A School Grade Math ?

Elon Musk thinks America can produce its entire year’s requirement of electricity ( approx. 425 GW ), by covering an area of 10,000 sq km ( 100 miles x 100 miles , in some deserted corner of Arizona , Texas or Utah ), with latest generation of solar panels of 21 % efficiency ( of course, backed be a grid-scale Solar Storage Battery, to store / deliver power at night, when sun is not shining )

“ The batteries you need to store the energy, so you have 24/7 power, is 1 mile by 1 mile, ” Musk said at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting in Rhode Island in 2017.

 “ One square-mile. That’s it. ”. He first came up with this idea in 2015

He has not come up with any suggestion on how to raise $ 5 Trillion for such a project (  5000 Billion )

(sources: https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-solar-panels-america 

           : https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a30188222/elon-musk-solar-farm/ ) 

Going by  “ Musk Math “ , we in India may not need more than 1700 sq Km of desert area to produce all the power that we need , year round

Here is the math :

Ø  One hour of Sunshine falling on our Earth can generate enough electricity to power the Earth for one full year

Ø  One hour of Sunshine falling on India's land area of 3,000,000 square kilometers , can generate enough electricity to power our nation for ONE year !

Ø  Most of India gets 6 hours of Sunshine daily for some 300 days in a year !

Ø  So , as a nation , we get 1800 hours of Sunshine , every year

Ø  If we were to cover our entire land area ( of 3,000,000 sq km ) with Solar Panels , we could get enough electricity in one year ( ie: in 1800 hours ) , which will meet our power needs for 1800 YEARS ! ( about 5000 trillion Kwh ! )

( Source : https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2017/01/sun-our-soul-new-sos.html  )

It is said that Indian Sages invented the concept of ZERO but it was the commercial merchants of Europe who capitalized on it

It seems “Deja Vue “ in case of generating Solar Power in un-inhabited deserts

Our own Power Grid Corporation of India , published following 231 page report as far back as 2013  :

Desert Power India – 2050  /  Integrated Plan for Desert Power Development 

Thar , Rann of Kutchh, Ladakh , Lahul & Spiti / December 2013

Ø  These deserts have , between them , the potential to generate 315.7 GW of Solar plus Wind power !

Ø  For the entire project , the investments envisaged are :

#  By   2022............. Rs  2    lakh*crore

#  By   2032..............Rs  16  lakh*crore

#  By   2050...........   Rs  43  lakh*crore ( approx. USD 615 Billion )

( source : https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2016/07/unlimited-power-and-round-clock.html )

But, after 7 years since publication of this report, we have still not moved beyond the “ Planning  Stage “  as can be seen from the following news report :

Govt plans ₹11,000 crore power transmission project in Ladakh    /  18 Feb  2020

Extract :

Ladakh, Thar, Rann of Kutch, Lahaul and Spiti have the potential to generate 315.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar and wind power, and will require investments of ₹43.7 trillion over the next 30 years to 2050, according to a study conducted by the state-owned Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. The government is also exploring the feasibility of setting up storage projects in Leh-Ladakh.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now , leaving aside the requirement of Rs 2 lakh*crore by 2022 for desert-based Solar Power projects ( Power Grid Corporation study of 2013 ), how much fund is being allocated to “ Renewable Energy “, in the last budget ?

Here is the answer :

( source :  GoI’s conflicting goals — electricity for all, renewable energy targets and a ₹100 trillion infrastructure pipeline / 04 Feb 2020 )

Extract :

Surprisingly, the financing of new renewable energy capacity of 163 GW, at a cost of ₹9 trillion, has been left entirely to the private sector. 

While the report states there is a “well-stocked pipeline to FY25 because of 450 GW target visibility,” only 3% of projects are currently at the implementation stage.

