PM Modi asks states to remove policy bottlenecks, encourage investment and generate jobs
The Prime Minister said that the 10-year journey of Niti Aayog was "to prepare the nation to achieve the goal of Vikshit Bharat".
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The Print
5 hours ago
- The Print
India will protect farmers' interest in US trade talks: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
He was responding to a query on how India would safeguard farmers amid US pressure for greater market access for American agricultural and horticultural products. 'Our priority is to protect the interest of our farmers. India will not work closing its eyes. We will assess our gains and losses. Keeping that in mind, an agreement will be finalised,' Chouhan told PTI in an interview. New Delhi, Jun 8 (PTI) India will prioritise protecting its farmers' interests while assessing potential gains and losses in the ongoing trade negotiations with the United States over agricultural market access, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said. The negotiators are expected to agree on the framework for the broad contours of the first phase of the bilateral deal, expected to be signed by fall (September-October) 2025. 'The discussions are ongoing between India and the US. One thing is clear, we will protect the interest of our farmers. When we talk about two nations, we need to see the overall trade,' the minister added. According to a NITI Aayog report, 'Promoting India-US Agricultural Trade under the new US Trade Regime', the value for US agriculture and allied product exports to India was about USD 2.22 billion in the triennium ending 2024. In the same period, India exported USD 5.75 billion worth of agricultural products to the US. India's main agricultural exports to the US include frozen shrimp, basmati rice, spices, processed cereals, and other value-added products. The US wants to export more agricultural products such as corn, soybeans, and animal feed, but faces high Indian tariffs — especially in agriculture, where average tariffs can reach up to 39-50 per cent. The minister's comments come as India and the US continue negotiations on expanding agricultural trade, with Washington seeking reduced tariffs and improved market access for its farm products in the Indian market. India is cautious about fully opening its agriculture and dairy markets due to concerns about potential backlash from rural communities and the need to protect domestic producers from global price volatility. PTI LUX TRB TRB This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Indian Express
India's wind sector must innovate and secure, not just scale
Amid heightened Indo-Pak tensions, a Pakistani outlet claimed cyberattacks had knocked out 70 per cent of India's electricity. The false report exposed a very real anxiety: What happens when energy infrastructure becomes a frontline in cyber warfare? For years, the renewable energy sector has diligently optimised turbine efficiency, improved grid integration and focused on speedy deployment. These remain essential. However, an equally pressing threat looms quietly in the background: Cybersecurity and the pace of maximum value addition and localisation in manufacturing. Unlike finance or defence sectors, where digital safeguards have long been entrenched, robust cybersecurity measures are only now being introduced into India's renewable energy framework. And it's about time. A compromised SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) system or remote-access breach could disable a wind farm — or multiple sites — in mere seconds. As India pushes towards achieving 500 GW of non-fossil-based electric installed capacity by 2030, including an ambitious target of over 100 GW from wind, the true challenge goes beyond just scaling up. It lies in securing what we install and how it is manufactured. The proposed amendment requires all operational wind turbine data to be stored within Indian territory. Foreign entities will no longer be allowed to remotely access or control Indian wind farms, a clear attempt to eliminate vulnerabilities to external cyber threats. More importantly, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) will be required to establish R&D facilities in India, signalling a decisive shift from passive assembly to active domestic innovation. This aligns with NITI Aayog's 2024 roadmap, emphasising localisation of both hardware and control systems. Given the various global incidents where cyberattacks have crippled energy grids, India's push for digital self-reliance isn't just necessary — it's urgent. Mandating local R&D isn't just about job creation or investment; it's about creating wind turbine technology designed for India's grid, climate, and challenges. India — not China or Europe — must become the epicentre for wind turbine innovation and manufacturing. However, strong policy intent must translate into effective execution, and here the amendment stumbles. Firstly, there is a greater need to build capacity for enforcement. Without