Secretary Shri PK Pujari ji, Joint Secretary Mr Rajpal, Director General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency Mr Abhay Bakre, Mr Mark White from the US AID, colleagues from the Ministry of power, my good friend Ajay Mathur who very ably led the BEE for many years, has now moved on to TERI and serving the country through the medium of TERI to promote cleaner and efficient use of electricity and other forms of energy in the country; Sourav Kumar, the Managing Director of Energy Efficiency Services Limited who is spearheading a lot of our energy efficiency programmes, distinguished ladies and gentlemen.
Of course, while the good news is that today the country is set to have a new President very soon next month, a person with very humble beginnings, a person who himself, his family and his forefathers for generations have been the sufferers of so many wrongs that we had for decades and centuries in this country. And, someone who truly reflects the voice of a new India, where every person, every deprived individual, every poor person, every person coming from the villages will have a say, will have a better quality of life. And, in that sense, the nomination of his Excellency, the Governor of Bihar, Professor Ram Nath Kovind, as the presidential nominee for the 2017 election is certainly going to be a landmark in terms of giving that self-respect and that opportunity to every child, every individual in the country.
And, in one sense, the programme that we have today on our hand resonates very well with that fact that what we are trying to do is save that every little bit of waste, which would help to go and power the home of some poor child, somewhere in a village who, otherwise, has been deprived for years and years, decades, in fact, generations. And maybe, help him also come up in life, lead a better quality of life, get quality education and become a integral part of the development story, the growth story of India.
तो एक प्रकार से हम सबके लिए बहुत हर्ष की बात है कि यह जो आज का कार्यक्रम, वैसे तो हमें पता नहीं था कि आज ऐसा कोई announcement आने वाला हा, संभावना भी नहीं थी लग रहा था कि और एक-दो दिन बाद ही होगी नाम की announcement | पर मैं समझता हूँ कि बहुत अच्छी बात है कि आज ही हम यह Energy Conservation Building Code देश के समक्ष रख रहे हैं और आज ही के दिन जिस समाज के लिए, जिस देश की हम कल्पना करते हैं इस देश में उसको और मज़बूत करने के लिए जो हमारी तरफ से एक योगदान है कि बिजली के क्षेत्र में या ऊर्जा के क्षेत्र में wastage ना हो, ऊर्जा वास्तव में एक-एक घर को जाके रोशनी दे, एक-एक के घर में बिजली पहुंचे और उसमें एक बहुत बड़ी कड़ी है बिजली के बचत की |
आखिर मान्य प्रधानमंत्री श्री मोदी जी ने बताया था कि जब आप एक यूनिट बिजली बचाते हैं तो एक प्रकार से उसके wastage, AT&C losses उन सबको अगर मद्देनज़र रखें तो 1.33 unit बिजली उत्पादन करने के समान है | Mr White, every unit of electricity, every kilowatt hour that we save is effectively equivalent to 1.33 kilowatt hour of electricity generated. And, when I had just joined the Ministry, just taken charge of this department, in one of our very early programmes, I think Ajay had only organized, Ajay and Sourav may remember at the Vigyan Bhavan. The honorable Prime Minister had flagged this off that, frankly, energy efficiency is more important energy generation. Because, you are serving the nation and, of course, nobody can deny the variety of benefits in terms of reducing the carbon footprint, addressing this challenge of climate change, being a responsible global citizen in the effort to protect the planet, save the planet.
And, in that sense, I would like to dedicate today’s Energy Conservation Building Code 2017, to all those young children of India, to the future of India, for whose sake I think it is incumbent on all of us in this room and our generation to efficiently utilize every bit of resource, ensure that we implement such progressive and forward looking programmes of the government very diligently, and ensure that we leave behind for the next generation a better world than the one we inherited.
And, in that sense, I think today’s programme comes at an opportune time when the whole world is discussing the possible fallout of a worsening environment, the challenges of temperatures exceeding what the planet can absorb, what the planet can manage with. There is a lot of discourse in the world about certain countries deciding not to pursue the climate change agenda. And even despite all of that, a developing country like India decides to focus its attention, decides to proactively work for a better future for the world is to my mind a great testimony to the commitment of Prime Minister Modi and to the commitment of 1.2 billion people in India who care for the environment, who believe that we have a role to play, who believe that through the collective effort of all citizens of the world, Team India will not be found wanting in our effort to make the world a better place to live in.
I was hearing some of the earlier speakers. The last Energy Conversation Building Code was notified in 2007, and so far, only 10 states have notified it, 11 are under progress. Now, that’s not something to be very-very happy about and I would urge the department and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency to take this up on a mission mode that whoever was considering implementing does the 2017 Code straightaway. We don’t want them to start with the 2007 and then migrate to 2017 – A. B – define a timeframe in which every state will be on board. We don’t have the luxury of time when we are dealing with as essential and important a subject as this.
And, frankly, in my own work in the last 3 years, I believe that mandating something is less important than making it economically viable. I think our department, Sourav you, Ajay you can help in this, all of us, let’s work as a team, let’s put our heads together to see that this becomes an economic necessity, not a mandatory law. I mean you have the law, get it notified, all that is fine. But, can we make it like our LED programme that it makes eminent economic sense to implement. It’s only a fool today who will not put up LED bulbs in his home now that the cost has been brought down so significantly. They are readily available across the country. And, the payback time is down to 2-3-4 months. You save your electricity bill for years altogether after that, and just the simple rustic intelligence of any human being will help him change, convert to LEDs.
