The Tuberculosis (tb) bacteria kill two people every three minutes. The bacteria uses iron from the human body to survive. But the mechanism by which they source the iron was not known. Researchers from the University of Hyderabad have recently cracked the mechanism. Their research paves the way for new medicines to treat the disease better.

The tb pathogen sources its iron through molecules called siderophores, which have high affinity for iron. First, the pathogens release these molecules, which extracts iron from human cells, leaving them iron-scarce. The molecules are then transported back to the pathogen, which synthesizes the iron to sustain and grow at the cost of the host. These actions are dependent on two proteins that help complete the transportation cycle of siderophores. Blocking this transportation through medicines can be a breakthrough to cure tb. First, it will stop the iron uptake and secretion. Since there will be no export pathway for siderophores, it will extract iron from the microbe itself.

“A proper pool of iron needs to be maintained because low or even high concentration of iron is harmful to the cell,”

says Aisha Farhana, the lead author of the study published in the May 7 issue of PLoS One. The other concern, she says, is that anaemia is often an offshoot of tb. This is because iron is a major component of blood.

According to K K Chopra of the New Delhi Tuberculosis Centre,

“Till now, the anti- tb drugs that we have been using target protein uptake, not iron uptake. If developed and compared with a placebo, the drug might be more effective than the currently available drugs.”

Treatment at present involves a combination of drugs introduced in India in 1997, according to who recommendations. Also, who surveys in 1997 and 2007 found that multi-drug resistance tb strains were present in 63 of the 72 countries surveyed.

Hemkund, a glacial lake, is situated in the Nanda Devi Biospehere Reserve in Uttaranchal. The tenth Guru of the Sikhs is known to have meditated near the lake before assuming the human avatar. The pilgrimage includes a 19-kms trek after reaching the base camp at Gobind Ghat. But my problem started from Delhi itself as we left with a 150 people strong ‘religious troupe.’ They distributed ice-creams as soon as we started the wrappers of which everybody threw happily out of the bus even as they sang religious hymns. I managed to procure a polythene (for all my hate for the thing!) in which I collected the wrappers that I took from my parents and aunt and brother.

On the way from Shrinagar to Govind Ghat in the third day of journey from where we were supposed to start the trek, the group decided to stop near the banks of the river Alaknanda and prepare lunch. As some elders cooked, all others went down to the river bank to cool their heels; and also took along their soft drink bottles and tin cans. “Such is nature’s paradox. Even as the sun is lashing down on us, there is ice-cold water that provides relief. You do not get to see this ever in Delhi,” said a young man in the group as he sipped from his can of Pepsi. The next moment brought exactly what I dreaded. The can was flowing with the ‘ice-cold water.’ We went up to the road side for lunch. The site was chosen not just because of proximity to the river but also for a hand-pump that was much needed for cooking and washing. An old ascetic lived in a shack near the hand-pump who I am sure was used to the ‘loud’ Punjabis by now. The food tasted good but not the after-affects. The disposable plates were thrown in a pile near the ascetic’s shack along with the leftover food and other vegetable waste. This I could not collect in my polythene and my brother jeered at my obvious misery.

“Oye Environment! if you think too much, you will not be able to enjoy your vacation,” he said.

That is how my family has come to address me as in the last few years.

While talking about the role of religion in Environment conservation, Shrivatsa Goswami, a Mahant in Vrindavan told us last year that the quality of river water in a region talks a lot about the character of people in that region. If the river is pristine, people are still honest and sincere while its vice-versa in places where the river is dirty. I recalled this as we approached Govind Ghat. Parallel to the river, just a little higher, one could see a stream of vehicles, in all hues and sizes. There were more than a lakh pilgrims at Govind Ghat that day. The hoardings stating the presence of an eco-development committee were re-assuring but only for a short time. The claims that garbage is sent down to the plains for processing was trashed soon when I saw the sweepers off-loading their trolleys on the hill side, straight down into the river. I don’t know how long will the river remain pristine there.

Having reached the Gurudwara before my family, I was waiting outside when the organizer of our group came by. Trying my best not to sound like an ‘activist’ I asked him if it was possible that the pilgrims brought their own steel utensils for the food served on the way. “We tried doing this, but people are not admitting at all. They think it is extra luggage. We even tried carrying it for them but they are not happy even washing them,” said Bubble, as he was called by all of them. I wondered how people managed before “disposable plates” were invented.

