Rooftop Solar : An Opportunity Lost ?

 [  Not , if included in Central Budget- 2020  ]

It  would seem so , when you read following news :

In Gujarat, solar energy is helping farmers double their income

Highlights :

Ø  Farmer, Babubhai Patel was earlier earning Rs 1.26 lakh from his 15 acre land , cultivating dill seed .

      Now he has installed a 71.5 kW of Solar ground-mounted solar panels

Here is what he says :

“What I earned from solar power generation within the first four months of installation is very promising. If the trend continues then not only will my installation cost be recovered but I will have more money on hand than I got from my crop”

Ø  Babubhai’s neighbor, Harshad Patel has a 55 kW installation on his farm. 

He spent nearly ₹1,00,000 towards the 5 per cent farmer contribution for the project, while he secured about ₹9 lakh in loans backed by the State utility.

     The solar pump installations under the SKY Scheme were provided with 60 per cent

      subsidy.

          “This means, within a year of installation, I will recover all the money that I have

          invested. On top of it, every year net income is at least double what we usually get

          from our conventional farming,” said Patel

Ø  Since it was just a pilot project with a specific financial outlay from the government, the SKY scheme provides an attractive tariff of ₹7 per unit to these farmers, which includes ₹ 3.50 from the State allocation and ₹ 3.50 from the Discoms.

          The effective period of the Scheme is 7 years, after which the State support will be

          withdrawn and the farmers will get ₹ 3.5 per unit, which is agreed through a 25-year

          PPA with the discoms.

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Some 30 MONTHS ago, here is what I suggested to our Policy Makers :

     Green Buildings ? Put Greed to Work !                                            [ 05 June 2017 ]

Extract :

I urge Maharashtra government to adopt this innovative financing model for roof top solar plants where :

·      Individual building owners or Societies will install the plants on their roofs ( model / size / supplier etc to be decided by each consumer )

·     Plants will need to be installed only by Channel Partners ( supplying agencies ) which are empanelled by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy , who have submitted installation data ( Project Completion Report for grid connected rooftop projects ) on the SPIN portal

·     Submit “ Bill / Certificate of Grid Connectivity “ to govt  for “Green Solar Loan “

·    Loan will be repayable at 5 % interest rate , over a 15 year period

·     SOCIETY WILL BE ABLE TO PAY THE  EMI  FROM THE SAVINGS IT WILL MAKE  BY NOT HAVING TO BUY THE GRID POWER FROM STATE DISCOM

·      Societies will even be allowed to repay the EMI in the form of the solar power it generates and FEEDS into the State Grid , under the “ Reverse Metering “ Scheme

===================================================

Earlier, while advocating Rooftop Solar installations , I wrote :

Not Good Enough !                                           [ 02  Dec  2017  ]

Extract :

Surely , our Policy Makers cannot be unaware of the following benefits to millions of rural youths generating / consuming ( and , even “ selling “ ) solar power :

·         Not need to erect /maintain miles of transmission lines to those huts

·         No need to install and monitor Electricity ( Smart ) Meters

·         No need to collect monthly payments for the power consumed

·         In fact , no need to PRODUCE coal-based power elsewhere , in the first place

·         No pollution due to power from coal-based power plants

·         No need to dig or import expensive coal / or worry about low plant-load factor

·         No need to worry about power thefts / transmission losses !

·         No load shedding ( so common in rural areas ) for “ non-payment of bills / low

          consumption “

·         No need to worry about PEAK / LEAN load periods

·         No need to keep Subsidizing Power for ever

=========================================================

Dear Smt Sitharamanji,

Today’s news-papers speak of your “ Invitation “ to citizens to submit their “Suggestions

Ideas “ for incorporation in the forthcoming budget

I urge you to consider my above-mentioned suggestion in respect of ROOF-TOP solar

Installations

Unlike in the case of Gujarat’s SKY scheme for the farmers, I am not suggesting ANY SUBSIDY

for Rooftop installations

Just a  “ ROOFTOP GREEN SOLAR LOAN “   (  a  MUDRA for house-owners ?  ) as follows :

Ø   100 % value of proposed installation  , at

Ø   Interest rate of 5 %

Ø   Repayable over 15 years ( EMI adjustable against savings generated )

Ø   Sovereign Guarantee for irrevocable /mandatory PPA by DISCOMs

Ø   Online submission / approval of “ loan applications “, within 30 days

This will lead to a LOW  COST  ECONOMY

=======================================================

17  Dec  2019

hcp@RecruitGuru.com

Dangerous ? Orwellian ? Stringent ?

