Suspected Chinese hackers collect intelligence from India's power grid

 The hackers compromised an Indian national emergency response system and a subsidiary of a multinational logistics company

Suspected state-sponsored Chinese hackers have targeted the power sector in India in recent months as part of an apparent cyber-espionage campaign, the threat intelligence firm Recorded Future Inc. said in a report published Wednesday.

The hackers focused on at least seven “load dispatch” centers in northern India that are responsible for carrying out real-time operations for grid control and electricity dispersal in the areas they are located, near the disputed India-China border in Ladakh, the report said. One of the load dispatch centers previously was the target of another hacking group, RedEcho, which Recorded Future has said shares “strong overlaps” with a hacking group that the U.S. has tied to the Chinese government.

“The prolonged targeting of Indian power grid assets by Chinese state-linked groups offers limited economic espionage or traditional intelligence gathering opportunities,” the Recorded Future report states. “We believe this is instead likely intended to enable information-gathering surrounding critical infrastructure and/or pre-positioning for future activity.”

Govt’s new move to revive discoms: Install 300 mn smart meters in 3 years

As part of the plan, the federal government is mulling providing subsidies to partially cover the costs

India is thinking about an arrangement to introduce savvy meters in each home and business as a feature of its continuous exertion to pivot the nation’s sickly power part, as indicated by authorities with learning of the circumstance.

The arrangement under thought would require 300 million brilliant meters more than three years, said the general population, who asked not to be recognized as the data isn’t open. The government control service has started talks with producers on providing the meters, which improve productivity by observing and transmitting force use information.

As a feature of the arrangement, the government is pondering giving sponsorships to mostly take care of the costs, one of the authorities said. Primer gauges by the administration put the expense for the smart meters at about Rs 2,000 ($29) each, or $8.7 billion altogether, as per one of the authorities. That is incompletely founded on a desire that costs would be lower than a littler government delicate for 5 million brilliant meters in 2017 at Rs 2,503.  The power service wasn’t quickly ready to react to demands for input.

Broad utilization of brilliant meters could be a gamechanger for sickly Indian dissemination utilities. These merchants lose about one-fifth of their income through different specialized and business reasons including power burglary or wasteful charging and gathering, as indicated by the power service.

SC quashes RBI insolvency circular, relief for power assets worth Rs 2-trn

More than 24 stressed power projects that could have faced insolvency proceedings will now find it hard to get buyers because they are “incomplete”

Companies News: The Supreme Court (SC) on Monday provided a huge relief to thermal power projects worth Rs 2 trillion that were facing the threat of insolvency. The apex court held a 12 February 2018 circular of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which ordered banks to classify companies as ‘stressed’ if they default on loans even for a day, to be ‘ultra vires’. The SC said that the circular that applied to numerous defaulting assets in power, sugar, shipping and companies in other sectors to be beyond the RBI’s legal powers. A detailed copy of the judgement is awaited.

The February 12 circular allowed 180 days for the debt resolution of companies with loan accounts over Rs 2,000 crore, failing which the asset would have to be taken to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for insolvency action. The 180-day deadline got over on 31 August 2018. However, most companies took the legal route to avoid being dragged to NCLT. The last financial year closed with only one power asset successfully completing debt resolution.

Power companies such as Essar Power, GMR Energy, KSK Energy, and Rattan India Power as well as The Association of Power Producers (APP) and Independent Power Producers Association of India had moved the Supreme Court in August last year, challenging the constitutional validity of the RBI circular.

In their submission, the power companies pleaded for relief from the circular as several resolution plans are under implementation. Power companies also said the ‘one size fits all’ approach of the RBI doesn’t suit them as they are governed by different regulations…