Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) launched, The new cold chain projects benefit farmers, One of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe discover by Indian Astronomers
Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity has been launched
- As a first step towards Greening the Indian short term power Market launched pan-India Green Term Ahead Market (GTAM) in electricity on 1st September 2020.
- The introduction of GTAM platform would lessen the burden on RE-rich States and incentivize them to develop RE capacity beyond their own RPO.
- This would promote RE merchant capacity addition and help in achieving RE capacity addition targets of the country.
- Further, the GTAM platform will lead to increase in number of participants in renewable energy sector.
- It will benefit buyers of RE through competitive prices and transparent and flexible procurement.
- It will also benefit RE sellers by providing access to pan- India market.
- The Government of India’s target of 175 GW RE Capacity by 2022 is driving accelerated renewable penetration pan-India.
- Green Term Ahead Market contracts will allow additional avenues to the RE generators for sale of renewable energy enable Obligated entities to procure renewable power at competitive prices to meet their Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO) and provide a platform to environmentally conscious open access consumers and utilities to buy green power.
Key features of GTAM:
- Transactions through GTAM will be bilateral in nature with clear identification of corresponding buyers and sellers, there will not be any difficulty in accounting for RPO.
- GTAM contracts will be segregated into Solar RPO & Non-Solar RPO as RPO targets are also segregated.
- Further, within the two segments GTAM contracts will have Green Intraday, Day Ahead Contingency, Daily and Weekly Contracts.
a. Green Intraday Contract & Day Ahead Contingency Contract – Bidding will take place on a 15-minute time-block wise MW basis.
b. Daily & Weekly Contracts – Bidding will take place on MWh basis. Both buyers and sellers can submit the bid, however the seller will provide profile in terms of 15-minute time block wise quantity (MW) along with the price (Rs/MWh).
After the contract gets executed scheduling will take place as per the profile.
In case of multiple buyers, the profile will get allocated on a pro-rata basis.
- Price discovery will take place on a continuous basis i.e. price time priority basis. Subsequently, looking at the market conditions open auction can be introduced for daily & weekly contracts.
- Energy scheduled through GTAM contract shall be considered as deemed RPO compliance of the buyer.
The new cold chain projects benefit to around 2,57,904 farmers
- Smt Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Union Minister of Food Processing Industries has stated that new integrated cold chain projects are likely to generate direct and indirect employment for 16,200 and are likely to benefit 2,57,904 farmers.
- 27 projects were approved in Inter-Ministerial Approval Committee (IMAC) meetings under the Scheme for Integrated Cold Chain and Value addition infrastructure of Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (PMKSY).
- The projects have been approved across the states of Andhra Pradesh (7), Bihar(1), Gujarat(2), Haryana(4), Karnataka(3), Kerala(1), MP(1), Punjab(1), Rajasthan(2), Tamil Nadu(4) and Uttar Pradesh(1).
- These 27 new integrated cold chain projects will leverage a total investment of 743 crores for the creation of modern, innovative infrastructure and effective cold chain facilities for the food processing sector across the nation.
- These projects with a grant-in-aid of 208 crores will help increase efficiency and sustainability in India’s food supply chain.
- 85 Cold Chain Projects have been considered for financial assistance throughout the country.
- This is a boost to Government’s efforts towards bridging the gap in supply chain and building world-class cold chain infrastructure through the Scheme of Cold Chain, Value Addition & Preservation Infrastructure of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana.
- This Integrated Cold Chain projects will not only provide a big boost to the growth of food processing infrastructure but would also help in streamlining the agricultural supply chain, generate direct and indirect employment opportunities in rural areas, provide better prices to farmers, end-users, and benefit allied sectors.
- These benefits are vital for the economic security of farmers.
- The Ministry of Food Processing Industries is striving to establish an integrated and seamless network of strong Cold Chain Grid and infrastructure for the uninterrupted transfer of perishables from production to consumption areas/centers.
- This would maintain the safety, quality, and quantity and storage of perishable produce such as fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat, fish marine, poultry, ready to eat food products.
- Under the Central Sector Scheme of Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure, the Ministry provides financial assistance in the form of grant-in-aid at the rate of 35 percent for general areas and the rate of 50 percent for North-Eastern States, Himalayan States, ITDP Areas, and Islands for storage and transport infrastructure.
- The assistance at 50 percent and 75 percent respectively are also given for value addition and processing infrastructure subject to a maximum grant-in-aid of 10 crores per project for setting up integrated cold chain projects, including irradiation facility from the farm gate to the consumer.
- The Food Processing Industry has the potential to absorb the excess farm produce thereby benefiting the farmers and at the same time, convert the harvest into a value-added processed product that can meet the domestic as well as the global demand.
One of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe has been discover by Indian Astronomers
- As a landmark achievement in Space missions, Indian Astronomers have discovered one of the farthest Star galaxies in the universe.
- It is a matter of pride that India’s first Multi-Wavelength Space Observatory “AstroSat” has detected extreme-UV light from a galaxy located 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth. T
- he galaxy called AUDFs01 was discovered by a team of Astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics(IUCAA) Pune.
- The importance and uniqueness of this original discovery can be made out from the fact that it has been reported in the leading international journal “Nature Astronomy” published from Britain.
- India’s AstroSat/UVIT was able to achieve this unique feat because the background noise in the UVIT detector is much less than one on the Hubble Space Telescope of US based NASA.
- India’s Space Scientists for once again proving to the world that India’s capability in Space technology has risen to a distinguished level from where our scientists are now offering cues and giving leads to the Space scientists in other parts of the world.
- Pertinent to mention that India’s first Space Observatory AstroSat, which has made this discovery, was launched by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on September 28, 2015.
- It was developed by a team led by ShyamTandon, Ex Emeritus Professor, IUCAA with the full support of ISRO.