Soon, I saw my mother and aunt who proudly showed me their shopping for the next day’s trek: five wooden sticks and five raincoats, costing Rs 10 each and made of polythene. “They are so cheap, one can even throw them after use,” said my aunt. Yeah! I glared at her. The next day, I was to see a lot of them covering bushes as we climbed the mountain.

19 kms of trek might not be an easy feat for all age groups. But more than the strength, I realized it was the religious drive that was edging most people when I looked back at the stream of humanity climbing up. Apart from the mules and piggy backs and ‘Palkis’ carrying those who could afford them, there were also people as old as 80 and kids as young as 4-5 who climbed uncomplainingly, with a prayer on their lips. I made some friends amongst these fellow Moksha seekers who were surprised like a child at every glacier, stream and unusual looking bushes and fruits. I also made a few friends who wondered why can’t there be a road from Govind Ghat to Hemkund. “Afterall, lakhs of people go up every year. The government should think on these lines,” said a professor from Punjab. “Moksha is not so easy, Prof,” I said to myself but dreaded the idea of blasting the mountains for the road.

Well, the trek did not turn out to be as difficult with the Dhabas at every turn selling all sorts of things, from raincoats to Glucon-D to packaged drinking water. Infact, I received a piece of advice as I filled my bottle from a stream on the way. “This water might be polluted, you will fall sick,” said one elderly lady. I recalled the ads of Himalaya and Ganga bottled water that claim the water to be especially “packaged from the mountain streams.” I wondered if that was safer because it was sold for Rs 15 a litre and not free like this stream. Here, I had another tussle with my family as they bought bottles of Limca. “They have sweepers all along the way to take the garbage down and recycle it,” my father said. One such sweeper was lighting a pile of garbage with his ‘beedi’ on my way back. I had become an old-fashioned cynic; I slapped myself on the head.

My mother, whose last trip to Hemkund was 30 years ago, said that things used to be very different back then. “There were not so many shops. Very few people went up because we had to walk on the glacier after the first 4-5 kms of the trek. The Hemkund ‘sarovar’ itself had little water as the rest was frozen and it was a challenge to take even a single dip in the ice-cold water, a ritual around which the pilgrimage is based,” she said. Well, we did not get a chance to walk on the snow but I was amazed to see the blue lake. The water was chilly but felt calming after the long trek.

As the atheist me sat there wondering how the Guru managed to find such a beautiful place to meditate, I heard the statutory announcements from the Gurudwara behind the lake.

“This is the Guru’s abode, all the pilgrims coming up should take care that they do not soil the surroundings. Please do not eat and throw chips packets and bottles around,” said the Granthi.

I wondered if anybody was listening.

OVER 120 nations have agreed to have legally binding measures to control the pollution by mercury, a neurotoxin. Formal negotiations for the treaty will begin in 2010.

The agreement, reached at the 25th session of the Governing Council of the UN Environment Programme (unep) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, is a change from previous years, when major powers, including the US, China and India, sought voluntary reductions. On February 18, they agreed to consider the binding treaty.

Some countries, including India, had earlier said a legally binding agreement is not necessary for unintentional mercury emissions. It was supported by China and Indonesia.

“Switzerland agreed that different mechanisms were necessary for unintentional and intentional emissions, but stressed that all mercury emissions must be addressed under the legally binding measures,”

said Prashant Pastore of Toxic Link, Delhi-based non-profit, who attended the meeting.

A consensus was reached after the US supported the call to ban mercy use worldwide. Changing its stand, the new US administration under President Barack Obama wanted a legally binding international treaty to reduce the toxic pollutant’s content in the environment. Till now, the US had supported only voluntary and partnership measures.

“This came as a surprise,” said Pastore. “Several non-profits said they were floored during the US announcement,” said a press release of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (enb), a news service for environment and development negotiations. “The US said the measures should address all significant sources of mercury, especially sectors with the greatest global impact including coal combustion,” said the press release.

The treaty would mandate signatory countries to follow measures to phase out the toxic pollutant.

An Inter-governmental Negotiating Committee will begin formal negotiations on the treaty in 2010, which will be wrapped up by 2013. The committe will devise modalities for phasing out mercury in terms of addressing the anthropogenic sources of the chemical, capacity building and technical and financial assistance to countries.

