Swarajya

With a global gas shortage, Britain is facing an energy crisis. Several gas companies have gone bankrupt with the rapid increase in gas prices. These companies have also asked the UK government for aid, but so far no action has been taken.

The regulator, Ofgem, sets caps for energy prices for consumers and reviews it twice each year. Though bills were set to increase for UK households from October 1 after Ofgem’s most recent price increase, the rapid increase in prices left many small players in the lurch.

Larger players are usually locked in long-term supply contracts, while smaller firms buy directly through the wholesale markets. Smaller suppliers can command higher margins by undercutting their larger rivals when prices in the wholesale markets are lower.

When wholesale market prices increase, as they did recently, the smaller firms face a margin squeeze. Closure of Britain’s gas storage facilities has further exacerbated the problem.

But, the crisis also points towards a greater problem — UK’s dependence on gas-based power. The UK government has been focusing on increasing the share of renewable power, and has scaled back coal.

Thermal plants now contribute to around 2 per cent of the UK’s total power requirement. UK is also reliant on renewable energy with 25 per cent of its power requirements coming from renewable sources.

However, abnormally low wind speeds have resulted in lower wind energy production. Wind energy contributes to around 18 per cent of the country’s power.

Scientists at Stanford University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill have developed a new technology that has the potential to revolutionise vaccine administration.  The scientists have created a 3D printed vaccine patch that is as small as the tip of the finger and claimed to have the ability to provide "greater protection" than a traditional vaccine shot.

The vaccine patch includes microneedles which are just long enough to adhere to the skin and then targets immune cells directly.  As said in the UNC's website, "The resulting immune response from the vaccine patch was 10 times greater than a vaccine delivered into an arm muscle with a needle jab, according to a study conducted in animals and published by the team of scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences." 

This patch is also painless, self-administrable and does not require to be kept in the freezer. According to the developers, all of these benefits should make the vaccines more efficient and easier to deploy around the world.  

The coronavirus pandemic has served as a harsh reminder of the impact that timely immunisation can have. A vaccination, on the other hand, usually necessitates a trip to a clinic or hospital.  Healthcare workers are assigned to store and administer the jabs. 

Although it appears to be a straightforward operation, there are a number of obstacles that can obstruct mass vaccination, ranging from the required cold storage to the necessity for qualified experts to administer the shots—we have seen the shortage of healthcare professionals during the pandemic.

Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah attended the 'National Cooperative Conference' held in New Delhi as the Chief Guest. Shah said that the vision of welfare of the poor and Antyodaya cannot happen without cooperatives.  

"We will strengthen the PACS as  65,000 PACS is a small number for six lakh villages and a target will be set to have PACS in every second village within the next 5 years and to increase this number from 65,000 to 3 lakhs, the Ministry of Cooperation will prepare a proper legal roadmap.", Shah said.  

Shah said that it will be ensured that all PACS are computerized in which the Government of India is also going to contribute in a big way. Such a software will also be made which will connect PACS, DCB and NABARD. The Ministry of Cooperation is also working on what can be done to convert PACS into FPO.

If farm incomes have to improve in India, it is important to understand the business of farming. This entails a holistic look at the entire process, from the farmer buying inputs for cultivation to selling his produce. Any such analysis requires information on farm balance sheets.  

The latest Situation Assessment of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (SAS) released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) gives this information from July 2018 to June 2019. SAS is the most comprehensive document on farm incomes in India.

The Indian Army has finally placed an order for 118 improved Arjun Main Battle Tanks or MBTs, called Arjun Mark-1A.  The tanks, which will cost the Army Rs 7,523 crore, will come with 72 improvements — 14 major and 58 minor — over the current version.  

Developed by the DRDO's Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) in the 1980s and the 90s, and built by the Ordnance Factory Board's Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) in Tamil Nadu's Avadi, the induction of the Arjun MBT into the Indian Army began only in 2005.  

Between 2005 and 2010, two regiments of Arjun Mark-1 were inducted for the desert sector along the border with Pakistan in Rajasthan.  In a competitive trial organised by the Indian Army in 2010, the Arjun MBT outperformed the Russian-origin T-90, which is in service in large numbers, on every crucial parameter, whether driving across rugged sand-dunes or engaging targets and accurately hitting target. 

Yet, no more orders for the Arjun MBT followed, even as the Army inducted hundreds of T-90s.  The Indian Army currently operates two regiments of 124 Arjun Mark-1s in the desert sector along the border with Pakistan in Rajasthan.  

Some of the improvements in the new version include upgraded firepower, new transmission systems, an improved gunner's main sight, integrated with automatic target tracking and day-and-night stabilised sights to enable the tank to engage targets accurately and even when it is on the move.  In February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had handed over the first Arjun Mark-1A to Army chief General MM Naravane in Chennai.

One of China’s main engines for growth has been its property sector. The rapid urbanisation allowed developers to build houses and sell them at a rapid pace. Today, the sector contributes to 30 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Raising debt to finance these projects was not a concern as the government, which controlled the banks, was ready to funnel money into the sector.  

However, smaller cities have seen a slowdown in growth, even oversupply, as millions of homes lie vacant — the infamous ‘ghost cities’ of China. The rapid debt-fuelled party in the property sector has lasted for more than two decades despite facing years of criticism. 

The total credit shelled out to non-financial companies in China has formed 160 per cent of the country’s GDP as of September 2020. This is almost twice that of American corporations, whose debt to GDP value has lingered around 60 per cent to 80 per cent. 

