The Bichanakandi river in Bangladesh
Bhutan: Hydropower cooperation under BBIN
Mihir Bhonsale
Energy cooperation among countries in the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) group presents opportunities for hydropower rich Bhutan to diversify its hydropower exports and thereby finance social projects and attain economic self-sufficiency.
An inter-governmental Joint Working Group (JWG) of BBIN countries met for the third time on 19 and 20 January to discuss ways to carry forward the cooperation. The JWG is said to have taken forward the discussions initiated in the second meeting last year and specific projects identified under the BBIN framework were discussed.
Bangladesh keen
Bangladesh is keen on importing power from the tiny Himalayan nation. Bhutan and Bangladesh are working on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) identifying projects for hydropower development and electricity import via India. Economic Affairs minister Norbu Wangchuck visited Bheramara power station in Kusthia district of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is all set to invest around US$ 1 billion in Bhutan for tapping hydropower resources in Bhutan and importing electricity via India. The International Finance Corporation of the World Bank has assured to finance sub-regional power trade between the BBIN countries. The country now imports 600 MW electricity from India with the recent addition of 100 MW generated in the North-East Indian state of Tripura. Earlier in October 2013, a link was established between Behrampore and Behramara for exporting 500 MW.
Bhutan generated 386.74 GWh of energy in April 2015, the highest energy generated since the commissioning of the 1,020 MW Tala Hydroelectric project in 2007. It earned Nu 621.96 million in 2015 from export of electricity to India. Economic affairs minister Norbu Wangchuk has said that the SAARC Energy Cooperation framework, which has recently been ratified in the parliament, has provided an impetus for power trading with other SAARC countries.
Beyond hydropower development and export cooperation beyond the 10,000 MW it is now developing with India, Bhutan can think of developing hydropower projects with Bangladesh and boost its international currency reserves as Bangladesh is set pay for hydropower imports in U.S. dollars.
Developing capacities
Crucial to any fruitful energy cooperation is the need for infrastructure development, capacity building and planning for optimal utilisation of the electricity potential of regional electricity generation resources, enhanced grid security and to even out diversity in peak demand and seasonal variation.
Delays in completion of projects leading to escalation of construction costs and red tape have been some of the reasons arresting hydropower development in Bhutan. The country is far from realising the 10,000 MW target it is set to develop with India’s help.
Bhutan would harness only about 5,000MW of electricity by 2021, half the target the country had earlier pursued to achieve by 2020. The total installed capacity of hydropower today is about 1,600MW. The completion of Punatshangchu I & II and Mandgdechu hydropower projects is expected to add about another 3000 MW by 2021.
At present, India imports 1,542 MW of power from Bhutan of the 4 power projects commissioned so far. Some 10 projects are under construction, but are expected to be delayed. Meanwhile, Bhutan is considering the project 1125 Kuri-1 through a trilateral cooperation with India and Bangladesh.
Game-changer
Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali described the BBIN Sub-regional cooperation as a “game changer” at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi held on 1-3 March.
The BBIN countries are busy working out, bilateral or trilateral agreements under the already signed Motor Vehicles Agreement in June 2015. Through the JWG meetings experts are busy discussing projects to be completed for road and rail connectivity projects.
The SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation (Electricity) signed in 2014 paved the way for cross border electricity exchanges and trade. It rightly identified the importance of electricity in socio-economic development of the region. For some countries electricity is a major revenue for others it will be an avenue for meeting the growing energy needs.
(The writer is a Research Assistant at Observer Research Foundation, Kolkata).
India: A Game-changer Budget by Modi Govt?
Satish Misra
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented its third budget on the last day of February. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while presenting it in the House of the People, namely, the Lok Sabha, said the budget was being presented when the global economy is in serious crisis and the global growth has slowed down from 3.4 percent in 2014 to 3.1 percent in 2015. Financial markets have been battered and global trade has contracted, but amidst “all these global headwinds, the Indian economy has held its ground firmly”, he said.
The budget will be extensively debated in the two houses of parliament before it is approved. The main thrust and focus of the 2016-2017 budgetary exercise seems to be aimed at boosting the rural economy because rural sector particularly the farming activity has come under considerable stress.
Rural distress
Roughly 58 per cent of the rural households engage in agriculture and of this, two-thirds are heavily dependent on it. Rural economy in last few years had been on the downward slope as it was marked by slowing wages, poor incomes and lower profits from farming. Poor monsoons for two years in succession had worsened the situation further.