On behalf of developing countries, India called for a committed financial assistance to introduce mercury-free technologies. The EU rejected the proposal initially, but after consultations delegates agreed that developing countries and transition economies should be provided with technical and adequate financial assistance to help them implement the legally binding obligations effectively.

Widely used in chemical production and small-scale mining, mercury is also known to affect the cardio-vascular system. It persists in the environment once released and can travel long distances. Thus even countries which release little or no mercury and areas far away from industrial activities are at the risk of being contaminated. The Arctic, for instance, has high mercury levels, although it is far from major release sites. Its toxic forms such as methylmercury can cross the placental and blood-brain barrier affecting foetuses and children.

About 30 hours ago, two men on a bike sped by me, snatching my paper shopping bag on their way. besides the sunday shopping, the bag also had my wallet which contained my driving license, atm cards, 5k in hard cash besides other “hardly important” things as said the ‘fine’ police officer filing my complaint. Now the later word in quotes was me quoting myself.  Soon, i gave a call to the PCR who instead of going after the bikers, came to me and stood consoling me because they soon got to know that this women is a “presswallah”, and then came another police bullet and then the Station House Officer’s car. Imagine the solidarity with a press reporter! They all took details of the incident from me seperately and the SHO even tried to tell me his media contacts and how they keep coming to his office without realising Goddamn u, I am not bothered about anything else right now but my wallet. However, in all this, they forgot only one thing, that they should be sending somebody on the road where the bikers fled. When I insisted, I was told two bikes are already after them. Yeah, I believe u sir!! Obviously the bikers knew that the area police has grown their ponches with much effort and would not give up on it easily. “Posh areas mein yeh sab hota hi rehta hai, ab police har samay toh nahi reh sakti na,”  the fine SHO tells me. The point to be taken is that the police check post is just 2-3 minutes away from the spot where already 4-5 snatching incidents have already happened.

After a two hours’ drama on the spot when I insisted that I want to file a formal first information report instead of just a complaint on a plain sheet of paper (even that was tattered and they procured a blank one with great difficulty) they tried their best to persuade me not to do it. “Madam, kuch ho toh sakta nahi isme, fir kyon aap apna time kharab kar rahe ho?” So that is the punch line Boss!! Nothing can happen, the police admits it. To hell with u and your safety! Nothing can happen! Now its your wish whether u want to fight your way or just rest your mind at peace and do not just go out of your house, as I said earlier.

Act I, Scene 2: Vikaspuri Police Station.

we reach there 30 minutes after the last encounter with our fine cops, blocking my atm cards in the time between. The officer was still writing something on the plain sheet on which I gave them my rough FIR draft. we were told that we will have to wait for about 1.5 hours, so why don’t we come the next day. We too refused to budge,s aid theres office tomorrow, lets finish everything today. After about half an hour, I went inside the police station to check and found the poor cop struggling with the keyboard. obviously, they are supposed to catch theives, not operate keyboards!! He had managed only one paragraph out of the four written by me. I really felt pity for him and offered to help. And i ended up TYPING MY OWN FIR.  Still, I could not get it the same night. Guess the reason: the paper on which print out was to be taken was locked up by another constable in a cupboard and he had gone for a raid to Ghaziabad!

Act II, Scene I: Vikaspuri Police Station

Monday Morning. Before rushing for the office meeting, it is the police station today. I am met with two ‘fine’ female constables in the duty room. They ask me when the case happened. Even as they are about to note down the details for the fourth time, I tell them that I have already lodged my FIR. They tell me since the case happened just yesterday, it will take time to register an FIR. And that is where I cannot take it anymore. I tell them that I filed it myself last night and just a minute ago, I saw a copy of it in the hands of the SHO outside. Thankfully, the point is well understood and here begins another struggle with the rickety old computer Dabba. This time, I go inside the duty room to take out a printout of my FIR. And then begins the hunt for the duty officer who filed the report last night but did not obviously sign it. So, the fine female constable fakes up his signature. However, in my morning rush, I am supposed to forgive her for this.

The grand finale: we are met by the same fine officer whom we met last night walking around with a sten gun. I tell him how I was forced to come in the morning for lack of paper last night. “Ab police hai na madam, kya karen,” this was his parting remark to me. Now, I will begin another new act with the Regional Transport Office tomorrow, the Delhi Police’s siblings, where I will have to go to get my driving license made anew.

