TOPIC: GS 3 Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
A fresh push for green hydrogen
What is the news?
- India will soon join 15 other countries in the hydrogen club as it prepares to launch the National Hydrogen Energy Mission (NHEM)
- The global target is to produce 1.45 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2023
- Currently, India consumes around 5.5 million tonnes of hydrogen, primarily produced from imported fossil fuels
- In 2030, according to an analysis by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), green hydrogen demand could be up to 1 million tonnes in India across application in sectors such as ammonia, steel, methanol, transport and energy storage
Several challenges and recommendations
- Decentralised hydrogen production
- There must be promoted through open access of renewable power to an electrolyser (which splits water to form H2 and O2 using electricity)
- Most renewable energy resources that can produce lowcost electricity are situated far from potential demand centres
- If hydrogen were to be shipped, it would significantly erode the economics of it. A more viable option would be wheeling electricity directly from the solar plant.
- Operationalizing open access in letter and spirit, as envisioned in the Electricity Act, 2003, must be an early focus
- Mechanisms to ensure access to round-the-clock renewable power
- To minimise intermittency associated with renewable energy, for a given level of hydrogen production capacity.
- A green hydrogen facility will typically oversize the electrolyser, and store hydrogen to ensure continuous hydrogen supply
- A configuration would also generate significant amounts of excess electricity
- Scale up to the target of having 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030, aligning hydrogen production needs with broader electricity demand in the economy would be critica
- Blend green hydrogen in existing processes
- Improving the reliability of hydrogen supply by augmenting green hydrogen with conventionally produced hydrogen will significant improve the economics of fuel
- It will also help build a technical understanding of the processes involved in handling hydrogen on a large scale
- Policymakers must facilitate investments in early stage
- Piloting and the research and development needed to advance the technology for use in India.
- The growing interest in hydrogen is triggered by the anticipated steep decline in electrolyser costs.
- Public funding will have to lead the way, but the private sector, too, has significant gains to be made by securing its energy future.
Way forward
- India must learn from the experience of the National Solar Mission and focus on domestic manufacturing.
- Establishing an end to end electrolyser manufacturing facility would require measures extending beyond the existing performance linked incentive programme.
- India needs to secure supplies of raw materials that are needed for this technology.
- Major institutions like the DRDO, BARC and CSIR laboratories have been developing electrolyser and fuel cell technologies.
- There is a need for a manufacturing strategy that can leverage the existing strengths and mitigate threats by integrating with the global value chain.
Even before it has reached any scale, green hydrogen has been anointed the flag bearer of India’s low carbon transition Hydrogen may be lighter than air, but it will take some heavy lifting to get the ecosystem in place
Mains Question
India must address several challenges to enhance commercial-scale operations of Hydrogen
Sources : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-fresh-push-for-green-hydrogen/article34379481.ece
TOPIC : GS 2
The last word on the state and temples
What is the news?
- In Tamil Nadu, the movement seeking a delinking of state and religion misprizes the law’s value
- In the midst of the recent electoral campaign in Tamil Nadu, a movement to free Hindu temples from state control gained some traction.
- The principles on which secularism rests in India are distinct from their western antecedents.
- The makers of India’s Constitution were conscious of the dangers in promising an American style right to non-establishment.
- The Constituent Assembly was especially mindful of the civic history surrounding matters of faith in India.
- It understood that left unattended, religion could lead to a perpetuation of historical evils.
- To treat religion as a subject beyond the state’s sovereign reach was to thwart the Constitution’s aim of establishing a free and egalitarian society at its very founding
- The framers were also conscious that achieving these goals meant that the government had to ensure that resources vital to the commonweal were properly managed.
- It was with these ends in mind that various provision were written into Articles 25 and 26 of the Constitution.
- Article 25 makes the freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practise and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and health.
- Article 26, on the other hand, protects group rights. It grants to every “religious denomination” the right to establish institutions; to manage its own Affairs in matters of religion, to own and acquire property, and to administer that property in accordance with law.
This right too is bound by considerations of public order, morality, and health
Sources : https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-last-word-on-the-state-and-temples/article34379441.ece
Prelims Punchers
- Gender Samvaad
It is a joint attempt between DAY NRLM and IWWAGE( Initiative for what works to advance women and girls in the economy ) to create a common platform for generating greater awareness on NRLM’s interventions across the country and best practices, with a focus on hearing voices from the states and the field. Organized as a bi-monthly webinar, the Samvaad will provide states with opportunities to Understand best practices/initiatives that other states have been undertaking to improve women’s agency
It will contribute to creation of a ‘gender repository’ with resource materials on best practices for gender interventions across the country/other countries and build advocacy around the need to focus on gender issues across SRLMs and the NRLM
- Global Carbon Project
The Global Carbon Project is a Global Research Project of Future Earth and a research partner of the World Climate Research Programme. It was formed to work with the international science community to establish a common and mutually agreed knowledge base to support policy debate and action to slow down and ultimately stop the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The overwhelming realization that anthropogenic climate change is a reality has focused the attention of the scientific community, policymakers and the general public on the rising atmospheric concentrations of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). The GCP has approached this challenge by focusing comprehensively on the global biogeochemical cycles which govern these three greenhouse gases, including their natural and human drivers, and opportunities for low carbon pathways.
- Naikpod Tribe
There are an Adivasi tribal group of Andhra Pradesh .It is famous for hand carved wooden masks of various tribal deities and mythological characters of “Pandavas.” Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) of Andhra Pradesh has been providing financial assistance to Naikpod tribes to set up a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router to produce wooden miniature masks in impressive designs. CNC router helps Naikpod tribe to preserve their tradition
- Pervasive computing,
It also called ubiquitous computing, is the growing trend of embedding computational capability (generally in the form of microprocessors) into everyday objects to make them effectively communicate and perform useful tasks in a way that minimizes the end user’s need to interact with computers as computers. Pervasive computing devices are network-connected and constantly available.
Unlike desktop computing, pervasive computing can occur with any device, at any time, in any place and in any data format across any network and can hand tasks from one computer to another as, for example, a user moves from his car to his office
Prelims questions
Qn. 1.Consider the following statement with reference
- It is a joint attempt between DAY NRLM and Ministry of Women and Child Development to create a common platform for generating greater awareness
- It will contribute to creation of a ‘gender repository’ with resource materials on best practices for gender interventions across the country
Select the correct statement using code given below.
(a). 1only (b) 2 only
(c). Both of them (d). None of the above
Answer : B
It is a joint attempt between DAY NRLM and IWWAGE to create a common platform for generating greater awareness on NRLM’s interventions across the country and best practices, with a focus on hearing voices from the states and the field. Organized as a bi-monthly webinar, the Samvaad will provide states with opportunities to Understand best practices/initiatives that other states have been undertaking to improve women’s agency
It will contribute to creation of a ‘gender repository’ with resource materials on best practices for gender interventions across the country/other countries and build advocacy around the need to focus on gender issues across SRLMs and the NRLM
Qn 2.Naikpod tribe is tribal population of which of the following state?
- Andhra Pradesh
- Telangana
- Maharashtra
- Odisha
Answer : A
Naikpod Tribe is an Adivasi tribal group of Andhra Pradesh .It is famous for hand carved wooden masks of various tribal deities and mythological characters of “Pandavas.” Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) of Andhra Pradesh has been providing financial assistance to Naikpod tribes to set up a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router to produce wooden miniature masks in impressive designs. CNC router helps Naikpod tribe to preserve their tradition