Green Growth Push

• It will facilitate transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports, and make the country assume technology and market leadership in this sunrise sector.
• India aims to reach a target of an annual production of 5 MMT of green hydrogen by 2030.

• It will be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act.
• It will incentivize environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals and local bodies, and help mobilize additional resources for such activities.

• PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment and Amelioration of Mother Earth.
• Aim: To incentivize States and Union Territories to promote alternative fertilizers and balanced use of chemical fertilizers.
• Objective: To bring down the government’s subsidy burden, which is estimated to reach Rs 2.25 lakh crore in 2022-23.

• To facilitate the adoption of 1 crore farmers to adopt natural farming, over the next three years.
• For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres will be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.

Need for Promoting Natural Farming

• Though, Chemical fertilisers revolutionised agriculture, they are known to be a major source of water pollution.
• Eutrophication caused by excessive use of chemical fertilisers, causes death to fishes and other aquatic life.
• Over a long period of time, they can also harm the soil, causing acidification, and hence have an impact on the land’s productivity.
• There is a link between the excessive use of chemical fertilisers and incidence of cancer among farmers.

• 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme will be established for promoting circular economy.
• These will include 200 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, including 75 plants in urban areas, and 300 community or cluster-based plants at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore.

• It will be promoted as the energy efficient and lower cost mode of transport, both for passengers and freight, through PPP mode with viability gap funding.

• Replacing old polluting vehicles is an important part of greening our economy.
• Budget allocated funds to scrap old vehicles of Central Government.
• States will also be supported in replacing old vehicles and ambulances.

• The Inter-state transmission system for evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW renewable energy from Ladakh will be constructed with investment of Rs 20,700 crore including central support of 8,300 crore.
• The Budget has provided Rs 35,000 crore for priority capital investments towards energy transition and net zero objectives.

• To steer the economy on the sustainable development path, Battery Energy Storage Systems with capacity of 4,000 MWH will be supported with Viability Gap Funding.

• To spur a movement of environmentally conscious lifestyle, and that India was moving towards the ‘panchamrit’ and net-zero carbon emission by 2070 to usher in green industrial and economic transition.