Today’s media reports describe the Data Protection Bill , in these terms

Read these :

Personal Data Protection Bill can turn India into ‘Orwellian State’: Justice BN Srikrishna 

Extract :

Ø  Justice BN Srikrishna , said the bill, which allows the Centre to exempt its agencies from some or all provisions, is “ dangerous ” and can turn India into an “ Orwellian State”.

Ø  “They have removed the safeguards. That is most dangerous. The government can at any time access private data or government agency data on grounds of sovereignty or public order. This has dangerous implications,” Srikrishna told ET.

Ø  “The Select Committee has the right to change this. If they call me, I will tell them this is nonsense. I believe there should be judicial oversight on government access,” Srikrishna added.

“It will weaken the bill and turn India into an Orwellian State.”

RELATED OBSERVATIONS :

2024 ! – V 2.0 of Orwellian 1984 ?                                                   [ 07 July 2017 ]

Who watches the Watchmen ?                                                         [ 12  July  2019  ]

======================================================

Indian Data Bill more Stringent than EU Law Govt official says personal data protection rules in India will apply to any organisation that has user data including search engines  

Extract :

India’s personal data protection bill offers stronger provisions to users seeking deletion of their information from commercial and social platforms compared with European privacy laws according to officials and legal experts.

The new Bill provides for Right to Erasure, in addition to the provision of Right to be forgotten in the draft bill submitted by a panel led by retired Supreme Court judge Justice BN Srikrishna.

The Bill allows individuals to approach the adjudicating officer under the independent regulator (the Data Protection Authority) to restrict or delete personal content that meets certain predefined criteria.

A top government official told ET that the rules in India will apply to any organisation that has user data including “search engines”.

Legal experts are of the view that there are several implementation challenges with the provisions and the real test will come in defining what user data was required to perform the task in hand and how to ascertain that it’s purpose was now over.

“It is likely to be one of the most crucial features of the Bill, the Right to be Forgotten may see some of the longest debates or court room battles as companies would want to design their consent requirement broadly versus data principals or individuals wanting it to narrow,” said Dipti Lavya Swain, partner at HSA Advocates.

 “The new Bill is stronger in terms of protecting the user privacy from private entities. In this regard, the Bill is an improvement over the 2018 draft,” said Udbhav Tiwari, policy advisor, Mozilla Corporation.

Tiwari added the new Bill has added the provision around Right to Erasure, which says that users can ask data fiduciaries to delete the data which is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected for.

 “The earlier provisions were not clear and didn’t create such active obligations on the service provider around erasure.”

A member of the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee which drafted the PDP Bill said that it remains to be seen how Right to be Forgotten and Erasure will be implemented.

“We got the feedback from companies that Right to be Forgotten is the most difficult provision to implement in the GDPR.”

Even if the data fiduciary deletes the data, what happens to newspaper reports about the same incident, these are questions which will need to be carefully considered, the person told ET.

RELATED  OBSERVATIONS :

#  Congratulations, Your Honour !                                         [  22  Mar  2019  ]

    Extract :

    Which “ Your Honour “ ?

    Hon Justices V Ramasubramanian and P Keshava Rao , of Hyderabad High Court

  

    What did the judges say ?

    "In this 'online Maya Bazar', information once registered or shared gets multiplied by

     millions of times.

     By the time an order for deletion is passed, the bug repeats itself several

     times and deletion without a trace appears improbable “

#   Privacy ? What is that ?                                                        [  04  May  2017  ]

      

      Extract :

·         Do our mobile phones / mobile apps relay EVERYTHING about us to their designers / manufacturers , all the time ?  

    ( Ans : Have no doubts ! )

·       Do Google / Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter etc know your “ intentions “ and pass these onto e-commerce companies for a hefty price ?   

