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The government on Monday issued a Draft National Deep Tech Startup Policy to address the challenges faced by startups as well as for policy interventions to enhance the ecosystem. The draft policy is currently open for public feedback until September 15. The policy released by a consortium chaired by principal scientific adviser to the government Ajay Kumar Sood, has outlined four key pillars: securing India’s economic future, progressing towards a knowledge-driven economy, bolstering national capability and sovereignty through the Atmanirbhar Bharat imperative, and encouraging ethical innovation.The policy has defined deep tech startups with regard to different parameters based on various attributes such as maturity levels, applicability to different sectors, time frames and geographical boundaries, and contextual relevance.According to the policy, a deep tech startup involves early-stage technologies based on scientific or engineering advancements, which are yet to be developed for any commercial applications. Further, it said a deep tech startup typically produces a solution along an unexplored pathway based on new knowledge within a scientific or engineering discipline or by combining knowledge from multiple disciplines. According to Startup India’s database, there are 10,298 DPIIT-recognized startups classified across various sub-sectors within the larger deep tech space as of May 2023.The key priorities for the government through this policy are nurturing research, development, and innovation, strengthening intellectual property regime, facilitating access to funding, infrastructure access and resource sharing, standards and certifications, among other things. Further, the policy also proposes an organisation – The Centre for Deep Tech Translation to assess Indian research (publications, patents, etc.) for potential commercialisation.
Source: Financial Express
National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change. The target under the Mission is 10 m ha on forest and non-forest lands for increasing the forest/tree cover and to improve the quality of existing forest. Based on the perspective plans submitted by the States and as per the availability of funds, so far seventeen States namely Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab, Sikkim, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and one union territory Jammu & Kashmir have been taken up under GIM. The States are considered for funding under GIM after evaluation of their perspective plan and Annual plan of operations prepared in accordance with the guidelines of GIM. The state of Telangana has not submitted their Perspective Plan and Annual Plan of Operations under GIM so far and therefore no funds have been allocated to the State under GIM. The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI Aayog, Government of India, has conducted the Evaluation of National Mission for a Green India in 2020-21 on aspects such as Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Sustainability, Impacts and Equity within the scheme and has further recommended the continuation of scheme. This information was given by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
Source:PIB
A village in the arid savannah of west Africa seems an unlikely place to mark the birth of an energy revolution. If promoters of the next big thing in clean power are right, however, we may all remember the name of Bourakébougou in years to come. That’s because the site 55 kilometers (34 miles) northwest of Mali’s capital Bamako was the first place on earth powered by natural hydrogen — pure gas seeping from the earth, like crude oil or methane. The phenomenon is so anomalous that, until recently, few geologists had given it much thought. In 2011, Montreal-based Hydroma Inc. unplugged a water well near Bourakébougou cemented up in 1987 after the air rising from it caused an explosion. The exhalations turned out to be 98% hydrogen, which was then burned to provide electricity to the village. That series of events seems to defy conventional geochemistry. Hydrogen is one of the most reactive elements — one reason it combines so readily with carbon to make fossil fuels. As a result, pure hydrogen is often assumed to be vanishingly rare in nature. Its role is so overlooked that gas chromatography — the process that chemists use to work out the composition of gaseous mixtures — typically uses hydrogen as a carrier material, making it impossible to detect in samples from underground wells. A growing wave of discoveries is now challenging that conventional wisdom, just as hydrogen manufactured from water and renewable energy looks set to disrupt fossil fuel’s role in a host of industrial sectors. Aside from Bourakébougou, wildcatters have found seeps of natural H2 in Oman, New Caledonia, Canada, Russia, Australia, Japan, Germany