A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Former President and eminent scientist, on Tuesday attached priority on fuel conservation as a sustainable means to achieve energy sufficiency.
Addressing a conference on ‘Environment and Its Impact on Society’ organised by the JD Birla Institute, Kolkata, Kalam said different reports have suggested that “building energy efficiency is perhaps the most economically feasible and convenient way to generate energy.”
Describing “energy conservation” as a “source of fuel” he said: “More than any form of technology, what it needs is the social awareness and incentives for the industries and homes to go green.”
Elaborating on the India scenario, he said the losses in power distribution alone are more than 40 per cent in many States. “There is also an immense scope for energy efficiency at household levels ranging from cooking fuels to smart buildings which can save up to 50 per cent of the energy consumption,” Kalam pointed out.
He suggested a host of strategies to implement energy conservation. Different industries such as cement, aluminium, steel, fertilisers, textiles need to “evolve energy utilisation norms on per capita basis and provide a challenge to designers to work towards the target.”
There is also a need for an “enterprise-wise review within each of these sectors and mechanism to reveal the variance from planned utilisation to the actual.” Kalam emphasised on the necessity for enterprises to install energy efficient electronic equipment, thereby helping the estimated 75 million rural households deprived of electricity. The aerospace scientist also said consumption of solar energy would be crucial for India’s energy future.
He stressed on framing of a national policy on solar power panelled houses.
Meanwhile, Kalam suggested the implementation of Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA) scheme to create more economic opportunities. “First you have to implement the PURA programme for the 700 million people in the villages. The you need to focus on small and medium enterprises throughout the country and value addition for agriculture products which we are not doing,” he said when asked about continuous rupee devaluation and slow growth rate.
The concept was mooted by Kalam when he was the President.
“If these three programmes are rolled out nationally, we don’t require anybody’s help for economic upswing,” he added.