The settlers were from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They grew vegetables, flowers, wheat and rice on the land rented from people who once held land lease given by the irrigation department. Pappu of Kaimur district in Bihar had rented about 6 ha at Nayabaans close to the Okhla Bird Park and DND flyway for Rs 6,000 per hectare for a year. While he farmed, his younger siblings studied in a makeshift school. He lost his month-old vegetable crop and has nowhere to go.

“They just came in the evening and trampled all over the vegetables and flooded the fields. Had they at least given us a notice we would not have sown crops. I had invested Rs 15,000-20,000 on wheat.”

said Sauraj Singh Kashyap of Hapur in Uttar Pradesh. H C Malhotra, a member of literacy organization Gyan Jyoti Vidyalaya, which set up the makeshift school in the area, said “These people have not made permanent structures on the riverbed. They were merely making a living out of agriculture.”

The irrigation department said it had cancelled all leases in 1999 but people continued to possess the land. “About seven people had pattas over this 25 ha. They filed cases in court and the hearing is on,” said a department official. “This was not a demolition exercise, so a court order was not needed. We just removed people who had encroached upon the department’s land,” added the official.

Sohanpal of Dallupura village in Noida does not agree.

“The land was given to us in 1948 when the British left, and ever since my family has been cultivating it. My case is being heard in the sub divisional magistrate’s court in Dadri,”

he said.

What development?

The Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department got some land in the National Capital Territory along the Yamuna Pushta road in 1956 for its maintenance. It is now transferring 362 ha of it in Delhi and 32.5 ha in Noida to the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, also called Noida authority. The places where the land is being transferred are Madanpur Khadar, Sarita Vihar, Jamia Nagar and patches between Chilla Regulator and the Shahdara railway bridge. About 55.5 ha in Madanpur Khadar and 128 ha in Sarita Vihar and Jamia Nagar have been transferred.

The Noida authority said the land is being transferred for development but refused to specify the kind of development.

“The irrigation department is unable to do any development there because it does not come under its purview. We will take up development in accordance with the Masterplan of Delhi 2021. I cannot comment on the land in Noida,”

said Rajpal Kaushik, senior town planner of the authority.

Kaushik also said the Noida authority would request the Delhi Development Authority for change of land use, deepening people’s suspicion that it plans commercial development on the floodplain. Under the Delhi master plan most land near the Yamuna is for greenery and recreation.

An official of the irrigation department said the Noida authority would develop a green belt on the land. “Why can’t the department do so? By next year, I am sure there will be construction near the Okhla Bird Park,” said Anand Arya, a bird watcher who regularly visits the park.

The waste has been lying at the plant since 1984 when the Bhopal gas tragedy occurred. The 350 metric tonnes of waste is at the centre of a legal wrangle between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments.

The Gujarat government did not comply with similar orders passed by the high court in October 2007. A fire at the hazardous waste treatment facility (managed by Bharuch Enviro Infrastructure Ltd. or beil) and opposition from local non-profits were cited as main reasons for non-compliance.

The high court then got the beil site inspected by the Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) which said that a backlog of 6,964 tonnes of waste would have to be cleared first. This finding was taken into account by the court when it said its order should be complied with in six weeks. Back of the envelop calculations however show that beil will have 2,464 tonnes excess waste to dispose and not 1,564 tonnes waste as estimated by cpcb in its affidavit. Therefore the plant will not be in a position to take in more stocks of toxic waste in January despite court deadline.

S K Nanda, state principal secretary for environment, said there was no question of

“allowing the waste to be brought to Gujarat”.

He was hopeful the issue would be resolved in the Supreme Court that is hearing an appeal of the state against contempt proceedings for not complying with earlier orders.

The apex court on November 8 had directed that chief secretaries of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat and officials of the Union Ministry of Commerce should jointly decide on the modalities for disposing the waste. A joint report will be filed in the Supreme Court in January end when the case is scheduled for hearing. This will be much before the High Court deadline expires, Nanda said.

This will make it difficult for industry to set up projects, CII said. Assembling land from numerous owners is not a task which the corporate sector can undertake effectively. The government should retain its role of acquiring land for industrial development, as industrialization is key to job creation, CII said.