and New Zealand. Deposits in France could lead to the country producing 3 million metric tons a year, according to one recent report — roughly a third of the green hydrogen that the European Union wants to be manufacturing by 2030. Hyterra Ltd., an Australian company exploring for geologic hydrogen in the US, believes it can produce the element for $1 a kilogram — prices at which it might start to compete with natural gas. One 2020 study estimated that total global outflows of natural hydrogen might come to 23 million metric tons a year or more. A switch into natural hydrogen might represent the perfect way for the existing petroleum industry to decarbonize — shifting skills in geology and tapping underground fluids to a green fuel of the future. There are just two problems with this promising vision. The first is that we understand next to nothing about natural H2. Crude oil extraction dates back to antiquity, and geologists hypothesized it came from decayed organic matter in the 18th century. Drillers worked out that it got trapped in folded underground rock formations long before John D. Rockefeller turned crude into big business. That scientific understanding — and the wealth of knowledge that has built up since — vastly reduces the cost of exploring for hydrocarbon deposits. With natural hydrogen, we are in the dark. Scientists are divided about how it is even produced, with most theories centering on emergence from deep below the earth’s crust, bacterial activity, or chemical processes. Seeps often appear to be associated with unusual circular depressions in the ground, known as “fairy circles,” but it’s not well understood exactly why these form. Until such questions are solved and underground reservoirs are mapped out, it’s going to be challenging for hydrogen startups to take on the giants of the energy industry. Hyterra’s Kansas and Nebraska prospects might be an attractive option as feedstock for the fertilizer consumed so readily in the Great Plains — but any plant set up to exploit the resource will want to know whether the wells will keep producing for 20 years or two months. That’s still not clear. The other issue is related. That estimate of 23 million tons a year sounds like a lot — but in energy terms, it’s paltry. The EU alone hopes to be consuming 20 million tons a year of manufactured green hydrogen by 2030, and even that is barely enough to slake the world’s fossil-fuel appetites. In energy terms, 23 million tons of hydrogen represents about 2.76 exajoules — similar to the amount of natural gas we consume every week. It’s early days for natural hydrogen, so don’t be too dispirited. No one has really been looking for this stuff until now, and predictions about the availability of mineral resources are almost always underestimates. (In 1919, the US Geological Survey predicted that country would start running out of oil in two to five years.) Rich reserves of natural H2 may yet become the 21st century’s equivalent of the oilfields of the Persian Gulf, Siberia and Texas. As with fusion energy, however, you’d be brave to bet on a revolution this side of 2050.
Source: The energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com
NBFC firm Clix Capital on Monday said it has signed an agreement with Global Climate Partnership Fund (GCPF) for USD 20 million (about Rs 160 crore) loan. GCPF is a Luxembourg-based innovative impact investing fund managed by responsibility Investments AG. It finances renewable energy and energy efficiency projects across several developing and emerging nations directly and indirectly. The funding will be earmarked for sustainable projects that help to mitigate climate change, Clix Capital MD and CEO Rakesh Kaul said. He said the deployment of the fund would be done in the next six to eight months. The funding would be made to MSMEs, such as suppliers of solar power manufacturers or those engaged in waste management working towards the reduction of carbon emission, he added. "As climate change mitigation becomes a cross-policy agenda globally, our efforts are aligned to advance sustainable and green lending. As a responsible lender, we are committed to supporting India's green journey via credit support and assisting businesses with CO2 reporting, green lending development, and environmental and social risk management initiatives," he said. David Diaz Formidoni, head of financial institution investments, responsAbility, said, "Coupling Clix Capital's expertise in providing credit to unbanked businesses with our mission to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency investments, we are poised to support a transformation in India's sustainable development landscape". Further, with an exceptional annual surge of 122 per cent, Clix Capital records Rs 1,206 crore as its highest-ever quarterly fundraise since its inception, Kaul said.
