CB Bureau‘We have in place the National Action Plan on Climate Change, which incorporates a vision of sustainable development with a view to create a prosperous, but not wasteful, society,’ said President Pratibha Patil while inaugurating the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference (DIREC) on October 26.
The president said that the government has included solar energy among the eight national missions to promote development.
India has identified eight ‘missions’ that will promote the development of the country while also yielding benefits for addressing climate change, including the National Solar Mission, which was launched this year.
The president said that in a world where 1.4 billion people still lack access to electricity, renewable energy has an important role in providing modern energy access to them. She said that as far as India is concerned, it is a growing economy and its requirements for energy are increasing even as the country seeks to provide access to energy to a large proportion of our population. ‘Energy security for India is a predominant objective,’ the president stated.
Addressing a press conference to mark the start of DIREC, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah announced that 10,000 remote villages across the country would be electrified with renewable energy sources by March 2012, under an innovative initiative that would also generate employment.
‘We will provide electricity to 10,000 villages at a cost of Rs 500 crore by the end of the current plan period,’ Abdullah informed.
Under the scheme, one person will be appointed in each village for maintenance of power plants set up there. The type of plants to be set up would depend on the renewable energy source available in the particular village.