The Union Cabinet on January 4 approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which is aimed at making India the global hub for the production of green hydrogen. The total outlay for the mission is ₹19,744 crore, out of which the government has allocated ₹17,490 crore for the SIGHT programme, ₹1,466 crore for the upcoming pilot projects, ₹400 crore for R&D, and ₹388 crore towards other mission components.
“The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved National Green Hydrogen Mission,” Union Minister Anurag Thakur said while briefing reporters about the Cabinet decisions.
The National Hydrogen Mission was launched on August 15, 2021, with a view to cutting down carbon emissions and increasing the use of renewable sources of energy.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) will formulate the scheme guidelines for implementation.
The mission seeks to promote the development of green hydrogen production capacity of at least 5 MMT (Million Metric Tonnes) per annum with an associated renewable energy capacity addition of about 125 GW in the country by 2030.
It envisages an investment of over ₹8 lakh crore and creation of over 6 lakh jobs by 2030.
It will also result in a cumulative reduction in fossil fuel imports of over ₹1 lakh crore and abatement of nearly 50 MMT of annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The mission will have wide-ranging benefits — creation of export opportunities for green hydrogen and its derivatives; decarbonisation of industrial, mobility and energy sectors; reduction in dependence on imported fossil fuels and feedstock; development of indigenous manufacturing capabilities; creation of employment opportunities; and development of cutting-edge technologies, an official statement said.
The mission will facilitate demand creation, production, utilisation and export of green hydrogen. Under the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition Programme (SIGHT), two distinct financial incentive mechanisms — targeting domestic manufacturing of electrolysers and production of green hydrogen — will be provided under the mission.
The mission will also support pilot projects in emerging end-use sectors and production pathways. Regions capable of supporting large-scale production and/or utilisation of hydrogen will be identified and developed as Green Hydrogen Hubs, the Minister added.
An enabling policy framework will be developed to support establishment of the green hydrogen ecosystem. A robust standards and regulations framework will be also developed.
Further, a public-private partnership framework for R&D (Strategic Hydrogen Innovation Partnership -- SHIP) will be facilitated under the mission. R&D projects will be goal-oriented, time-bound, and suitably scaled up to develop globally competitive technologies. A coordinated skill development programme will also be undertaken.
All concerned ministries, departments, agencies and institutions of the Central and State Governments will undertake focused and coordinated steps to ensure successful achievement of the mission objectives.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will be responsible for the overall coordination and implementation of the mission, he stated.
India has just begun to generate green hydrogen with the objective of raising non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in May 2022, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said India will emerge as the leader of green hydrogen by taking advantage of the current energy crisis across the globe. His assertion came almost a month after Oil India Limited (OIL) commissioned India’s first 99.99% pure green hydrogen plant in eastern Assam’s Jorhat.
President Droupadi Murmu gives assent to Gujarat Bill that gives police power to take action against protesters
A Gujarat Bill facilitating registration of criminal cases against persons who stage protests in violation of Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) has received Presidential assent, officials said on January 4.
The Code of Criminal Procedure (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2021, was passed by the State Assembly in March last year.
The Bill seeks to make any violation of Prohibitory Orders issued under Section 144 CrPC a cognisable offence under Indian Penal Code Section 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant).
It amends Section 195 of the CrPC which states that no court shall take cognisance of any criminal conspiracy for contempt of the lawful authority of public servants, except on the complaint in writing of the public servant concerned. The Code of Criminal Procedure (Gujarat Amendment) Bill, 2021, has been assented to by the President, a Home Ministry official said.
According to the statement and objects of the Bill, the Gujarat government, police commissioners and district magistrates are empowered to issue Prohibitory Orders under CrPC Section 144, directing any person to abstain from a certain act or to take certain order to prevent disturbance of public tranquillity or a riot or an affray to maintain public order on various occasions.
It said the police officers while deployed on such duties come across incidents of violation and need to take appropriate legal action against the violators under Section 188 of IPC.
However, Section 195 of the CrPC, 1973, makes it mandatory for the public servant issuing such orders to be the complainant against the violators thereby creating an impediment to taking cognisance of violations... Section 195 (1) (a) (ii) CrPC prohibits the jurisdictional courts from taking cognisance of the offences except on the complaint in writing of the public servant concerned, the statement and objects said. The maximum punishment under the Section 188 of the IPC is six-month imprisonment.
RBI tells Supreme Court Subramanian Swamy’s claim of involvement of its staff in bank scams fallacious
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told the Supreme Court on January 4 it has an internal mechanism to examine an employee’s conduct and the averments made by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in his plea seeking a probe into the alleged role of its officials in various banking scams are “fallacious and non-substantiated”.
Seeking dismissal of Swamy’s plea, the RBI said the petitioner has no locus standi to file the petition and it is “riddled” with factual and legal inaccuracies.
“In this regard, it is submitted that the averments made by the Petitioners trying to link the scams to the RBI Officials is fallacious and non-substantiated in the absence of any prima facie evidence produced by the Petitioners.
“It is submitted that the RBI has an internal mechanism / framework to examine an employee’s conduct if there are any specific allegations, or prima facie evidence with respect to his actions or omissions. The Petitioners have not presented any evidence or specific allegation in this regard and have merely made vague and ambiguous wild allegations against the entire institution of the answering Respondent,” the RBI said in an affidavit filed in the top court.
