7-Mar-2018: National E-Mobility Programme launched

Government has launched the National E-Mobility Programme to provide an impetus to the entire e-mobility ecosystem including vehicle manufacturers, charging infrastructure companies, fleet operators, service providers, etc.

The Programme will be implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) which will aggregate demand by procuring electric vehicles in bulk to get economies of scale. These electric vehicles will replace the existing fleet of petrol and diesel vehicles. EESL had procured 10,000 e-vehicles last year and will issue a new tender very soon for 10,000 more e-vehicles to cater to the growing demand. With these 20,000 electric cars, India is expected to save over 5 crore litres of fuel every year leading to a reduction of over 5.6 lakh tonnes of annual CO2 emission.

The Minster congratulated EESL for its new tender of 10,000 e-vehicles and said that it makes sense from point of view of environment and economy both. The per kilometer cost for an electric car is just 85 paisa against Rs 6.5 for normal cars and these would also help us achieve autonomy from expensive petroleum imports. India aims to develop as a responsible power, with the motto- “Healthier world, healthier country”, and long term goal is to leave behind a better world.

The Government is focusing on creating charging infrastructure and policy framework so that by 2030 more than 30 per cent of vehicles are electricity vehicles. During the programme, it was also highlighted that there would be no need for license for establishing the charging infrastructure in country and the tariff for this would be less than Rs 6.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, is working towards mainstreaming energy efficiency and is implementing the world’s largest energy efficiency portfolio in the country. Driven by the mission of Enabling More – more efficiency, more innovation, EESL aims to creating market access for efficient and future ready transformative solutions that create a win-win situation for every stakeholder.

Thus far, EESL has distributed over 29 crore LED bulbs and retrofitted 50 lakh LED streetlights across India through self-sustaining commercial models. EESL aims to leverage this implementation experience and exploit new opportunities in overseas market for diversification of its portfolio. As on date, EESL has begun its operations in UK, South Asia and South-East Asia.

21-Mar-2018: Cabinet approves Central Sector "Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry" for sericulture sector

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for Central Sector Scheme "Integrated Scheme for Development of Silk Industry" for the next three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20.

The Scheme has four components:

1. Research & Development (R&D), Training, Transfer of Technology and IT Initiatives
2. Seed Organizations and farmers extension centres
3. Coordination and Market Development for seed, yarn and silk products and
4. Quality Certification System (QCS) by creating amongst others a chain of Silk Testing facilities, Farm based & post-cocoon Technology Up-gradation, and Export Brand Promotion.

Financial Outlay: A total allocation of Rs.2161.68 Crore has been approved for the implementation of the Scheme for three years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The scheme will be implemented by the Ministry through Central Silk Board (CSB).

Impact: The scheme is expected to increase the silk production from the level of 30348 MTs during 2016-17 to 38500 MTs by end of 2019-20 with the following interventions:

• Production of import substitute bivoltine silk to the tune of 8500 MTs per annum by 2020.
• Research & Development to improve productivity from the present level of 100 Kgs to 111 kgs of silk per ha. of plantation by the end of 2019-20.
• Large scale propagation of improved reeling machines (Automatic Reeling Machine for mulberry; improved reeling/spinning machineries and Buniyad reeling machines for Vanya silk) under Make in India programme to produce quality silk to cater to the market demand.

The scheme will promote Women Empowerment and livelihood opportunities to SC/ST and other weaker sections of the society. The scheme will help to increase productive employment from 85 lakhs to 1 crore persons by 2020.

The scheme has following improvements over the earlier scheme:

1. The scheme aims to achieve self-sufficiency in silk production by 2022. To achieve this, production of high grade silk in India will reach 20,650 MTs by 2022 from the current level of 11,326 MTs thereby reducing imports to Zero.
2. For the first time, there is clear focus on improving production of highest grade quality of silk. It is proposed to increase 4A grade silk from the current level of 15% to 25 % of mulberry production by 2020.
3. The implementation strategy is clearly based on convergence at the State level with the schemes of other Ministers like MGNREGS of Rural Development, RKVY & PMKSY of Ministry of Agriculture, for maximizing benefits to the sericulturists.
4. The R&D projects pertaining to disease resistant silkworm, host plant improvements, productivity enhancing tools and implements for reeling and waving etc. will be done in cooperation with Ministries i.e. Science and Technology, Agriculture and Human Resource Development (HRD).

The core objective of the scheme is to improve the productivity and quality of silk through R&D intervention. The focus of R&D intervention is to promote improved cross­breed silk and the import substitute Bivoltine silk so that Bivoltine silk production in India enhances to such a level that raw silk imports become nil by 2022 thereby making India self-sufficient in silk.

R&D interventions will include race improvement through development of improved host plant varieties and improved disease resistant silkworm breeds by having collaborative research with reputed National Research organizations like IITs, CSIR, IISc and international research institutes on Sericulture in Japan, China, Bulgaria etc.; Technological advancements with respect to pre cocoon and post cocoon sectors. Thrust will be given on technology upgradation and making mechanization affordable.

Use of silkworm by-products (pupa) for poultry feed, sericin for cosmetic applications and product diversification into non-woven fabrics, silk denim, silk knit etc. will be given thrust for added value realisation.

Under Seed Sector, Seed Production Units will be equipped and strengthened to bring in quality standards in production network, besides increasing the production capacity to cater to the increased silk production target. Support would be provided for adopted seed rearers to generate quality seed cocoons, private grainers to produce quality seed and Chawki Rearing Centres (CRCs) with incubation facilities to produce and supply chawki worms. Other efforts will include setting up new Cold storage, providing mobile disinfection units and equipment support for mechanization.

Registration process under Seed Act and reporting by seed production centres, basic seed farms and extension centres will be automated by developing web based software. All the beneficiaries under the scheme from silk farmers, seed producers and chawki rearers will be brought on a DBT mode with Aadhaar linkage. A Helpline will be set up for timely redressal of grievances and all outreach programmes.

Brand Promotion of Indian silk will be encouraged through quality certification by Silk Mark not only in the domestic market but in the Export market as well. High quality standards in silkworm seed, cocoon and raw silk will be promoted by setting up Cocoon Testing Centres & Silk Testing Centres. Efforts will be strengthened for collaborating with NIFT and NID for support on design and product development.