Union budget infuses new energy in green sector

The Union budget of 2020 has given a shot of green for a cleaner India. 

The Jal Jeevan Mission, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last August, has been allocated a princely sum of Rs 3.6 lakh crore, out of which Rs 11, 500 crore will be released in the financial year 2020-21.

Jal Jeevan Mission has ambitious aims, the most important being  Functional Household Tap Connection (FHTC), popularised with the slogan har nal se jal. 

The year 2019 was climatically stressful for India, when Chennai ran dry of groundwater and swathes of the country went thirsty during a particularly harsh summer. The abundance of water during the following monsoon only drove in the irony that India isn’t really short of water, but its management and utilisation remain low tech and wasteful. The Jal Jeevan mission stresses on augmenting local water resources, recharging existing sources and promoting water harvesting and desalination. Cities with a million plus population will be encouraged to reach the target by the end of this financial year itself. 

Even though the government has said that India is now an Open Defecation Free (ODF) country, it has allocated Rs 12,300 crore for the Swachch Bharat Mission, which aims, among other things, at ODF Plus, or adding on to successes already achieved. This year’s budget has also spoken about a new initiative—liquid and grey water management along with waste management. Mukund Vasudevan, MD and country head, Ecolab India, a multinational organisation working in the area of reducing water consumption, said that addressing environment and climate change issues under the Aspirational India theme was heartening. “It is commendable that social and industrial development are going hand in hand with sustainability,’’ he said. 

However, the other big environmental concern of clean air has only been given a modest allocations of Rs 4,400 core. Sitharaman said the government will encourage states that go for clean air solutions in cities that have a million plus population. Clean air has become a complex issue in India, and the November smog across the northern plains a vexing issue. 

The non-conventional and renewable energy ministry has got a sizeable hike in allocation this year—Rs 5,763 crore, which is Rs 1,772 crore more than the last fiscal. Of this, Rs 2,149.65 has been allocated to solar energy. Sitharaman added that the government will encourage to set up solar panels on barren land. 

The budget also made an allocation of Rs 300 crore to the new scheme, Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Uthan Mahabhiyaan or KUSUM, a Rs 1.4 lakh crore mission to decentralise solar power production among farmers in order to generate Rs 28,250 MW of energy. 

Sitharaman spoke of the nationally intended commitments that India had made at the Paris Summit on Climate Change in 2015, which will begin to kick in from 2021. She also spoke about the new International Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure that India launched last year, which is also headquartered in India. After the International Solar Alliance, this is the next big international initiative India has taken towards climate change mitigation.