The RBI told the top court it also has a Central Vigilance Cell (CVC) which oversees the conduct of the employees. “It is for the investigating agencies to conduct investigations as per the laid down procedures and applicable law. Most of the scams referred in the present PIL are already under investigation by the CBI & Enforcement Directorate (ED). It is not for the Petitioners to direct the course of investigations and decide the aspects which are to be pursued by the law enforcement agencies. The answering Respondent herein seeks leave of this Court,” it said.
The affidavit was filed in response to a plea by Swamy seeking a probe into the alleged role of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials in various banking scams. During the hearing on Wednesday, a bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Vikram Nath granted three weeks to Swamy to file his rejoinder to the affidavit.
On October 17, the apex court had issued notices to the Central Bureau of Investigation and the RBI on Swamy’s plea. Swamy has alleged in the plea that RBI officials had acted in “demonstrable active connivance” in direct violation of statutes, including the Reserve Bank of India Act, Banking Regulation Act and State Bank of India Act, and that their involvement in scams by various entities such as Kingfisher, Bank of Maharashtra and Yes Bank has not been probed.
Supreme Court stays Allahabad HC verdict to conduct local polls without OBC reservation
The Supreme Court stayed Allahabad High Court’s direction that no OBC reservation will be implemented in the Uttar Pradesh local body polls until triple test conditions are fulfilled.
The SC also asked the State’s Commission to complete the identification of backward classes in need of quota for political representation in urban local bodies in the State by March 31, 2023.
The case raised the fundamental question whether quota for political representation in urban self-government bodies can be equated with reservation in higher education and public employment for social, educational and economic backward classes.
The State government has argued that there was no flaw or illegality in providing reservation to the very same 79 backward class communities listed in the U.P. State Public Services (Reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes) Act, 1994 in respect of seats and offices of chairpersons of local bodies. The 1994 Reservation Act had however identified these backward classes to provide them quota to access higher education and public employment and not for the purpose of political representation.
But Uttar Pradesh’s appeal against the December 27 order of the High Court would meet a formidable opponent in the form of a 2010 Constitution Bench judgment of the Supreme Court in K. Krishnamurthy versus Union of India, which had clearly held that the “nature and purpose of reservation in relation to local bodies is considerably different from that in relation to higher education and public employment”.
“The reservation benefits contemplated by Articles 15(4) and 16(4) [reservation in higher education, public employment] cannot be mechanically applied in the context of reservations enabled by Articles 243-D and 243-T [reservation of seats in panchayats, municipalities]. Articles 243-D and 243-T form a distinct and independent constitutional basis for reservations in local self-government institutions, the nature and purpose of which is different from the reservation policies designed to improve access to higher education and public employment, as contemplated under Articles 15(4) and 16(4) respectively,” the Constitution Bench had held in 2010.
The court had explained that though social and economic sense could act as a barrier to effective political participation and representation, such backwardness cannot be the sole criteria for identifying the backward classes inadequately represented politically.
SC sets aside Uttarakhand HC order directing CBI probe against ex-CM Trivendra Rawat
The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside an order of the Uttarakhand High Court which directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate corruption allegations against former chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
The high court on October 27, 2020 had ordered the CBI probe into the allegations levelled against the BJP leader while quashing an FIR against journalists Umesh Sharma and Shiv Prasad Semwal.
The top court noted that the two journalists had moved the high court seeking quashing of an FIR against them and had not sought any inquiry into the allegations of corruption that they levelled in social media.
It said there was no prayer for an inquiry or to initiate criminal proceedings against Rawat. A bench of justices M.R. Shah and C.T. Ravikumar said the order passed by the high court is unsustainable and in violation of the principles of natural justice.
“The impugned directions calling for a criminal investigation against the appellant and the observations made are hereby quashed and set aside. It is specifically noted that the orders are set aside on the aforesaid grounds alone,” the bench said.
The high court verdict had come on two separate petitions filed by the journalists seeking the quashing of the FIR lodged against them in July 2020, under various provisions of the IPC including forgery and cheating, after a social media post by Sharma levelling allegations against Rawat.
Sharma had accused Rawat, who was then Jharkhand in-charge of the BJP, of alleged money transfers to accounts of his relatives in 2016 to support an appointment of a person in that state to head the Gau Seva Ayog. Rawat was the chief minister of Uttarakhand between 2017 and 2021.
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Sonia Gandhi admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital with viral infection
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi on Wednesday for treatment of viral respiratory infection. Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanied her to the hospital in the morning, sources said. The sources said Sonia Gandhi has been unwell since Tuesday which is why Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra returned to Delhi after walking seven kilometres in the Bharat Jodo Yatra that entered Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening.
Biden renominates Eric Garcetti as U.S. envoy to India
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday renominated Eric Garcetti, the former Mayor of Los Angeles, as his envoy to India, with the White House exuding confidence that he would be confirmed by the United States Senate this time. “Eric M. Garcetti, of California, to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of India,” the White House said after sending the nomination to the Senate. Garcetti was originally nominated several months after Biden took office, but he never received a vote of the full Senate. He’s faced accusations of turning a blind eye to misconduct by a top aide in his mayor’s office. Garcetti has repeatedly denied being aware of the allegations.
Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.