 

Some more news about our “ Planning  Prowess “ :

Request for proposal for ( dt May 2020 ) :

Developing a Long Term Vision, Implementation Plan , Road Map and Institutional Framework for implementing :  One Sun , One World , One Grid

 https://mnre.gov.in/img/documents/uploads/file_f-1590573144563.pdf

Dear Shri R K Singhji

[ Minister for Renewable Energy ]

Rajkumar.singh19@sansad.nic.in

I urge you to look up :

Liu Zhenya : The Visionary ………………………………………………………………… [ 04 June 2018 ]

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com  /  05 June 2020

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

Related Readings :

INDIA : the NEW LAND OF THE RISING SUN ?  ……………………………………[ 01 Apr 2017 ]

For  Want  of  Power  ?  ………………………………………………………………………….[ 05 Oct 2017 ]

National Energy Storage Mission   ………………………………………………………….[ 19 Feb 2018 ]

From Ladakh with Love ( and Sun Shine )   ……………………………………………[ 09 Aug 2018 ]

Virtual Parliament : a COVID bye-product ?

Couple of days back , I wrote ( in LinkedIn post ) :

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

Even as " Unlock 1 " starts today, economy will gradually return to its " Original " track

But , if we have learned any useful " lesson " from this Corona Crisis , it ought to be :

" Economy MUST NOT return to its original track !

If , within 2 years, we want our GDP to climb back to 10 % , we must RUN ( not stroll / jog ), on a totally DIFFERENT TRACK - a track solidly resting on the foundation of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ( AI ) - a track that

 ,

> Removes all hurdles of governance slowing down Economic Progress

> Each year, creates 12 million " Self Employed "

> Fully exploit DATA ( the NEW OIL ), to generate income for citizen

> Prepares our Health-care System / Infrastructure to cope with any new virus

> Makes country " Atm-Nirbhar / Self Reliant " by more exports / less imports

I urge members of the National AI Task-force ( to whom I am sending this mail ) , to evaluate my following suggestions ( on use of AI ) . I believe , my list will help them to draw up their own LIST of PRIORITIES

Priorities for AI [ Artificial Intelligence ] portal 

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

Now here comes the good news ( - with regard to “Removing all hurdles to Governance “ ) :

 Ahead Of Monsoon Session, Speaker, Venkaiah Naidu Discuss "E-Parliament"  

 

Extract :

Sources said both Mr Naidu and Mr Birla favoured e-Parliament as a long-term option and decided to refer the idea of virtual meetings of committees to the Rules Committee, formulates rules for smooth functioning of the house.

It was also considered preferable as there is no confidentiality issue in the proceedings of both Houses, which are already being telecast live.

It was also proposed that the various committees of parliament hold virtual meetings.

The Secretaries-General were asked to examine the issues involved, including a safe technological platform, the rules of confidentiality and infrastructure upgrade.

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

NIC portals may be tapped for parliament session  

  

Extract :

This option of attending Parliament virtually would be given to MPs if they do not wish to travel to Delhi for the monsoon session in August

A senior parliamentary affairs ministry official told ET:

“Even as we are preparing to hold the session following social distancing norms, we would give the option to MPs to attend Parliament virtually.

It is not difficult through technological solutions.

The government is now exploring enhancing the members’ portal.

The e-portals — mprs.nic.in and membersls.nic.in — are managed by National Informatics Centre and give exclusive access to MPs through user name and a digital signature.

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

Congratulations , Mr Naidu and Mr Birla :

For this “Out of the Box “ thinking to turn COVID threat into an opportunity , by streamlining the running of the Lok Sabha / Rajya Sabha sessions

With Virtual Parliament sessions, you can do following :

Ø  Online broadcast of Virtual Session through a Mobile App ( LokRaj ?  )

Ø  Receive Questions / Answers / Notices , online ( as being done already )

Ø  Decide ( and control ),  WHO will speak , WHEN and for HOW LONG .

Ø  Display these “ Speaking Schedules “ on the Mobile App with a provision for the viewers to cast their “ Ratings “ online / instantly , as each speaker delivers his / her speech. Dynamically display “ No of Raters “ and “ Rating Score ( 1 to 5 ) “ . Such an “ Instant Feedback “ will dramatically improve , not only the behavior of each Member of Parliament, but also improve the “ Relevance “ of his talk !