a concrete monitoring mechanism, these rules risk becoming paper mandates. Secondly, the amendment needs to articulate India-specific design adaptation clearly. Renewable energy projects here face extreme operating conditions — temperatures exceeding 45°C, saline coastal air, monsoon deluges, and erratic grid voltages. Yet, there is no mandate for in-country prototype testing or climate-resilience validation before inclusion in the RLMMs (Revised List of Models & Manufacturers). This oversight risks importing turbines built for European conditions that buckle under India's punishing climate. Third, the policy skirts the need for embedded systems security. Today, power converters used in wind turbines and solar inverters in solar projects are effectively software-defined assets. They depend on SCADA systems, PLCs, and firmware that may be compromised — often subtly and invisibly. Without mandatory audits of software stacks and hardware backdoors, especially from OEMs in adversarial jurisdictions, India's wind and solar assets remain vulnerable. To operate in India, vendors/OEMs must obtain certification and clearance from Indian authorities and adhere to Government of India (GOI) regulations. These regulations should include provisions for force majeure situations, where vendor/OEM-supplied equipment may fail to receive support and patches, potentially leading to significant security breaches and national security risks. This ensures that even in times of geopolitical uncertainty, India's energy infrastructure remains operable, supported, and secure. Additionally, existing regulatory frameworks — like the Central Electricity Authority's temperature thresholds or the National Institute of Wind Energy's certification protocols — are treated as optional references, not core requirements. This disconnect must be addressed if we want turbines that are not just 'Made in India' but truly Engineered for India. The writer is a Partner at Dalberg Advisors, where he leads climate-related projects in Asia Pacific and globally
Indian Express
12 hours ago
- Indian Express
Declining poverty, and the data that shows it
Poverty and inequality estimation in India have been subjects of considerable debate, especially in recent years with the economy experiencing several shocks. The great India poverty debate has, in fact, been marked by significant differences of opinion on the household survey data which forms the basis of estimation, the construction of the poverty lines, and on the trends over the decades. The debate has been particularly heated in the absence of data — the government did not release the consumption expenditure survey data for 2017-18 due to 'data quality issues'. This led to several studies trying to estimate poverty levels in India by drawing on alternate data sources such as the Periodic Labour Force Surveys and the CMIE data. Recently, the government has attempted to fill the data gap by conducting two rounds of household consumption expenditure surveys for 2022-23 and 2023-24. These surveys now allow for an examination of the trends in poverty over the past decade or so. The decline has been significant. Extreme poverty in India is estimated to have declined from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12 to 5.3 per cent in 2022-23 as per the latest World Bank data reported in this paper. This steep decline has occurred even as the Bank has raised the threshold for measuring extreme poverty to $3 a day from $2.15 earlier. To put these figures in perspective — the number of people living in extreme poverty in India fell from 344.47 million to 75.24 million over this period. While there has been some concern over the comparability of the consumption expenditure surveys carried out in 2011-12 and 2022-23 due to changes in the manner in which the recent survey was carried out and its sampling design, this is a steep decline. Moreover, even considering the poverty line for lower-middle income countries of $4.2 per day (revised upwards from $3.65), the poverty ratio in India fell from 57.7 per cent in 2011-12 to 23.9 per cent in 2022-23. The decline appears to have continued in the year thereafter. Earlier, Niti Aayog had estimated that multidimensional poverty in India had also registered a steep decline — falling from 55.34 per cent in 2005-06 to 24.85 per cent in 2015-16 to 14.96 per cent in 2019-21. This estimate of poverty was based on 12 indicators and drew on data from the National Family Healthy Surveys. Alongside these poverty estimates, the World Bank has also estimated that inequality in India, based on measures such as the Gini and Theil indices, did fall between 2011 and 2022. However, these estimates of inequality are based on the household consumption expenditure data, which typically tends to be lower than estimates based on household income. This is not just an academic exercise. The data from the latest rounds of the consumption expenditure surveys as well as the labour force surveys must serve as a valuable input for policy, informing the choices of policymakers.
