JULY 08, 2019 News the Newsbehind 43
indianeconomicpanoramaIndian Steel Association. Th e existing
Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreements with Korea and Japan also
need to be reviewed.
Currently, South Korea, Japan and
some Southeast Asian nations can sell
to India at zero import tariff s under
free trade agreements. Shipments from
South Korea have more than doubled
since 2010 to 3 million tonnes, making
it the top supplier of steel products to
India.
For high-grade steel that Indian
companies don’t make, they have to
depend on South Korea and Japan and
this will continue, Fitchs Sadaka said.
POWER
COAL TO DOMINATE INDIA
POWER TO 2030
According to an assessment by the
Central Electricity Authority (CEA),
coal may account for half of India’s
power generation in 2030 despite
a boom in solar and wind energy
projects.
Th e assessment, released Monday,
highlights that the nation has a large
existing fl eet of coal plants and that
there’s a mismatch between peak periods
of demand and output from renewables.
Th at will leave a big role for the most-
polluting fuel in the nation’s future
electricity mix.
Anindya Upadhyay & Rajesh Kumar
Singh writing in the Economic Times
say the CEA’s analysis shows that
India may be able to exceed one of its
2015 Paris Agreement commitments -
reaching 40% of installed capacity from
non-fossil fuel sources. But the report
also sees annual carbon emissions from
the power sector rising about 12%
from levels expected in 2022 to 1.154
billion tons.
Th e report, which is an attempt to
model the lowest-cost capacity mix to
meet expected future demand, identifi es
the intermittent nature of renewables
as a limiting factor for its use and
advocates adopting grid-scale battery
storage.
Non-fossil fuel power sources, led by
solar and wind, are seen generating 48%
of gross generation, more than double
what it was at the end of last year,
while accounting for 65% of installed
capacity, according to the report. India
had 80 gigawatts of renewable capacity
at the end of May and has set a goal to
install 175 gigawatts by 2022.TELECOMMUNICATIONS
LEVERAGING 5G AND
GROWTH
According to the the Economic
Survey 2018-19, the telecom industry’s
contribution to GDP is estimated to
reach 8.2% by 2020, by when industry
players are slated to also leverage 5G
technologies to connect with global
markets and ring in a fully networked,
knowledge and services economy.
The government plans to make
India 5G-ready by 2020, and has
signalled plans to auction 5G spectrum
later this year.
“For India, 5G provides an
opportunity for industry to reach out
to global markets; consumers to gain
economies of scale and citizens to
reap benefi ts of doorstep governance
and availability of services, medical
support, benefi t transfers, education,
entertainment and also build a digital
payments, knowledge and services
economy,” the Survey said.
Th e arrival of ultra-fast 5G wireless
broadband technology, it said, would
ring in an era of inter-connected smart
devices on a massive scale that would
help unlock the transformational
impact of machine to machine
(M2M) and internet of things (IoT)technologies for citizen-centric services
in India.
Upcoming 5G technologies, it said,
are set to contribute $2.2 trillion to the
global economy over the next 15 years,
with key sectors such as manufacturing,
utilities, and professional/financial
services set to benefi t the most.
The Survey said India’s mobile
services industry had witnessed
exponential growth, driven by
affordable tariffs, wider availability,
expanding 4G coverage and roll out
of mobile number portability that have
led to evolved consumption patterns.
Th e mobile industry, it said, already
supports about 6.5% of India’s GDP,
citing a report collated by London-
based GSMA.MONEY AND BANKING
RBI’S FINANCIAL STABILITY
REPORT
There is disappointment with
the latest edition of RBI’s Financial
Stability Report (FSR). Experts were
looking for answers to some of the
key questions relating to the non-
bank crisis simmering in India’s debt
markets. But, writes the Business Line,
the Report stops short of off ering, or
even debating, possible solutions to
it.
The FSR has good news on
domestic banks though, concluding
that their legacy NPAs peaked out
in March 2018 and are now set to
steadily diminish. Th e bulk of these
NPAs are now accounted for, with
the provision coverage at 60 per cent.
Th e improvement in banks’ aggregate
capital adequacy ratio to 14.3 per
cent with a shrinkage in the number
of precarious PSBs, should be seen as
positive.
But the section devoted to the non-
bank sector raises more questions than