The news this week that the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, not known for any concern for rivers, has set up the National River Research Centre (NRRC) is welcome with usual caveats. The fact that NRRC has been set up under the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), a body under Union Environment Ministry is not necessarily as positive sign since MoEF too is not known for any concern for rivers. Moreover, setting up of NRRC through NMCG and NRCD also does not provide any hopeful sign for the same reason. WII, where the NRRC has been situated for now itself has had at best mixed track record as far as rivers are concerned.
Continue reading “DRP 160226: National River Research Centre Welcome, will it help the cause of rivers?”Tag: Snow Drought
DRP 090226: NGT Critiques Shoddy CGWA report
The criticisms of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on January 30 about the report of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA), set up under the Environment Protection Act 1986 in late 1990s is rather mild and seems symbolic, but it has the potential of open up a pandora’s box since CGWA has essentially totally failed in doing anything effective about groundwater regulation in India.
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DRP 191222: Question marks over viability of pump hydro projects
(Feature Image: 1772 Mw PSHPs Spain. Photo courtesy of Iberdrola/ ENR)
The question marks over viability of huge number of pump storage hydro projects (PSHP) being pushed forward in India currently were flowing in the rivers for long. This week, Moody’s investors Service (MIS) seems to have strengthened this after it downgraded Greenko Energy Holdings’ corporate family rating. It may be noted that Greenko is the biggest investor in PSHPs in India from private sector and a major part of Greenko’s new investments are in PSHP.
This makes the implications of MIS’s downgrade all the more interesting. MIS has noted that PHSPs are capital intensive and each PHSP will generate cash flow only after at least 2-3 years of construction (in reality it can be much longer than 2-3 years, the operative phrase here is at least). It also noted that the additional debt to be raised from Greenko’s capital spending, coupled with a rising interest environment will put further pressure on “GEH’s already weak financial metrics” and that Greenko’s high financial leverage due to its substantial capital spending program will keep its financial metrics below its downgrade trigger “for an extended period of time”.
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SANDRP 