Energy Needs for India

In India, Power Cuts are too common and we talk of ourselves as a great nation. Yes, there is power cities, but what happens in the villages. There is no power and the fields are owned majority times by big farmers. They get free power in the form of political patornage for their farms and they do not pay any income tax which comes out of the pocket of the salaried common man

When people with vision like Manmohan Singh broker a nuclear deal with the US, our poticians of the Left and the BJP see this as American Imperialism. But when are we going to get pragmatic and give a thought for the interests of India over that of ideological differences.

We need power for our industries for our hospitals and colleges and homes. Without power, we would not have production in factories. Our products will be costly if we have high cost power. We need sources which produce low cost power and as of today and immediate near future, nuclear power is a cheaper option. Morever, we will also get the know how for the country's strategic needs. With rouge nations like Pakistan for company we need to have a strong message to be sent to it not to mess with the nation.

Our country is dependent on Hydel and Coal based power plants for the majority of power. That has to change. Hydel power causes a lot of displacement of people from their place and takes time to build. There is a lot of pollution and enviornmental damage caused by hydel power. Nuclear Power though not clean at least causes less damage to the Enviornment.

Coal based plants produce power at a higher cost than nuclear or hydel power. We are also running out of the short reserves of high quality of coal required to fire such plants. We import the majority of coal from other countries.

The need of the hour is to seriously look for non conventional sources of power like solar power and wind power. India is blessed with one of the highest average solar availability in the world. We should encourage the Corporates to look into this form of power for their captive needs. Multiplexes should be made compulsarily to use 50 percent of their power through solar power. Research should be directed to develop cheaper means for generating solar power. We should also encourage wind farms near big cities and industrial complexes . Such sources are clean sources of power and will generate power for our energy starvved nation.

The public should be encouraged to use energy efficient devices like CFL and in fact, it should be made compulsory in cities with immediate effect. Tax incentives and discounts should be allowed for the production and usage of such devices.

People should be encouraged to use public transport like railways and buses rather then private cars to commute to office. Corporates shod ask their employees to work from home. This will reduce property rates also in the cities and increase employee morale also as they will get to spend time with families.

We should actively involve ourselves in securing oil, gas and coal assets across the globe. We should involve in a big way in Africa and Asia to secure such assets. This is the only way for long term energy security.