It further said that the clause ‘public purpose’ should empower the state to acquire land not only for infrastructure or defence purposes but also for developing land for economic activity.

CII criticized another provision in the bill that requires the acquirer to share the capital gains with the original owners or their heirs whenever the acquired land is sold. It is an impossibly onerous task for the private sector, the CII said. It suggested setting up state land bank corporations, that would acquire non-cultivable land, develop them and pass them on to the private sector.

The Ministry of Rural Development refused to comment on CII’s press statement saying that a group of ministers is vetting the bill. “We will table the bill only after the ministers submit their report,” said Rita Sinha, secretary (Department of Land Resources), Ministry of Rural Development.

In October 2008, a Parliamentary Standing committee had criticized certain clauses in the bill. In its report, the committee said the clause relating to states acquiring 30 per cent of a project land is vague and can be misused.

“The previous definition (which broadly says that the government will acquire land for projects that benefit the public) was much better and should be retained,”

the report said.

Land rights activists, however, hail the bill and say it offers a good chance to farmers for negotiating the price of their land with the industry.

“Industry’s reaction was bound to come as it cannot forcibly acquire land like the government does,” said S Parasuraman, director of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. According to Parasuraman, the entire process of land selling should be governed by market forces. “Otherwise, the process will get complicated as the price difference between acquisition prices paid by private buyers and the government will be huge. And nobody would want to give land to the government at low prices,” he said.

With less time left for the Parliament session, it seems unlikely that the bill will get through, said a CII official. And this will give industry a chance to push its agenda.

INDIA intends to increase the share of nuclear power from 3.1 per cent of its total energy generation to 25 per cent by 2050. Six nuclear power reactors are under construction and eight are in the pipeline. While the country plans to expand mining of uranium to feed the reactors, a yet-to-be-released study by the environmental group “Toxics Link” pointed out that it lacked knowledge about handling nuclear waste; the existing uranium mines do not follow requisite safety methods.

Most uranium is mined in Jadugoda in East Singhbum district and three other places in Jharkhand. The ore in Indian mines contains a low percentage (0.042-0.051 per cent) of the mineral, except in Meghalaya. The problem with low-grade ore is that extracting a small amount of concentrated uranium generates a large amount of waste. The ore grade is high in Meghalaya but an onslaught of rains makes the terrain almost inaccessible for six months in a year.

The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) plans to invest about Rs 31 billion to set up new mines and processing plants in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya as part of the eleventh plan. “The proposed mine at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh involves extraction of 3,000 tonnes of uranium per day from underground mines spread over 879 hectares,” said the study done from August to November. Quoting members of the non-profit Mines, Minerals and People, the study said for a uranium concentration of 0.039 per cent, the waste to be disposed of would amount to nearly a million tonnes per year.

The waste rock generated by uranium mining contains a significant amount of radioactivity.

“No inventory seems to have been maintained on how this radioactive waste is utilized and where it has gone.”

said Upasana Choudhry, the key researcher of the study. This waste was reportedly given to people for construction of houses and roads, but that has officially stopped now.

Processing the ore generates slurry called tailings. In Jadugoda, waste ponds in which these tailings are dumped as well as tailing pipes that occasionally burst are occupational hazards. A tailing pipe burst on August 16, 2008, near the Dugridih village in Jadugoda, spewing it with uranium waste.

Nuclear waste management practices in India are governed by the Atomic Energy Act 1962, which states that there should be no human settlement within five kilometres of a waste site or uranium tailing pond. “Even though Jadugoda has been in operation for more than 30 years, seven villages are within one-and-a-half kilometres of the danger zone. Dugridih begins just 40 metres away,” it added.

“UCIL mines at Jadugoda makes use of a ‘revolving door’ contractor arrangement, whereby workers are dismissed as soon as they show signs of increased radiation doses,” the study said, quoting the non-profit Jharkhandi Organisation Against Radiation. The organization works with tribals in the seven villages near the tailing pipes.

According to a survey conducted in 1999 by the organization in the seven villages, 47 per cent of the women respondents reported disruptions in menstrual cycle, 18 per cent said they had suffered miscarriages or given birth to stillborn babies in the past five years, 30 per cent reported fertility problems and nearly all women complained of fatigue, weakness and depression. “The most visible impact of the mine has been deformed children,” the survey said.

