Essay on Atmanirbhar Bharat Challenges in energy sector
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Answer:
One of the key mediums of securing self-sufficiency is through domestic industry based energy production plants, reduced dependency on imported hardware, technical services, and rapid expansion of local manufacturing capacity.
India has 3rd largest reserves of coal in the world with producing more than 600 million tonnes for power plants. Despite it, we are importing 200 million tonnes annually.
Government has liberalised the coal mining rules and regulations. This will open the sector and allow wider-participation by the private sector to mine and sell coal, thus emancipate this critical source of fuel from the monopoly of Coal India Limited. This move is expected to reduce reliance on imports and at the same time lower the prices for end customers.
Also, in India have a plethora of ministries and departments looking into the energy development of the country. These include the Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Power, Ministry of New and Renewable energy, and a separate Department for Atomic Energy. We have many regulators, namely, Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, State and Central Electricity Regulators. The wide distribution of work is not conducive for streamlining policies and achieving intelligible outputs. One can take a leaf out from the recent example from the Ministry of Jal Shakti and implement it in the energy sector. The ministry was formed by merging Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. This has streamlined the work to be in done to counter the situation of 54% of water-stressed states in India. The same merger can be contemplated in the energy sector, which will bring more cohesion in this sector.
Answer:
The two largest challenges facing the Indian power sector are fuel supply uncertainty and deteriorating distribution companies (discoms) finances. Considering dominance of coal in India's fuel mix, coal shortages can severely impede investments in the generation segment.