In order to give a further push to clean mobility in public transportation, the Department of Heavy Industry (DHI) has approved the sanction of 5595 electric buses to 64 Cities, State Government Entities, State Transport Undertakings (STUs) for intra-city and intercity operation under FAME India scheme phase II.

The Department had invited the Expression of Interest (EoI) from million-plus cities, smart cities, State/UT capitals and cities from special category states for submission of proposal for deployment of electric buses on operational cost basis. 

As part of India’s energy security plan, the government is exploring newer battery technologies such as polymer-based solid state batteries that may allow India to avoid dependence on lithium or cobalt imports.

This comes in the backdrop of Chinese state-owned firms securing lithium mine concessions in countries such as Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, which forms the so-called lithium triangle. The idea is to not allow India to fall in a vulnerable position with a likely threat of supply squeeze as has happened in the case of crude oil, with India being the world’s third largest oil importer.

Almost all electric vehicles in the country run on imported batteries, mostly from China. At present a lithium-ion battery accounts for 40% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. Lithium also has other uses such as in mobile phone batteries and solar panels.

The government has invited proposals from entities for the deployment of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in big and smart cities. Proposals are invited from entities that intend to develop EV charging infrastructure in million-plus cities as per the 2011 census; and smart cities as notified by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

"Initially, 1,000 EV charging stations are earmarked for deployment through this EOI. These charging stations will be sanctioned to different states/cities/entities after evaluation of the proposals received under this EOI," the Heavy Industries Ministry said.

It further advised that to the extent possible charging station should be connected with 'grid-connected solar power plant' of required capacity as per MNRE guidelines so as to ensure grid stability and green energy for electric vehicles. 

The National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020 will be implemented in phases based on the feedback from auto industry. The Minister of State for Heavy Industries promised all support to the auto industry on policy matters to ensure smooth and efficient transformation of the automotive industry from internal combustion (IC) to electric powertrain.

NEMMP 2020 is a mission document providing the vision and the roadmap for the faster adoption of electric vehicles and their manufacturing in the country. This plan has been designed to enhance national fuel security to provide affordable and environmentally friendly transportation and to enable the Indian automotive industry to achieve global manufacturing leadership.

The Ministry of Power (MoP) has issued a vision document which charts the way forward for India’s power sector. The document points out the problem areas and sets the timeline for every aspect of power generation, evacuation, and distribution.

The document, called “Vision 2024”, aims at developing a sustainable, viable, efficient, and competitive power sector to facilitate economic and social development. The report points out that the generation capacity in India has increased drastically in the past decade, but the sector is beset with falling plant load factor (PLF) and stressed assets. 

Transmission is a huge problem for Indian renewable energy project developers. In many cases, renewable energy projects are ready to evacuate, but the evacuation infrastructure is not ready. In some other cases, due to the lack of proper transmission infrastructure, renewable energy has to be curtailed.

India would significantly exceed its 2015 Paris Agreement target of a 40% share of installed power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030, stated the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Based on India’s Central Electricity Authority (CEA) projections, instead of 40%, India will have 63% of installed capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2029-30. And this amounts to 60% more than what India had committed to achieve under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change. IEEFA’s statement is based on a report released by the CEA. The CEA’s report on Optimal Energy Mix scenario projects that India could have 63% of its installed power capacity from non-fossil fuel sources, including hydro, by 2029-30. According to the CEA, the growth in new installed power capacity will lead renewables to generate close to 44% of all electricity consumed in India in 2029-30.

Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of four public sector enterprises under the Ministry of Power, Government of India, announced the successful installation of over 5,00,000 smart meters in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, under the Government of India’s Smart Meter National Programme (SMNP). The smart meters operational in these states aim to enhance consumer convenience and rationalise electricity consumption. 

The smart meter technology is critical to India’s ongoing power sector reforms. The Smart Meter National Programme that aims to retrofit 25 crore conventional meters with smart variants will lead to 80-100 per cent improvement in billing efficiency.

Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT), released the report titled “Enhancing Export Competitiveness of India’s Electronic Hardware Manufacturing Ecosystem”. The report commissioned by MAIT, focuses on analysing the current ecosystem to outlining a combination of policy reforms, consisting of reimbursements of state and central tax levies, relaxation on corporate income tax and production-based incentives to boost the electronics manufacturing in the country. 

As part of its mandate of enhancing ‘export-led electronics manufacturing’, MAIT has worked out a roadmap for the electronics sector with specific emphasis on Mobiles, Datacom and PCs.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has issued guidelines for 5G trials across all available spectrum bands indicating to allocate up to 400 MHz of radio waves for experiments. The DoT has fixed a uniform fee of INR 5,000 (~64 Euro) for the trial licence. However, its validity will range between 3 month and 2 years, depending on the purpose for which the trial is being conducted.

The government has plans to conduct spectrum auction for 5G services by the end of this year to enable the roll-out of commercial services using the technology in 2020.

Indian entities involved in R&D, manufacturing, telecom operators and academia for the purpose of R&D and experimentation can get licence for a period of "up to two years, renewable on case to case basis by WPC, subject to truncation to prevent interference to licensed operations".

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has sought inputs from select stakeholders on its draft data protection Bill. MEITY, in a letter sent has sought clarifications on issues such as data localisation and ways to govern non-personal data, including anonymised, community and ecommerce data.

MeitY has sought inputs on the scope of the data authority and obligations for the data fiduciary. It also asked stakeholders for feedback on the “contours of a policy that should govern non-personal data” and whether there was a case to mandate free access to such data. The Bill would focus only on personal data of citizens and that MeitY was not looking to expand that to include non-personal data. MeitY is not holding “any fresh consultations” on the Data Protection Bill.  No industry association or company has been contacted and only individual opinions have been sought, the official clarified.