The government has several schemes supporting and subsidizing various kinds of solar power systems.The emphasis is on encouraging manufacturing and industry rather than on installations as solar PV manufacturing is capital intensive.

Through the special incentive package scheme, the government offers capital subsidies to state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing and related units, including solar PV. Eligible semiconductor “fab” projects must have a net present value of at least Rs 2,500 crore. The subsidy available is 25 per cent of the capital expenditure; it is 20 per cent for projects in a special economic zone. The response was good. “Most of the manufacturers who have applied under the scheme want to invest in photovoltaic technology. Proposals roughly worth Rs 1,40,000 crore from 14 manufacturers are lying with the ministry of which 12 are photovoltaic manufacturers” said K S Chari, director in the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the nodal ministry. Most of the proposals have been forwarded to a technical evaluation committee and decision is expected “shortly”.

The recently announced feed-in-tariff incentive scheme of MNRE has also sparked considerable interest. The scheme is aimed at encouraging a small number of megawatt-level projects. Under the scheme, the project developer makes a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the state utility at the highest existing market rate. The MNRE, through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), augments this rate, to a maximum of Rs 15 per kWh. The maximum supplement incentive from MNRE is restricted to Rs 12 per kWh. This will be reduced by 5 per cent for projects commissioned from the beginning of 2010 onwards. The supplement is available for up to 10 years. Till June the ministry received applications to set up PV plants totalling 2000 mw. The proposals are currently being scrutinized.

Globally, solar pv projects are being installed in large numbers each year. In 2007, more than 2,260 mw of pv capacity was installed, an increase of more than 50 per cent over the previous year. This brought the total installed capacity to 7,800 mw. About three-fourths of the total solar pv capacity was installed in Germany and Spain alone. If Japan and the us are also included, then over 90 per cent of pv installations in 2007 occurred in four countries.

Germany Powering ahead
Germany currently accounts for about half of the world’s installed solar power capacity—3,862 mw. This growth happened due to its market support measures promoting grid-connected rooftop systems and large pv power plants.

Germany’s innovative feed-in tariff (fit) scheme has been the main driver for the solar market. The German fit scheme, governed by the country’s Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) guarantees generous fixed rates for all solar pv electricity generated for 20 years from completion of the project. An important feature is that the rate guaranteed for new projects decreases every year—currently by 5 per cent but this is set to increase in 2009.

The decrease in tariff is part of the policy package as it works to push manufacturers to reduce costs and to increase efficiency of their systems. This tariff reduction encourages industry to develop cheaper, more efficient systems and to lower installation costs. The precise rates given depend on the system size and location.

In 2008 they stand as shown in Table 2.
The fit scheme is backed by favourable loans from KfW, a government-owned financial institution. Loans are provided in collaboration with individual banks; interest rates are dependent on credit ratings and the value of collateral, starting at 4.63 per cent. The programme as a whole has created a very large consumer base for solar pv in Germany. This, along with special financial incentives packages for manufacturing in certain regions and funding for research, has helped to create a flourishing pv production industry in Germany.

Critics of the German scheme say it is too generous—the cost to energy consumers is too high and the use of such an expensive technology in a country with relatively low sunlight hours is inefficient. However, on the whole, it is estimated that the fit programme is responsible for an increase of €1.01 in monthly household electricity bills.

Leading the charge: California

California was the first state to introduce feed-in remuneration. Its tightly restricted feed-in programme will supply the development of up to 480 mw of total generating capacity (roughly equivalent to a small coal based power station). In all cases, feed-in contracts for 10-20 years can be entered only for installations up to 1.5 mw capacity and the range from us 8-31 cents per kWh, depending on the time the power is delivered—peak consumption time, winter or summer. As a result of this policy directive, the two big power utilities of the state—Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company have signed power purchase agreements—for 245 mw with eSolar and 500 mw with Bright Source, respectively. In 2007 around 70 per cent of all pv installations in the us were in California, which aims to install 3,000 mw in the next 10 years.
The California Solar Initiative provides two kinds of financial incentive depending on the system size. Systems under 50 kW are eligible for the expected performance based buy-down, a one time, up-front payment. The size of the payment is calculated from the estimated output of the system, based on rated capacity, but also an assessment of the quality of the installation, including geographical factors such as location, tilt and shading. Systems over 50 kW can receive the feed-in-tariff. For both payment methods, the rates applicable are linked to the cumulative capacity installed under the scheme, reducing in 10 steps as capacity increases.