Ø  Turn-off the member’s mike if he refuses to stop or starts shouting / abusing

Ø  No question of anyone speaking “out of turn “ or rushing to the well of the house !

Ø  Bar unruly members from attending a VIRTUAL SESSION

Ø  Display ( as in case of Augmented Reality – AR ), following record of an MP as he is speaking :

#   Attendance percentage  /  Punctuality

#   No of questions asked

#  Number of minutes spoken during the session

Ø  Just before the voting starts on any Bill , enable the Members of Parliament to receive “ Instructions ( really , feedback from citizen who voted for him / her ) “, as to how voters want him to vote ( “for “ or “against “ the bill ) , as outlined at :

           VotersWill  ………………………………….[  03  Nov  2018  ]

 

Ø  Enable every Member to receive Online Feedback whether his overall performance is so bad that the citizen who voted for him , now want him “ Re-called “ , as described at :

         ROMP - A Panacea ?   …………………………………………………….[ 06 Aug 2015 ]

 

         Related reading :

Ø  How To Shame MPs / MLAs ? ………………………………………..[ 24  Mar 2017 ]

Ø  " Election Reforms " Summarized  ………………………………..[ 18 Aug 2017 ]

Ø  Artificial Intelligence to fix MP / MLA Salary ?                [ 22 Feb 2018 ]

Ø  Congratulations, Shri Harivansh Narayan Singhji…………..[ 18 Dec 2019 ]

 

 

With regards,

 

Hemen  Parekh

 

hcp@RecruitGuru.com   /   03  June  2020

Thank You, Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji

Thank You, Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji

[ Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs  ]

What for ?

For launching of PM-SVANidhi [ Street Vendor Atm-Nirbhar Nidhi ]

Centre launches micro-credit scheme to provide loans to street vendors  /     | Jun 1, 2020, 

Underneath , I reproduce the major features of this just launched scheme , along with my own earlier suggestions / questions / observations, in this regard ( in RED ) :

Feature :

Ø  The Centre on Monday launched a special micro-credit scheme to provide affordable loans of up to Rs 10,000 to street vendors

Ø  'Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor's AtmaNirbhar Nidhi' is likely to benefit 50 lakh street vendors in the urban and rural areas of the country

Ø  Those who were vending till March 24 this year can avail the the benefit of the scheme , the duration of which is till March 2022

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

I presume that this is the only condition, and such a vendor need NOT be a “ Licensed “ vendor . In Mumbai alone, as of today, out of an estimated 4 lakh street vendors, only 12,000 are  “ Licensed “ !

It is the same condition all over India .

While sanctioning loan, it must NOT be denied even if a vendor is UN-LICENSED  ! 

Madam Sitharamanji , in her press briefing, had said : “ We received this figure of 50 lakh vendors, from various State Governments “

If “ License Requirement “ is made a condition for granting loan, than I am afraid, 45 lakh vendors will get “ disqualified “ !

In fact , in my earlier emails, I had advocated granting this loan to ANY unemployed person , who wants to take up “ Street Vending “ as a trade , with no prior experience in Street Vending !

          My suggestion stems from the following facts :

          #   Neither Private Sector nor the Public Sector, is in any position to provide jobs to

               some 12 million youth joining our work-force, each year

          #   As a result of the “ Lockdown “, some 10 crore persons ( mostly working in MSME

               sector ) , have lost their jobs. They are unlikely to get back their jobs, any time

               soon

[ source :  Social Distancing : Safest – Surest Method  /  21  April  2020  ]

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

   

Ø  "The vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs 10,000 , which is repayable with monthly installments in the tenure of one year

Ø  On timely or early repayment of the loan, an interest subsidy of seven percent per annum will be credited to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through DIRECT BENEBIT TRANSFER [ DBT ], on six monthly basis

Ø  There will be no penalty on early repayment of the loan

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

Ø  By re-paying Rs 31 per day { Principal + Interest } , he avoids hafta of Rs 50 per day { Daily saving of Rs 19 }

Ø  Annual saving of Rs 6,945 for each vendor ( round off to Rs 7,000 )

Ø  Saving of Rs 3,500 Crore per year for 50 lakh vendors !

