Daily Current Affairs

India plans $2 billion incentive for green hydrogen industry (GS Paper 3, Environment)

Why in news?

• India is planning a $2 billion incentive programme for the green hydrogen industryin a bid to cut emissions and become a major export player in the field.
• The 180-billion-rupee ($2.2 billion) incentive aims to reduce the production cost of green hydrogen by a fifth over the next five years. It would do this in part by increasing the scale of the industry.

 

Why Hydrogen projects?

• The United States and the European Union have already approved incentives worth billions of dollars for green hydrogen projects.
• Hydrogen can be used as a fuel. It is made by splitting water with an electrical process, electrolysis.
• If the devices that do that, electrolysers, are powered by renewable energy, the product is called green hydrogen, a fuel free of greenhouse emissions.

 

Green Ammonia:

• The Indian government expects industry to invest 8 trillion rupees in green hydrogen and its derivative green ammonia by 2030.
• Green ammonia is made by combining nitrogen with hydrogen using renewable energy sources; it can be used by the fertiliser industry or as a fuel or convenient means of transporting hydrogen.
• The green hydrogen proposal is likely to be called "Strategic Intervention for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT)" and will be split into 45 billion rupees for electrolyser manufacturing for five years and the 135 billion rupees for green hydrogen and green ammonia production for three years.

 

Initiatives in India:

• US-based Ohmium International has commissioned India's first green-hydrogen factory in Bengaluru. Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Larsen & Toubro (LART.NS), Greenko and H2e Power in 2022 announced plans to build gigawatt-scale factories.
• Indian oil refineries and fertiliser and steel plants annually use 5 million tonnes of hydrogen made from natural gas, called grey hydrogen. The process produces carbon dioxide.

 

Potential & Future plans:

• India aims to sell 70% of the production to countries such as South Korea, Japan and in the European Union, as derivatives, including green ammonia, had an equally strong demand.
• The government is estimating global demand for green hydrogen will exceed 100 million tonnes by 2030, from just under 75 million tonnes now.
• In February the government announced plans for India to make 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030, that could be doubled, depending on international demand.
• The government also plans for the country to achieve electrolyser manufacturing capacity of 15 gigawatts in phases by 2030. That would be almost 10 times current global capacity.

 

President of India lays foundation stone for PRASHAD project in Bhadrachalam

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

Why in news?

• Recently, the President of India laid the foundation stone for the project ‘Development of Pilgrimage Facilities at Bhadrachalam Group of Temples’ at Sri Seetha Ramachandra Swamivari Devasthanam, Bhadrachalam in the Bhadradri Kothagudem District of the state of Telangana.
• She also laid the foundation stone for another project called ‘Development of Pilgrimage and Heritage Infrastructure of UNESCO World Heritage Site at Rudreshwara (Ramappa) Temple’ at Mulugu in the state.

‘PRASHAD’ scheme:

• Both these projects have been approved under the PRASHAD (National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive) Scheme of the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.
• Launched in the year 2014-15, the scheme aims to provide integrated infrastructure development to pilgrimage and heritage tourism destinations in the country.

 

Development at Bhadrachalam Group of Temples:

• The temple at Bhadrachalam, Sri Seetha Ramchandra Swamyvari Devasthanam, is said to be more than 350 years old and is closely associated with epic of Ramayana.
• It is believed that Lord Rama with his wife Goddess Sita and brother Lakshmana spent some part of their 14 years of exile at a village called Parnasala, a part of Dandakaranya forest near Bhadrachalam Temple.
• The components sanctioned include infrastructural interventions like Pilgrimage Amenity Centre, Parking Area development, Kalyan Mandapam, Street-scaping, Souvenir shops, Rain and Shade Shelters and Railings and overall civil infrastructure improvement.

 

Ekalavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS):

• The President later, virtually inaugurated two Ekalavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in Komaram Bheem Asifabad and Mahabubabad districts of Telangana.
• The Eklavya Model Residential School would be in every block with more than 50% tribal population of Scheduled Tribes and at least 20,000 tribal persons.  
• The objective of EMRS is to provide quality upper Primary and Secondary and Senior Secondary level education (Class VI to XII) to Scheduled Tribe (ST) students in remote areas.

 

Ramappa Temple:

• The Ramappa temple of Lord Shiva, a perfect example of architectural brilliance, was built in 1213 AD by the Kakatiya rulers and has been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list. 
• This heritage temple attracts over 10 Lakh visitors every year and has a high visibility amongst the tourist circuit.
• The President inaugurated the project ‘Development of Pilgrimage and Heritage Infrastructure of UNESCO World Heritage Site at Rudreshwara Temple (Ramappa)’.
• It aims to make Ramappa Temple, a world class pilgrimage and tourist destination, by providing state-of-the-art facilities for visitors while maintaining essence of heritage and tranquility of the site.

 

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launches 2 key initiatives to take Indias Urban Rejuvenation journey to next level

(GS Paper 3, Economy)

Why in news?

• Recently, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs launched two key initiatives of Ministry- ‘City Finance Rankings, 2022’ and ‘City Beauty Competition’. 

(Odisha Diary)

‘City Finance Rankings, 2022’:

• The ‘City Finance Rankings, 2022’ aim to evaluate, recognize and reward India’s cities (Urban Local Bodies or ULBs) on the basis of the quality of their current financial health and improvement over time in financial performance.
• The rankings aim to motivate city/state officials and decision makers, to implement municipal finance reforms.
• The participating ULBs will be evaluated on 15 indicators across three key municipal finance assessment parameters, namely:

1. Resource Mobilization,
2. Expenditure Performance and
3. Fiscal Governance.

• The cities will be ranked at the national level on the basis of their scores under any one of the following four population categories:

1. Above 4 million
2. Between 1-4 million
3. 100K to 1 million
4. Less than 100,000.

• The top 3 cities in each population category will be recognized and rewarded at the national level as well as within each state/state cluster.
• The participating ULBs shall be invited to submit the required data/documents (including audited accounts, annual budgets, and self-reported performance metrics) through the online facility.

 

Significance:

• City Finance Rankings are an effort to analyse and help the ULBs in identifying areas in their financial performance where they can make further improvements, to be able to deliver quality infrastructure and services to its citizens.
• The rankings will serve as a constant motivation for city/state officials to continue to implement municipal finance reforms.
• At a state- and national-level, the rankings will highlight the outcomes achieved by municipalities and provide critical insights to key policy makers into the state of finances of urban local bodies.
• ULBs can benefit immensely by participating in the fiscal rankings as they will be able to self-evaluate their own performance vis-à-vis other cities, which can help them in self-improvement in future.
• All 4500+ cities / urban local bodies (ULBs) across all states/UTs would be encouraged to participate in the City Finance Rankings 2022. 

 

 ‘City Beauty Competition’:

• The ‘City Beauty Competition’ aims to encourage and recognize the transformational efforts made by cities and wards in India to create beautiful, innovative and inclusive public spaces.
• Wards and public places of cities would be judged against the five broad pillars (i) accessibility (ii) amenities (iii) activities (iv) aesthetics and (v) ecology.
• The City Beauty Competition would felicitate most beautiful wards and beautiful public places at the city level.
• While selected wards would be felicitated at the city and State levels, at the City level, most beautiful public places in cities viz.
• Waterfronts, Green spaces, tourist/heritage spaces and market/commercial places would be awarded first at the State and then shortlisted for award at the National level.
• This initiative of MoHUA will encourage wards and cities to come forward to showcase their initiatives and interventions towards creating functionally beautiful public spaces, while also preserving their rich cultural heritage.