By: D.K Choudhary
BHEL Commissions 600 MW Coal Based Thermal Power Plant in Telangana
i. India’s second largest coal mining company Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (Bhel) on December 29 informed that it has successfully commissioned second 600 MW coal-based thermal power plant in Telangana. The first unit of the project was commissioned in March 2016.
ii. The project has been developed by Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and the unit has been commissioned at the 2×600 Mw Singareni Thermal Power Project (TPP) located in Adilabad district in Telangana. The 600 Mw rating sets comprise a 4 cylinder turbine designed in-house.
iii. The company is a major contributor to Telangana’s power sector with over 85% of the coal-based power stations, amounting to 5,740 Mw. The Telangana state utility has also placed orders to the company for executing around 6,000 Mw of thermal power projects in the state, on Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) basis.
iv .So far, the company has contracted 21 sets of 600 Mw each, of which 17 have already been commissioned.
BHEL
♦ Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited owned by the Government of India, is an engineering and manufacturing company based in New Delhi, India. BHEL is India’s largest power plant equipment manufacturer.
♦ Headquarters: New Delhi
♦ CEO: Atul Sobti
♦ Founded: 1964
Government removes minimum export price on potato
i. The central government removed the minimum export price (MEP) of potato from December 29, 2016.
ii. MEP of USD 360 per tonne on potato had imposed to increase domestic availability and cool prices in July 2016
iii. India was the world’s second largest potato producer at 48 million tonnes (mt) in 2014-15. India exported nearly 0.18 mt of potato in the curreny year which is lower than the previous year
What is Minimum Export Rate(MEP) ?
♦ MEP is the rate below which no trader is allowed to export. The rise in MEP restricts exports and improves domestic supply.
Chinese E-Commerce Firm Alibaba To set up Office in Mumbai
i. Chinese major e-commerce entity, Alibaba is to set up its first Indian office at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, to take the advantage of the growing e-commerce market in the city.
ii. The company has rented 3,221 sq ft of office space at Platina building owned by the The Alibaba’s Chairman Jack Ma appointed adviser to UN trade bodyWadhwa Group and would pay Rs 275 per sq ft on a monthly basis. The rent of the building is expected to be a little over Rs 1 crore per month.
iii. Alibaba’s biggest rival Amazon India too has a 30,000 sq ft head office in the same BKC area.
iv. Alibaba aims to have some share of the growing e-commerce market which is currently dominated by home-grown Flipkart, followed by Amazon and Snapdeal.
Alibaba
♦ Alibaba is a Chinese e-commerce company that provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer and business-to-business sales services via web portals.
♦ Founder: Jack Ma
♦ Founded: April 4, 1999
♦ Headquarters: Hangzhou, China