The highly leveraged nature of the economy makes it quite fragile.  However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has realised its folly and is now trying to rein in the boom. In order to make the economy more resilient, the CCP embarked on a project to curb heavy borrowing in the sector. 

The ‘three red lines’ referred to conditions placed on property developers to rein in their credit, and stop the economy’s heavy dependence on infrastructure and real estate.  The three conditions included a limit on net debt to equity, liabilities to assets and cash to short term debt.

 Depending on the company’s metrics in relation to each of these conditions, banks would decide the incremental amount of debt. Any company that failed on all metrics would not be issued more debt.  

The Evergrande Group had failed on all of these metrics, according to the figures in the financial reports released by the company for its Cayman Islands investors. The failure to meet the financial standards, prompted the company to sell stakes in group companies and get them listed on the exchanges.

Amit Bagaria is the author of 14 books and discusses them in this episode of Swarajya Conversations. However, the discussion is mainly focused on Congress-Mukt Bharat, whose Hindi edition has been released recently.  This book presents a history of Indian National Congress.  

The first three chapters of this easy-to-read book are about Congress party’s corruption. The next three analyse the 2019 elections in great detail. Then comes a chapter about the Left Front and one on the performance of Congress in each state since Sonia became the party president.  T

he next eight chapters are about Modi, his successes, his failures, and the work he has done in 80 months. The longest chapter, divided into 14 sections, details the successes and failures of India’s 14 prime ministers. 

Next comes an analysis on the Modi 2.0 ministry and the author’s pick of who should be in charge of each ministry.  “Is Congress Becoming Anti-India” and “Congress-Mukt Bharat” are the final two chapters. The Appendix lays out ‘Agenda 2024’ for India.

To put things in the most simple of perspectives, this Account Aggregator (AA) framework is to credit what UPI has become to money transfers.

The aggregators, which will be licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), will be critical in bridging the credit gap between financial lenders and millions of borrowers in India with limited or lack of credit history. They will be structured as non-banking financial companies.

The framework had been in deliberation since 2016, and now, as it is finally underway, eight banks, that is the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Federal Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank have already signed up for the framework. However, these are only the early adopters, and many more will be joining the bandwagon soon.

So, where does the account aggregator come in when it comes to ease of credit for urban borrowers or expansion of credit when it comes to borrowers in rural India, an untapped market with infinite economic potential.

Last Wednesday (15 September), Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom announced a new trilateral security partnership — known by the acronym AUKUS — to work together in the Indo-Pacific region.

The pact is aimed at the Chinese threat in the Indo-Pacific, which has grown dramatically in recent years, and involves cooperation on emerging technologies, including defence-related artificial intelligence.  

Among other things, the US and the UK will help Australia build a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy, for which the three countries will draw up a joint plan over the coming 18 months.  

France has reacted to the announcement with outrage, saying the move was a “stab in the back” from Australia and the US. “We had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed," Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s Foreign Affairs Minister, has said.

  The announcement of the Australia-US-UK pact has sparked concerns in some quarters in Delhi because India is not a member of the new group. But there is no good reason to believe that the pact, which is mostly aimed at arming Australia with SSNs, will replace the QUAD or reduce its utility in countering China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific.

Congress has opted for a self-destructive pursuit in Punjab. All the party had to do was wait for six-odd months, wait for the election campaign to begin, get Sidhu and Captain Amarinder Singh (CAS) together in what would have been an engineered yet imminent and indispensable power transition. The election was anyway in the Congress' bag, given the way the farmer protests had played out, and all they had to do was plead before the farmers in a few rallies, and the job would have been done.

Yet, Rahul Gandhi woke up and opted for chaos, to put it in the language of the meme universe. The Akalis, however, relatively are in a far better position than they were six months ago, for they could now, like the Congress, play the caste card, build upon the political debris of the Congress, and capture the Jat-Sikh vote that had been critical to their victories in 2007 and 2012.

The work on the 1380 kilometers-long Delhi-Mumbai expressway that will cut down the travelling time between the two key cities will be rounded up by March 2023.

Moreover, the first phase of this highway from Delhi-Jaipur (Dausa)-Lalsot along with Vadodra-Ankaleshwar will be opened up after six months in March 2022.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Nitin Gadkari recently conducted a two-day comprehensive review meeting to assess the progress made in this ambitious infrastructure project.

The expressway is deemed to improve the connectivity to multiple economic hubs like Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, Kishangarh, Chittorgarh, Vadodra, Indore, Bhopal, Surat and Ahmedabad.

Certain key features of this expressway are as follows:

Though the expressway is of eight lanes, it can be expanded to 12 lanes depending upon the prevalent volume of traffic.

About two million trees and shrubs are to be planted along the highway and it is the first Asian project that will have animal overpasses to ensure that there is undisturbed wildlife movement.

Two iconic eight-lane tunnels will be a part of this expressway.

Moreover, this project is estimated to have created about 50 lakh man days of employment. Several logistics parks, fuel stations, resorts, restaurants and several facilities will adorn the expressway on its both sides.

Importantly, helicopter ambulance service will be provided to accident victims in this highway. It will also have a heliport that the drone serices can make use of for their business purposes.

Union minister for road and transport Nitin Gadkari also stated earlier that Delhi-Mumbai Expressway would fetch toll revenue of up to Rs 1,500 crore every month.