India’s solar future

Harnessing power from the sun is one of the biggest answers to challenges of energy security and climate change. Both solar thermal and photovoltaic will play a key role in addressing energy needs of the future. It is clear that the biggest challenge is to bring down the costs of solar pv— by cutting costs or by increasing efficiency.
The government has shown commitment but implementation and the nature of schemes have been found wanting. Take for instance, the heaters promotion scheme. “The problem with such schemes is that it comes through dealers designated by the government so it is difficult to trust the quality mostly,” said Mathew Kochu SJ, director of Xavier’s Institute of Technology in Mehsana district of Gujarat, who have installed solar heaters and lights in their entire institute. A national level certification and labelling programme is a must to ensure quality and performance.
Once this is done laws and regulations like changes in building bylaws making it compulsory to install both solar thermal and pv features are the kind of reforms the sector needs. “Like Europe and the us, we should make at least two to three per cent contribution from solar generation mandatory. Then, policy-making on the same will become faster,” said an ireda official.

Finances and the limited technical know-how remain the key barriers for the solar projects in India. Innovations are needed to make solar projects financially and technologically feasible. A hybrid system or a system with high fossil fuel back-up, along with increased government technical and financial support and incentives, facilitation of technology transfer, will increase the market interest in csp technology.

The Indian government has announced a generation-based incentive scheme. It is even considering ramping up solar generation to 20,000 mw. But finances will remain a big issue. The feed-in (or preferential) tariff provides an incentive to set up the plant, but it also puts a huge burden on the exchequer. This is why governments only extend the high tariff incentives in a restricted capacity. India’s solar programme must therefore be able to source new funds—through a programmatic cdm— instead of each project applying separately for cdm. The government can collect all the carbon credits from solar projects and sell it collectively in addition to securing international finances to pay for national mitigation actions.
The money generated from selling carbon credits can then be used to fund feed-in-tariff schemes and reduce the subsidy. Reducing or even eliminating import duties, will reduce indirect costs and ease technology transfer from countries such as Germany, the us and Israel—the world leaders in technology. Its strong engineering and manufacturing foundation will surely allow India to become a leader in solar technologies in the future. After all, a massively scaled up solar programme is good for India. It is good for the world.

With inputs from Ravleen Kaur and Arnab Pratim Dutta

Of the three substances listed for PIC at the fourth meeting of the Conference of Parties (cop-4) to the Rotterdam Convention, only tributyltin was listed at the meeting held from October 27 to 31 in Rome. While seven countries opposed asbestos from being blacklisted, in case of endosulfan only India was responsible for its exclusion.

“India was put in a spot when country after country joined in accusing it for its entrenched position of not allowing the listing of endosulfan, a highly toxic pesticide,”

said Madhumita Dutta of Chennai-based advocacy group The Other Media.
Kerala, where endosulfan killed hundreds of people before being banned in 2002, passed a resolution on November 5 demanding that India retract its statement at Rotterdam Convention. Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said India should ban the use of the pesticide. State agriculture minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran said he was surprised the Centre did not find evidence to ban it. “We have given them enough social and statistical evidence and data provided by the Kerala Agricultural Univerisity,” Ratnakaran said.

Sruthi, a young girl of Padre village in Kerala’s Kasargod district, was born with stag-horn limbs, an ugly result of 25 years of spraying endosulfan on cashew plantations. Sixty-something Mangabhai Patel was exposed to asbestos for over 25 years at the Ahmedabad Electricity Authority in Gandhinagar before being diagnosed with asbestosis, a chronic respiratory disease. Both are unaware of the meeting that took place miles away to discuss the hazardous substances they and thousands like them are victims of.

“In case of chrysotile asbestos, not a single country which opposed the inclusion has any objection to the scientific process or document. They all opposed it politically,”

said Datta. The countries that opposed the inclusion of asbestos were India, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan Republic, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine and the Philippines. The Indian delegation, led by environment and forests ministry officials, said it was tough to decide on asbestos because the study on it by the

National Institute of Occupational Health was still under way. “The Indian delegation acted under pressure from representatives of the chrysotile asbestos and the chemical industry,” said Gopal Krishna of Ban As-bestos Network of India, a group of health, environment and labour activists.