     ( Ans : You bet they do ! )

·       What will remain “ private “ when IP V 6.0 arrives , when EVERY single object on your body ( and in your immediate surrounding ) , gets a unique URL number and captures your voice / movement / intentions on 24*365 basis and relays that DATA to the BIG BROTHER ?    

     ( Ans : Nothing ! )

#    Delusion of Privacy ?                                                [  10  June  2017  ]

      Extract :

          The privacy policy of the Bharat Interface for Money ( BHIM ) says…. :

   “ …… once you give us your personal information , you are not anonymous to us.

    We may automatically track certain information about you based upon your behavior on

    our app , to the extent we deem fit “

#     Privacy ? Perish the Thought !                                           [  18  July  2017  ]

     Extract :

       Under Internet of Things ( IoT ) , each living human will get assigned 50,000 TRILLION , unique IP Addresses , under IP V 6.0 ( including for that packet of food we eat and that bottle of water we drink ! ) – that is  10 BILLION  IP addresses for each hair on our bodies !

·         We will be “ Watched / Measured / Imaged / Listened to / Analysed / Administered / Governed “ , every second of our lives ( - and no one will even ask for any permission ! )

Anyone wearing an AR / VR device ( which will be everyone ! ) , will know who we are and what we are doing , at ANY MOMENT !

·         The Omnipresent CLOUD will tell us , what we should NEED and what we should DESIRE and where we should TRAVEL and what we should SEE ! May be , even how long we should LIVE !

#   Thank You Your Honours !                                               [ 19  June  2017  ]

     Extract :

     Justice Chandrachud also posed several questions on data protection in the age of social

     media, saying ,

·         SOCIAL MEDIA  did not exist when the  CONSTITUTION  was made.

·         IF PEOPLE HAVE PUT THEMSELVES IN THE PUBLIC REALM  USING TECHNOLOGY,  IS

          THAT NOT A SURRENDER OF THEIR RIGHT TO PRIVACY ?,” the judge said, asking if right

           to privacy is non-negotiable

#  Supreme may Propose : Technology will Dispose                     [  23  July  2017  ]

    Extract :

         And what about PRIVATE / PERSONAL information about Indian Citizens , already

         available on the internet that ANYONE can scrap and even sell to others ?

    To know the extent of this issue , in Google , just type :

    “ Database Vendors in India “ ( Which of these 58.4 LAKH , will you sue ? )

           { As of 12 Dec 2019  , Google Results number  222 LAKH  }

  #   Data Protection without Data Privacy ?                                [ 08 Jan 2018 ]

            Extract :

        As far as that matter of CONSENT is concerned , all those devices will warn you when

        you switch on :

       “ BY USING THIS DEVICE , YOU ARE AGREEING TO OUR COLLECTING ANY / ALL DATA

        ABOUT YOU AND ALSO ALLOWING US TO USE IT FOR WHATEVER PURPOSE WE THINK

        FIT “

#   Nightmare ?                                                                         [  04  Mar  2019  ]

       Extract  :

      Parallel to the Theory of Thermodynamics , I would like to propound the

     following  as far as the “ Theory of Information “ is concerned :

    

     “  Like Entropy , content keeps growing with each and every human

     interaction , either with other humans or with his environment , and content

     can no longer remain hidden , nor can it be destroyed  “

#   Internet Bill of Rights                                                     [  07 Oct  2018  ]

      Extract :

           Under Ro Khanna’s proposal , it will be up to “ aggrieved individual citizen “ to fight out

           his case ( in a court of law ) for any misuse of his personal consent by Facebook /

           Google etc .

      It would be the same with our own proposed DATA  PROTECTION  LAW !

      This is mockery  !

      Do we expect ONE BILLION Indians to hire Cyber Crime Experts / Lawyers,

Ø   To keep spying on hundreds of web sites

Ø   To unearth WHO is misusing his personal data ,

Ø  WHEN and HOW and for WHAT purpose

Ø  In breach of his personal / individual “ Contract “ with the offender , as per

Ø  “ I accept the TERMS / CONDITIONS “ click ?

          

      

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12  Dec  2019

hcp@RecruitGuru.com