Business
King suffers ‘disaster’ while unveiling plaque during visit to solar panel firm
The King has hailed the work of a British company producing the next generation of solar panels as “wonderful” but joked about the “disaster” of his plaque unveiling.
Charles toured the headquarters of Oxford PV (Photovoltaics) which has developed solar panels that are significantly more efficient than conventional products and were described by the King as “so vitally needed”.
The head of state has been championing sustainability and climate action for decades, speaking regularly about the threat to the planet and adopting practical measures like running his Aston Martin car on eco-fuel.
He told a group of staff “I hope you can speed up the transition a bit” – an apparent reference to the aim of moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
The King added: “I think you’re remarkable, how you’ve managed to keep it all going, but it does take time to get to the point where you can actually commercialise all these things.
“But we need it all badly, all your products, fantastic – applicable on one or two roofs.”
There was a lighter moment when Charles pulled a sheet to unveil a plaque to mark his visit, quipping “disaster” after it tumbled to the ground from an easel.
He was shown the research and development lab of Oxford PV, founded in 2010 as a spin-out from nearby Oxford University, which has become a world leader in using light-sensitive perovskite to develop solar panels that are over 20% more efficient than conventional panels.
He looked at an electron microscope image of the surface of perovskite, a material layered on to silicon solar panels to increases their efficiency at creating electricity as it absorbs different parts of the light spectrum.
The King was delayed by around 45 minutes when bad weather forced him to switch from a helicopter to a car for his journey to Oxford, believed to be from London, and he joked a number of times about the delay after apologising for being late.
When Charles was shown images of commercial applications of the advanced solar panels, not yet available to the public, he appeared impressed with the potential use in car manufacturing, aeronautics and satellites.
David Ward, chief executive of Oxford PV, said after the visit that the firm was shipping “pilot volumes” of products to early customers, adding: “There’s been a decade of work, getting it from a brilliant piece of science into a real module that you see here, that we could give to a customer and they put on a roof.
“I don’t think one energy source will dominate all others, but solar right now is the cheapest form of energy generation and deals with security and energy transition.”
Business
LPG crisis: No respite for restaurants yet – The Times of India
MUMBAI/BENGALURU: The restaurant industry is struggling to run regular operations due to the meagre supplies of LPG cylinders . With the govt’s move to hike commercial LPG allocation to up to 70%, it will take some time before the measure actually translates into sustained supply, executives said. “Supply is still hugely limited and erratic. A feeling of uncertainty looms large,” said Anurag Katriar, founder at Indigo Hospitality. The key question is how quickly this revised allocation will translate into on-ground availability, said Pradeep Shetty, vice-president at Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI).A walk along Indiranagar’s 12th Main, known for its cluster of independent restaurants, reflects the strain. “It is all hand-to-mouth at this point,” said Nikhil Gupta, who runs brands including The Pizza Bakery and Paris Panini . The move doesn’t directly help the restaurant sector which is still getting 20%-30% of LPG supplies, said Sagar Daryani, co-founder & CEO at Wow! Momo Foods and president at National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI). State-wise, the supply situation varies with some such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan restricting allocation for restaurants, hurting the sector , Daryani said.
Business
Asda boss rejects profiteering claims as petrol price tops 150p
Motorists are facing higher fuel prices ahead of Easter break due to the conflict in the Middle East, the RAC says.
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Business
E-cheques coming soon? RBI unveils Payments Vision 2028, plans wider oversight of digital players – The Times of India
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday unveiled its ‘Payments Vision 2028’ document, outlining a roadmap that includes exploring electronic cheques, expanding regulatory oversight to digital platforms, and strengthening safeguards in the fast-growing payments ecosystem, PTI reported.The central bank said it will examine the introduction of e-cheques to combine the advantages of paper instruments with the speed and reliability of digital payments. “To leverage the unique benefits of paper-based instruments and the speed and reliability of electronic payments, and cater to new business use cases, the introduction of electronic cheques in India shall be explored,” the RBI said.Alongside, the RBI is considering widening the regulatory ambit to include entities such as e-commerce marketplaces and centralised platforms that play a growing role in facilitating digital transactions.“In addition, e-commerce marketplaces and centralized platforms have been assuming significant responsibilities that could have implications on the orderly functioning of the payments ecosystem. These aspects shall be examined in detail and, if required, the scope of direct regulations shall be extended to cover such entities,” the document said.The vision document also proposes allowing users to enable or disable transactions across digital payment modes, similar to controls available for card transactions.To address fraud risks, the RBI is exploring a “shared responsibility framework” under which both the issuing bank and the beneficiary bank would share liability in cases of unauthorised digital transactions.The central bank also plans to review cheque design and security features, introduce a Domestic Legal Entity Identifier (DLEI) framework for better transaction traceability, and bring in a Cyber Key Risk Indicators (KRI) framework for non-bank payment system operators.Other initiatives include exploring white-label solutions in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AePS), developing interoperability in the Trade Receivables e-Discounting System (TReDS), and introducing a ‘Payments Switching Service’ to ease customer migration across platforms.The RBI said it will also review the cross-border payments ecosystem to improve efficiency and streamline authorisation processes, alongside publishing periodic reports on global and domestic payment trends.Additionally, the central bank aims to enhance access to payment data and reimagine the card payments ecosystem by promoting secure tokenisation, improved transparency in pricing, and greater choice for users and merchants.
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