The government, through this budget, has sought to correct the rural distress by putting villages at the centre of its developmental agenda. The Finance Minister has allocated funds to the tune of Rs 87,765 crores to the rural sector which will be used for creating rural infrastructure such as creation of a dedicated long term ‘Irrigation’ fund with an initial corpus of Rs 20,000 crore. The budget has an outlay of Rs 19,000 crores which will be spent in this financial year on rural roads as part of the government’s goal to ensure that all habitations are connected by 2019.
The Finance Minister has also given a push to the rural electrification in the next two years. Goals for rural connectivity and making of electricity available, if fulfilled, have the potential of transforming the rural economy and the government has done well to focus on it.
Healthy step
Introduction of a health insurance scheme that proposes a coverage up to Rs one lakh against hospitalisation costs for economically weaker households with senior citizens above the age of 60 eligible for another Rs 30,000 in top-up cover, though inadequate for contemporary critical in-hospital care yet, is a significant step forward.
Yet another commendable initiative in the budget is to provide all families below the poverty line with cooking gas. This would not only ensure better health for the underprivileged women but would also go a long way for saving the wood for better environment tomorrow.
The budget, seen from a larger microeconomic angle, has promised to keep the fiscal deficit under committed limits. At the same time, the Finance Minister has stressed the need for more elasticity in dealing with unfavourable economic situations.
The Finance Minister has proposed the setting up of a committee to have a relook at the entire roadmap mandated by the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act of 2003 to explore the possibility of having a target range instead of fixed numbers which may provide the government much needed elbow room to align fiscal expansion or contraction with credit-availability.
This budget does not offer much to the salaried class barring some sops to lower and middle income families. The salaried class has also been shocked with the proposal to tax 60 percent of the Employees Provident Fund. The government has dropped enough hints of taking back the proposal of taxing the EPF.
Shifting emphasis
While the first two budgets of the Modi government were in a way aimed at pleasing the middle classes which had been instrumental in creating a positive environment for the ruling party to win a huge victory in the 2014 general elections, this budget exercise seems to be a determined attempt to shift the emphasis towards reviving the rural economy and in the process to correct its negative “Suit-Boot ki Sarkar” image which had been projected by the opposition particularly the Congress.
The Modi government, by its third budget, has given a clear signal that it is ready to traverse the path which was taken by its predecessor UPA government of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Substantial hiking of the MGNREGS budget to the level of Rs 38,500 crore is concrete evidence that the Modi government has come to accept the utility of the UPA scheme.
Details of the budget must have deeply disappointed those who had sincerely hoped that Narendra Modi would prove to a transformative leader like former US President Ronald Regan or former British Prime Minister Margret Thatcher or former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
The budget has sought to send political signals that the Modi Government cares for the poor, marginalised and deprived sections of society but whether it will get the BJP votes in coming assembly elections in four states and one Union Territory is difficult to fathom. Only electoral results will either confirm or negate the government’s strategy of course correction.
The budget is positive on intents and tall on promises. But it seems to be short rather very short on execution or implementation. The budget document does not give a roadmap as how the government proposes to convert policy measures into measureable realties on ground barring the Finance Minister’s proposal of several bills including the much delayed GST bill.
Successful passage of more than half a dozen important bills which have the potential of facilitating the execution of the well-meaning policies requires cooperation of the opposition parties including of the Congress but there are no indications from the ruling party that it is serious in creative suitable environment for taking the opposition on board for ensuring the safe passage of the bills through the two houses of parliament. Little over 21 months old Modi government appears to be in a confrontationist mode rather being in a cooperative mood.
(Dr Satish Misra is a Senior Fellow at Observer Research Foundation, Delhi)
Country Reports
Afghanistan
Blast near Indian consulate
On 2 March, a car bomb detonated near the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar province. Afghan security forces killed five militants – after the suicide bomber was killed due to hisown strike. Two people were killed and 19 wounded as a result of the attacks. The two victims, according to Reuters, were a police officer and a civilian woman. Consular officials told the BBC that none of their staff were hurt. A spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, Attahullah Khugyani, said, “Their target was the Indian consulate, but our forces shot and killed them all before they reached their target.” The Islamic State, active in Nangarhar, reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
For more information, see: “Militants attack Indian consulate in Jalalabad”, The Times of India, 2 March 2016
Suicide-bombs kill 20
No comments:
Post a Comment