swachh Bharat initiative as interns, the government on Monday launched the Swachh Bharat Summer Internship.

A first-of-its-kind initiative of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, in association with the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the three-month internship period will commence from May 1 and conclude on July 31, a statement said.

“The programme aims to engage millions of youngsters across the country, to encourage them to contribute to the Swachh Bharat Mission in the spirit of a true jan andolan (people's movement). The prime minister, in his address, Mann Ki Baat, called upon the youth to avail the benefits of the internship and take forward the cleanliness movement,” the statement issued by the MDWS said.

College and university students and the youth associated with the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan can register for the internship by logging in to www.sbsi.mygov.in, which has already gone live.

All the interns would be given Swachh Bharat certificates for completing at least 100 hours of sanitation related work in villages, the statement said, adding that the top performers would also receive awards at the college and university, district, state and national-level.

The world’s fastest growing aviation market

Airports in India — from the busiest like Delhi and Mumbai to smaller ones in Patna and Guwahati — have become synonymous with queues, delays and congestion. On the air side, failure to add runways and parking bays has meant airports are unable to clear airlines’ requests to add more flights.

In December, 45% of flights were delayed at Mumbai.

India has recorded double-digit growth in domestic air passenger traffic for the past 42 months, shows data from International Air Transport Association. Passenger traffic at Delhi airport grew 14% in 2017 compared to the previous year, making it the fastest growing airport in the world, according to Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.

It’s the same across the country. Hyderabad airport was meant to handle 12 million passengers per annum, but footfalls crossed 18 million in 2017. Last year, Kolkata’s Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport handled 19.5 million passengers — the terminal can manage 20 million passengers and will run out of space this year. Even at Patna airport, passenger traffic hit 29 lakh last year — a 48% increase over 2016 numbers — when the airport can handle just 7 lakh passengers a year.

Mumbai, India’s second busiest airport, does not feature among the world’s top 20 fastest growing airports. It’s telling because till 2012, Mumbai was the busiest airport in India.

Airport capacity is measured by two parameters: passenger handling capacity of its terminal buildings and air traffic handling capacity of its runways. And both are in jeopardy at most airports. Last September, Central Industrial Security Force — responsible for passenger and bag checks — sounded a warning about adding more flights without infrastructure.

Delhi and Mumbai now deny slots to airlines to add flights as the airports are at capacity. Indian airline companies have ordered 900 aircraft but have nowhere to park.

An aviation ministry official said: “Air traffic has grown faster than the rate at which infrastructure is being added. There is a temporary mismatch. We are working on it. Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Patna and Goa will get second airports in the next three to five years.”

An Airports Authority of India official said: “AAI will construct 273 aircraft parking bays for A321 aircraft in next five years. State governments have been requested to provide additional land.”

But experts say the facilities should have been operational by now. IATA India recently said: “IATA anticipates India will be the third largest aviation market by 2024. To make this a reality, airport capacity needs to be augmented.”

AAI says the overall terminal capacity is 33.4 crore passengers per annum against a demand of 30 crore. “As per our own forecast, the country would need to construct an additional capacity of 50 crore by 2030,” said a senior official.