Macro Planning Regions Of India
Maryanna Vernia
The US electric grid is often referred to as the greatest machine in the world. It is indeed an engineering marvel: a network of several hundred thousand miles of power lines connect thousands of electric generators to power households and businesses across the contiguous United States. But in the aftermath of winter storm Elliott and the rolling power outages its frigid cold inflicted on many Americans, we need to ask ourselves: is this machine a match for these types of extreme weather events blanketing the country with ever increasing frequency and ferocity?
Last year, FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) that, if adopted, will go a long way in fixing many of the hurdles that plague planners within the 11 FERC transmission planning regions. However, the Commission has yet to take similarly strong action to fix planning between those regions. As a first important step, FERC convened a host of experts on December 5 and 6, 2022 to discuss how it can help improve this type of inter-regional planning.
First, FERC was asking whether it should mandate a minimum amount of power transfer capability between regions, or if it should require a planning process for neighboring regions to figure out the right transfer capability between them for themselves. Rob Gramlich, founder and president of Grid Strategies, advocated for a hybrid approach. This would include both a minimum floor set by FERC and provide for a robust inter-regional planning process, through which neighboring regions would jointly identify additional beneficial inter-regional transmission solutions. Others added that harmonized regional planning standards set by FERC are also desperately needed to facilitate joint planning between willing regions on an equal footing.
Second, the panelists debated whether FERC should set a minimum requirement based on a simple metric. The EU for instance simply asks its member states to enable at least 15 percent of installed electricity production capacity to be deliverable to their neighbors by 2030. However, some panelists argued that complex modeling, potentially involving supercomputers, was needed to robustly quantify all the diverse benefits of improved inter-regional connectivity. Others pointed out that the reliance on simplified metrics, such as the common 1 day in 10 years loss of load expectation standard used for resource adequacy modeling, has long been an established practice in power system planning.
Therefore, FERC should require both a minimum amount of inter-regional transfer capability and a robust inter-regional planning process. Recognizing the potentially life-saving insurance value of additional inter-regional transfer capability, the minimum requirement should be based on a robust yet simple and readily actionable metric. The increasingly urgent need to protect consumers from future disasters means that the cost allocation question needs to be resolved quickly. This would likely be best achieved by applying the same simple and broad cost socialization as with any other public good.
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land-use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. Regional planning is related to urban planning as it relates land use practices on a broader scale. It also includes formulating laws that will guide the efficient planning and management of such said regions.[1] Regional planning can be comprehensive by covering various subjects, but it more often specifies a particular subject, which requires region-wide consideration.[2]
Regions require various land uses; protection of farmland, cities, industrial space, transportation hubs and infrastructure, military bases, and wilderness. Regional planning is the science of efficient placement of infrastructure and zoning for the sustainable growth of a region. Advocates for regional planning such as new urbanist Peter Calthorpe, promote the approach because it can address region-wide environmental, social, and economic issues which may necessarily require a regional focus.
A 'region' in planning terms can be administrative or at least partially functional, and is likely to include a network of settlements and character areas. In most European countries, regional and national plans are 'spatial' directing certain levels of development to specific cities and towns in order to support and manage the region depending on specific needs, for example supporting or resisting polycentrism.
Although the term "regional planning" is nearly universal in English-speaking countries the areas covered and specific administrative set ups vary widely. In North America, regional planning may encompass more than one state, such as the Regional Plan Association, or a larger conurbation or network of settlements. North American regional planning is likely to cover a much larger area than the Regional Assemblies of the UK; both, however, are equally "regional" in nature.
On this site, the term "country" does not in all cases refer to a territorial entity that is a state as understood by international law and practice. As used here, the term also covers some territorial entities that are not states. Dependent territories of member countries are listed alphabetically followed by a description of the constitutional relationships with their member countries.
This policy tracker summarizes the key economic responses governments are taking to limit the human and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tracker includes 197 economies. Last updated on July 2, 2021.
Background. Afghanistan reported its first COVID-19 case on February 24, 2020. As the infection spread, the government tightened containment measures, including introducing screening at ports of entry, quarantine for infected people, and closure of public places for gathering. It imposed countrywide lockdown in late March 2020, which was subsequently extended twice. Afghanistan experienced a relatively moderate second wave of infections during November-December 2020 with infections declining since early 2021. Schools reopened on February 28, and universities resumed in person instruction in early March 2021.
Afghanistan is currently going through a severe third wave of infections, with the number of cases and deaths topping the peaks of the first wave a year ago. Almost a third of the individuals tested recently had the infection. In response, the authorities have closed schools until further notice and are trying to speed up vaccinations. In consultation with the neighboring countries, they have also halted the movement of people across borders while keeping them open to trade and cargo transit.
The authorities aim to vaccinate 60 percent of the population. Essential workers and groups prioritized by the National Technical Committee based on their vulnerability to COVID-19 will be vaccinated first. Inoculations using 500,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by India started in February. The COVAX facility aims to provide vaccines covering 20 percent of the population, with the first shipments of 468,000 doses delivered in early March. Vaccination of another 28 percent of population is expected to be funded by World Bank and ADB grants. That said, less than one percent of the population has been fully vaccinated so far, and Afghanistan is facing a vaccine shortage after a large shipment has been delayed significantly. In response, China donated 700,000 doses, and the U.S. is delivering 3 million doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine this week. In addition to the vaccine shortage, the inoculation campaign is also facing administrative challenges and vaccine hesitancy in rural areas.
The pandemic and containment measures introduced at the onset of the pandemic disrupted domestic activity and trade. Border closures and panic-buying led to a temporary spike in prices of foodstuffs in April 2020, which has abated with the re-opening of borders in early June. Income and job losses in the formal and informal sectors pushed thousands of Afghan families into poverty, threatening to reverse social development gains of the past decade. Oxfam estimates that the number of people on the brink of famine in Afghanistan has risen to 3.5 million in 2020 from 2.5 million in September 2019.
The government initially used contingency funds for emergency pandemic response, including for urgent health needs, such as establishing testing labs; setting up special wards to boost hospitalization and care capacity; and procuring critical medical supplies.
In April-June 2020, the government provided free bread to the poor in Kabul, later extended to other cities. In May, it waived electricity bills of less than Af 1,000 (US$13) for a family residence in Kabul for two months and paid utility bills of the past two months for 50 percent of households in Kabul. The decision benefited more than 1.5 million Kabul residents.
The authorities rolled out about 0.8 percent of GDP social assistance under the World Bank-funded REACH program in 2020, with the remaining 0.6 percent of GDP continuing in 2021. The program targets Afghan households with incomes of $2 per day or lower (twice the national poverty line), with households in rural areas receiving an equivalent of $50 in essential food staples and hygiene products, while those in urban areas a combination of cash and in-kind equivalent to $100, in two tranches. .
Recognizing that taxpayers were facing liquidity strains, the government extended the tax filing deadline for the first quarter of 2020 by 45 days. No further extensions have been provided. In late 2020, the government offered to waive tax and customs payment penalties if taxpayers clear their due taxes before the end of the first quarter 2021.
DAB phased out emergency pandemic measures in July 2020. It ended the freeze on loan classifications and recommenced the enforcement of all prudential requirements in August with flexible application of penalties and prudential triggers in recognition of persisting risks. The emergency measures for the nonbank sector were also allowed to expire in July 2020.
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