Source: The energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com
The Directorate General of Training (DGT), under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE),is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) India to upskill students in cloud computing, data annotation, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML),to boost their capabilities and employability. This initiative will benefit students enrolled in the institutions under the DGT, an apex organisation responsible for implementing long-term institutional skill training through an extensive network of about 15,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and 33 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs), across India. As part of this collaboration, AWS India will provide individuals with self-paced online learning programs in emerging technologies at no cost.This learning content will be offered on DGT’s Bharat Skills platform (https://bharatskills.gov.in), a central repository of updated curriculum, course content, digitally blended content, question banks, and learning videos of all courses under the Craftsmen Training Scheme (CTS) and Crafts Instructor Training Scheme (CITS). Shri Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, MSDE said that we are making training on high-demand, emerging technologies available to students, opening up new opportunities for them, and enhancing their employability. Through this initiative with AWS. We are happy that students from ITIs and NSTIs can gain in-demand skills and hands-on experience in important areas such as cloud computing, data annotation, AI, and ML. The support that AWS will provide to train the faculty in these technologies will be valuable and empower them to deliver better learning outcomes. Sunil PP, Lead—Education, Space, Non-profits, Channels and Alliances, AWS India Private Limited said that Cloud computing, AI, and ML are transforming nearly every industry, and developing a workforce skilled in these technologies is important to drive innovation and enhance the country’s competitiveness. By offering industry-relevant AWS-based curriculum and learning resources to learners and educators, we are investing in education at large, and developing India’s future digital workforce. Recognizing data annotation as a critical aspect of the development of AI and ML projects as it makes datasets more usable and ready for innovation, AWS India will also enable DGT to train individuals in data annotation and labelling, using Amazon Sage Maker Ground Truth, a purpose-built service from AWS that easily enables labelling of training data for machine learning at scale. In addition, AWS will provide nominated education institutions under DGT with ready-to-teach cloud computing curriculum that prepares students to pursue industry-recognised certifications and in-demand cloud jobs. The trend towards cloud adoption has been growing, especially since the pandemic necessitated organizations of all sizes to rapidly transform into digital businesses, innovate their business model, and enable remote working through several cloud-enabled services. According to the research “Asia Pacific Digital Skills Study: The Economic Benefits of a Tech-Savvy Workforce”, 92% of the 769 employers surveyed in India say at least one of the emerging technologies including AI, edge and quantum computing, block chain, and crypto currency, is likely to become a standard part of their future business operations.
Source: PIB
Landmark Group-owned Max Fashion, known for its budget-friendly clothing, footwear and accessories, has mapped out a plan to expand its footprint in India, including the opening of additional stores and the introduction of new collections aimed at young people. The move comes as value apparel retail is increasingly seeing more action from rivals such as Trent’s Zudio and Shoppers Stop’s Intune, which was recently launched by the latter. Reliance Retail, which runs Reliance Trends, an affordable fashion chain, is looking to give a facelift to the brand, according to industry sources.Max Fashion will set up 100 stores in the next one year, taking its outlet count to close to 600, company officials said. At the same time, Max Fashion has opened its largest store in the country in Kochi, Kerala, to provide a big-box retail experience to consumers.The Kochi store will not only include retail space for fashion and lifestyle products (over 20,000 sqft), but will also have a 5,000-sqft area for home products under its Home Centre brand, executives said. “With an expansive 25,000-sqft store in Kochi, consumers will be spoilt for choice,” Sumit Chandna, deputy CEO, Max Fashion India, said. “This is our 465th store in India,” he added. The scale-up in operations by Max Fashion will pit it directly against Zudio, which has big plans for the future. At Trent’s FY23 annual general meeting held recently, the company said it would open 200 stores of Zudio in FY24, much higher than estimates of analysts. In FY23, Trent opened 117 Zudio outlets taking the total store count of the brand to 352. In contrast, Trent added only 14 Westside stores in FY23, taking the total Westside count to 214. “Most retailers have been calling out a moderation in apparel sales in the last few quarters, which is linked in part to a discretionary slowdown in the market,” G Chokkalingam, founder and MD at Mumbai-based Equinomics Research, said. “The move to tap the value retail space more aggressively is in keeping with the larger trend of limited spending on non-essential products that has been visible among consumers of late,” he says. Harminder Sahni, co-founder of Gurgaon-based retail consultancy Wazir Advisors, says that the shift towards value retail will help companies catch consumers who are shifting from unbranded to branded products. “While premiumization is happening at one level, there is still a very large market that is moving from unbranded to branded products. Value retail is designed for this audience,” he says. Max Fashion has positioned its products at an economical Rs 129 per unit for kids and Rs199 onwards for youth.“Intune is a ‘Fashion For All’ format, which is one of our strategic initiatives to cater to young families,” Venu Nair, MD & CEO, Shoppers Stop, said in an investor call last week. While three stores have been launched in the last two months, three more are in the fitout stage, the company said.