Ø  Once the Scheme gets launched and loan-recipient vendors realize that they need not pay DAILY HAFTA to police, there is a good possibility that 500 lakh persons come forward to become STREET VENDORS

{ source :  Street Vendor Loan Scheme  /  14  May  2020  }

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

Ø  Scheme provides for escalation of the Credit Limit, on timely or early repayment of loan ……this means, if a street vendor repays the installments on time or earlier, he or she can develop his or her Credit Score that makes him/her eligible for higher amount of term-loan such as Rs 20,000

Ø  Urban local bodies will play a pivotal role in the implementation of the scheme.

Ø  They will leverage the network of all stakeholders like,

#    Street Vendors Associations

#    Business Correspondents [ BCs ]

#    Agents of Banks

#    Micro-finance Institutions [ MFIs ]

#    Self Help Groups [ SHGs ] and their Federations

#    Digital Payment Aggregators like BHIM

Ø  A digital platform with a Web Portal or a Mobile App , is being developed to administer the scheme with end-to-end solutions

Ø  The IT platform will also help in integrating the vendors into the formal financial system .

Ø  This platform will integrate the Web Portal or the Mobile App with

       #  UdyamiMitra  portal of SIDBI for credit management and

      #   PAiSA portal of MoHUA to administer interest subsidy automatically

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

          

#  Hawkers will declare themselves “Self- Employed”, by registering so on BMC web

              site

#  BMC will issue to them , a hawking license – a plastic card

              with, photo, name, gender, birth-date, address, mobile no, Aadhar No, PAN etc .

              Card will be embedded with a pre-paid / rechargeable FasTag , which will

              automatically transfer to BMC’s bank account, LICENSE FEE, as mandated

 #  On hawker’s Smartphone ( with BlueTooth / NFC / Biometric ), BMC will

             install a Mobile App [ HawkWalk ? ], which can read the FasTag in the plastic card

             and display ( 24x7 ), exact location of that hawker on a DASHBOARD in the

             Central Hawking Control Room of BMC (  much better than rigid Sensor anklets on

             feet ! )

#   If a hawker uses mobile payment app BHIM for accepting payments against his

             sale , 5 % of each SALE PROCEED will get automatically credited to his

             monthly License Fee.

            This great incentive will accelerate DIGITAL PAYMENTS and help organize this

            totally “un-organized “business sector

[  source : BMC proposes : Hawkers will dispose ?  ……………………. / 26  Feb  2020   ]

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

Dear Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji,

While congratulating you for this un-paralled initiative in generating Self Employment, I urge you to ensure that :

Ø  “ Loan Givers “ [ Banks – MFIs etc ] , do not insist that the applicant possesses a Street  Vendor license ( I strongly suspect , they will do so !  )

Ø  The VESTED interests ( Local Police and Municipal officers , who will lose their daily Hafta ) do not stop a person from vending his / her wares on the streets ( license or no license )

Ø  As soon as a person has been given this loan, all Municipalities / Gram Panchayats will be required ( mandatorily ) that he / she is issued a Street Vendor License – even without having to make a separate application for it . In fact , UdyamiMitra web portal must direct the concerned local authority to issue such a license

And, lastly, please re-consider that condition ( of a person being a Vendor on 24^th March 2020 )

Please give this loan to ANY unemployed person who wishes to become a Street Vendor

There is no other “ trade “ which 12 million unemployed can start with an investment of just Rs 10,000 !

Let us honour the “ Dignity of Labour “ , of those wanting to become Self Employed

With regards,

Hemen Parekh

hcp@recruitGuru.com   /  02  June  2020