- The former CMD, Concor, in his article suggested that the 2019-20 Budget for the
Indian Railways (IR) indicates no light at the end of the tunnel. He further suggested
that caught in a low growth trap, the organisation must revamp its structure rather than
be content with business as usual. - IR to reorient its freight transportation strategy. It needs to calibrate its services to
create critical mass of piecemeal wagons/containers, in partnership with other players,
for timetabled multimodal logistics services end-to-end. - Its passenger services have likewise to stride ahead with faster, comfortable and
punctual inter-city services. Among a daily average of over 13,300 passenger trains
that the IR operates, there are 4,700 short-distance stopping ‘regional’ trains, including those serving towns by ferrying commuters to/from expanding cities and metros.
- Power distribution companies would have to pay the agreed full tariff to renewable
energy producers during the period of non-supply of electricity, the government said.
Power discoms pay fixed charges or infrastructure cost to electricity generation
companies during the non-supply period under the power purchase agreements (PPA).
- India’s coal-fired power generation capacity is expected to rise by 22.4% in three years,
the federal power ministry’s chief engineer said. - India saw its annual coal demand rise 9.1% to nearly 1 billion tonnes in the year ended
March 2019. - “Capacity by 2022 is likely to be 238 gigawatts (GW) in terms of coal-based
generation,” Ghanshyam Prasad, chief engineer at India’s ministry of power said.
The International Energy Agency expects India to become the second largest coal
consumer behind China early next decade. - Electricity demand in the country rose 36% in the seven years to April 2019 while coal-
fired generation capacity during the period grew by 74% to 194.44 GW, according to
the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). - India’s power consumption has slowed to 3.6% during the year ended March 2019, the
fourth straight fiscal year of decline, according to the CEA. - State-run NTPC Ltd wants to increase its coal-fired capacity to 85 GW by 2032 from
47.3 GW currently, S.D. Prasad, chief general manager at NTPC, said.
- In the first ‘Pragati’ review meeting of his second term in office, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi reiterated his government’s commitment for the “Housing for All
by 2022” mission and urged bureaucrats to remove hurdles to achieve the objective.
- Wonder Cement has set up its third cement plant at Nimbahera in Rajasthan’s
Chittorgarh district, increasing its total production capacity to 11 million tonnes per
annum. - The new plant, built in just a year with an investment of ₹1,100, is designed to meet
burgeoning domestic demand, the company said in a statement. - It had set up its first unit at Nimbahera in 2012 with a 3 million tonne per annum output
and later added another 4 million tonne per annum in 2015. - Last year, Wonder Cement invested about ₹450 crore to set up a 2 million tonne per
annum clinker grinding unit in Dhule, Maharashtra. In addition, the company is planning
to invest ₹800 crore by the end of FY20.
- The growth of eight core industries slowed sharply in June, at just 0.2% as compared to 7.8% in June 2018. There has been a strong growth in the first two months of current
- For June, four sectors saw a sharp contraction like crude oil (-6.8%), natural gas
(-2.1%), refinery products (-9.3%) and cement (-1.5%).