11/03/2019 - Government Policies | GS II | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 6 years

KEY POINTS

Improvement over Phase 1

· FAME II is an improvement on the earlier phase on a few counts. The scheme has been allotted Rs 10,000 crore, which is over a tenfold jump from Rs895 crore set aside for the first phase.

· With more than half the allocation going towards e-buses and e-three-wheelers, including e-rickshaws, the focus of FAME II is on creating green mass transport systems.

· FAME II essentially encourages only electric technology and in that, only lithium ion battery or other newer-technology, battery-based vehicles. The only exception is with respect to four-wheelers, where strong hybrids and plug-in hybrids are also eligible for incentives.

· FAME II’s focus on electrification of public transport is in sync with the government’s vision for 2030 put out by the NITI Aayog.

Flaws in Phase-2

· But with EV penetration in India currently at an abysmal 1 per cent, FAME alone is not enough to reach the 2030 target, be it for public transport or private vehicles.

· While the scheme encourages privately-owned e-two-wheelers, on the four-wheeler front, the emphasis is only on vehicles registered for commercial purposes.

· Given the huge ownership of privately-owned cars, excluding green personal cars from FAME incentives was a major flaw.

For better quality of Life

· To encourage faster adoption, State governments should chip in with fiscal and non-fiscal incentives for manufacture and sale of clean energy vehicles.

· Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi have come out with their EV policies. Supply chain incentives in the form of lower import duties or other local taxes for critical parts must be available and affordable.

· A robust charging infrastructure is absolutely crucial, inclusion of personal cars category is the need of the hour.

These measures will go a long way in making EVs popular by lowering ownership and running costs. For transport to go truly green, it must also be accompanied by a rising share of renewables in electricity output. Environmentally sustainable batteries too should gain ground.

Sandeep 6 years

Kindly review thanks

IAS Parliament 6 years

Try to include some points for better implementation of the scheme, include major flaw in FAME-2, focus more on commercial vehicles, not on personal cars. Keep Writing.