People in eight remote villages in Eheliyagoda electorate received electricity supply at a cost of Rs. 2.1million under the Vidulamu Lanka project.

Funds were allocated on a request made by SLFP organizer for Eheliyagoda, Technology and Research Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi to Power and Energy Deputy Minister Premalal Jayasekara. Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council Member Kanchana Jayarathna commissioned the projects recently with the participation of community leaders in the area.

New Delhi The power ministry has written to the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure to mandate a uniform 50% risk weight to bank loans for state-owned Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), a move which could lead to banks doubling their exposure to these companies if it finds favour with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The power ministry has proposed a uniform risk weight of 50% for these two infrastructure financing companies (IFCs). At present, banks assign low risk weight only to top-rated IFCs, while others attract 100% risk weight.

A Karnataka-based NGO is one of the eight finalists for the UK-based green energy prize, the Ashden Award.

Shri Kshethra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) in Karnataka has been selected alongside seven other organisations from Peru, Indonesia, Cambodia, Africa and Afghanistan as a finalist for the Ashden Awards.

A press release said here that the finalists will compete for over £120,000 prize money. The winners will be announced in London on May 30.

Around 82 inaccessible, remote villages in Gopalganj, Saharsa, Supaul and Kaimur districts would be energised under Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification programme (RGREP) in Bihar, the State Hydel Power Corporation Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Mr A K Pandey said.

Talking to PTI, Mr Pandey said around 40 villages of Baikunthpur and other blocks of Gopalganj district have been identified to cover under RGREP for electrification through non-conventional sources of energy such as bio-mass and solar energy.

Universal access to sustainable energy will be the harbinger of the next industrial revolution. Energy powers human progress. From job generation to economic competitiveness, from strengthening security to empowering women, energy is the great integrator: it cuts across all sectors and lies at the heart of all countries’ core interests. And now more than ever, the world needs to ensure that the benefits of modern energy are available to all and that energy is provided as cleanly and efficiently as possible.

For a state government that pats itself for having turned Gujarat into a power-surplus region by connecting all the urban and rural areas to the electricity grid, the census data of 2011 — that shows over 11 lakh households without electricity — could come as a shock. The housing data of the census points out that there are over 11 lakh residences that do not use electricity in a state that has a power generation capacity of over 14,000 MW (mega watt) and claims to have 2,000 MW of surplus power.