Source: Financial express
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According to data compiled by GlobalData, the global economy had the most significant influence on apparel supply chain hiring in the second quarter of 2023 (1st April to 30th June). The impact of the global macrooutlook was particularly pronounced during May, but it remained the dominant theme affecting supply chain hiring throughout the entire quarter. Several economic factors contributed to this hiring trend. The ongoing high inflation rates led consumers to prioritise their spending, resulting in challenges for the apparel industry. Additionally, soaring energy rates, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and tensions between the US and China all negatively affected the global apparel supply chain, further impacting hiring decisions. While there was a growing interest in AI and the Internet of Things in 2023, GlobalData’s analysis did not indicate that digitalization had a significant impact on supply chain hiring during the second quarter. Similarly, despite health and safety concerns making headlines in the fashion supply chains worldwide, it was not listed as a major theme for the quarter. The supply chain itself and Europe’s macro-outlook were other key themes influencing apparel supply chain hiring in Q2. Europe faced similar challenges to the global economy, struggling with high inflation rates and the impact of high energy costs, as well as the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Looking ahead, the National Retail Federation’s chief economist, Jack Kleinhenz, acknowledged that the US economic headwinds would affect consumer spending in the coming months but expressed optimism for the next quarter, stating that the economy was still moving in the right direction. Overall, the impact of the global economy on apparel supply chain hiring in Q2 2023 highlights the industry’s sensitivity to economic conditions and the importance of addressing challenges such as inflation and geopolitical tensions.
Source: Apparel Resources
Western buyers are considering Vietnam and India equally important sourcing destinations, after China, in 2023, according to the latest report. India and Vietnam are neck-and-neck in the competition for the business of Western consumers, according to about 26 per cent of the more than 250 enterprises surveyed globally by QIMA in the first half of 2023, mentioned in their report titled QIMA Sourcing Survey 2023: Disruption, Diversification and Digitisation. Despite their sourcing diversity, 81 per cent of the surveyed enterprises still mentioned China, indicating that it still plays a significant role in the global supply chain. “In the 2023 ranking of key sourcing destinations, India and Vietnam proved equally popular (after China), and were named (among the top three sourcing partners) by 26 per cent of the US- and EU-based brands,” read the report. Viewed by industry, India as a supplier market was the third most popular among businesses for the textile and apparel sector with 40 per cent naming the country among their top 3, preceded by accessories, jewellery, accessories coming first and promotional products second. The analysis examined both long-term trends and patterns over the previous five years as well as the most recent changes in worldwide procurement patterns. The evolution of important supplier regions, supply chain digitisation trends, and the effect of the ESG regulations on sourcing practises were among the insights provided. By the end of the year, about 87% of organisations predicted that supply chain problems would not worsen. In the last 12 months, 76% of businesses worldwide said they have changed the location of their suppliers. According to the report, the recently diversified supply chains battled with capacity and quality but benefited from flexibility. Brands utilised digitisation to improve visibility, quality and compliance, as globally 74 per cent of businesses were investing in supply chain digitization. Main drivers to do so included improving supply chain visibility, product traceability, quality control, and supplier compliance.
Source: Apparel Resources
The Bangladesh Government is carefully examining the conditions for becoming a member of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world’s largest trade bloc led by China, while also evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of joining the treaty. Media reports have claimed this recently. It may be mentioned here, established in January of the previous year, the RCEP, consisting of 15 countries accounts for about 30 per cent of the world’s population (2.3 billion people) and a market worth US $ 26.3 trillion. The Commerce Ministry has initiated a formal review of the commitments that Bangladesh must fulfill to join the bloc even if to gain insights, the Ministry is reportedly studying the commitments made by RCEP member countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, which have similar economic profiles to Bangladesh. An official from the Commerce Ministry, requesting anonymity, reportedly shared that Bangladesh may need to make comparable commitments to those of existing RCEP members and therefore, a meeting has been scheduled to assess Bangladesh’s capacity to meet these commitments. Noor Md Mahbubul Haq, Additional Secretary of the Commerce Ministry, mentioned that a study on Bangladesh’s potential accession to the RCEP had been conducted as well.
Source: Apparel Resources