After all, the country couldn’t have sold 580 million LED bulbs today in the last two-two and a half years. 580 million, as against what, under 1 million in the year before this government came in. So, there is huge potential in this country. If we plan more effectively, to communicate with the people, to talk to them about what the benefits are, and frankly, lifecycle is too long. We talk about lifecycle costs and lifecycle improvements. I think one must also recognize that India is a capital-scarce country. We don’t have the luxury of large amounts of capital at very low interest costs. I hope while framing this Code, you have kept in mind the practicality of Indian investment and Indian capital. So, we should not really come up with anything which does not make economic sense to the consumer. It should be something for which he can sense the benefit for himself or the residents of his commercial complex. And, really want to implement it rather than being told to implement it. That should be the approach of our project.
Of course, as you said this is a robust policy. It will help you reduce 30-40 billion kilowatt hours of energy consumption in the existing commercial buildings. Looking at the rapid economic development in the country, and as the services sector particularly expands in the country, I do appreciate that it has a pretty large potential of maybe 300 billion kilowatt hours of saving. But, I would think that the entire programme should be designed in such a way that we look at scale, we bring in the best of technologies into India, promote products which have world class technology integrated with Indian manufacturing skills and ingenuity, made affordable for the common man, and should actually become a way of life.
Are there some architects in this room today? Just about 6 or 8, or 10, and fortunately, for me the younger architects are in this room. But I had said the same thing to you when we launched a similar programme in Maharashtra and Mumbai. Unless we think smart Mr Bakre, we are not going to be able to make these projects successful. I would have ideally liked to address a room full of architects today. After all, they are the ones who are going to make this happen, fail or success, is in their hands. If you mandate the law, you will only get a mandated, well-designed, to suit the mandated structure implementation. But, if you buy-in, if you get the buy-in of all these architects, they will actually go three steps further, help you improvise this Code, for all you know, all these architects and, particularly, my young friends here may actually make you come out with a 2018 Code with their ideas, with their practical on the ground experience.
I know, I was just told that there was extensive stakeholder consultation with the states, I am sure with architect bodies and all also. But, I think we need to, you should be looking at engaging with architects across the country more than you spend time engaging with governments. You will get far better results.
Sourav, I don’t think for the LED programme, we ever forced any government. There was nothing mandatory about it. I think if we had done a mandatory programme, we couldn’t have sold 58 million bulbs, forget 580. So, while on the one hand, the department may pursue the mandating of the policy, I would urge the entire team and all of you who have….. I mean it’s one of those rare occasions that a room is over-full. I am quite amazed myself, at least, not for a subject like Energy Conservation Building Codes. I can imagine if for the first half of yesterday’s cricket match, you were all in a full room.
But, this shows that the young people of India, the youth of India, the next generation. And, if we take a poll here, there are more persons in this room, the better side of 30 or 35 than from our generation, which is a great endorsement of the way the young people, the young boys and girls think. I think it’s a great opportunity for us to engage with the youth. I remember that first film we came out in 2014, December 6th was it or 4th? 14th! The Energy Conservation Day that Piyush Pandey had gifted to our Ministry, the young children who are pointing out to their parents that they have to save electricity.
So, it’s really the youth that you need to engage with. Take this message to schools, to colleges; make them your brand ambassadors. And, you really won’t need to bother about states notifying or not notifying. They will look after the interests of the country, because they understand probably the interest far better than what we have done in the last 40 or 50 or 100 years. In that sense, even your Residential Building Code and your Industrial Code should be out quickly, I don’t have the luxury of time to work at this speed that it comes over so many years. Within this calendar, you should have our Code out for the residential buildings and for the industrial buildings. Persuasion will be the key to its success and its better implementation.
And, I don’t think 200-500 years ago, whenever the Hawa Mahal was constructed in Jaipur or the Mysore Palace was constructed in Mysore, I don’t think it went because of some law that the Hawa Mahal was made the way it is now. It was the consciousness of Indian society, which is why I said for the people of India energy conservation, efficiency is something which comes naturally, it’s in our blood, in our DNA. Of course, using the word DNA is very dangerous. Sometimes, it can be misinterpreted.
But, truly, I don’t know how many of you believe in Vastu, or don’t believe in Vastu. I am not here to discuss superstitious or any of these beliefs or non-beliefs. But, really if somebody studies the principles on which the Vastu theories are made, they are absolutely brilliant. When they talk about sunlight coming in from the east so keep your eastern part open, so that the sun really comes in, you don’t need to have lighting at this time of the day. When they designed their homes for ventilation, air flow, the area where the – usually looking at the flow of wind they would have been designing where the toilet should be situated, which corner of the room the toilet should be situated. There is nothing religious about it ladies and gentlemen. It’s a scientific well thought-out design of a building.
So, for us in India, it’s not something that somebody has to come and teach us. We could possibly teach a thing or two to the rest of the world, provided we are willing to accept our own heritage, our own tradition and not be apologetic about it.
In fact, the way urbanization is increasing, we are probably at about 40 odd percent urban today in India with economic progress as the country gets more and more connected, as the world gets connected more, interconnections between countries, the global connect. I would suggest India’s own urbanization speed is going to be galloping in the next few years. Some estimates suggested that two-third of the buildings which will stand in 2030 are yet to be built. So, it’s a great opportunity for us, unlike probably the West, which will have to retrofit more than the new construction. We have an opportunity to do it smart first time around.
So, for us, it’s really a no-brainer that we should be encouraging this. We should be partnering with the people who design these buildings more than the people who only approve them. We all know that the approval processes will have its own idiosyncrasies; we would rather focus on the efficiency of the creator rather than the approver alone.
Also, while we are on the subject, may be a good idea to see what we can do whether it’s in terms of ensuring low-cost finance, whether it’s in terms of providing support through integrating purchases and bringing down costs. After all, India is a huge market. Once the world recognized that India has this huge potential in LEDs, look at what happened to the pricing of LEDs. The Swedish Minister for Energy was telling me that now Europe is benefitting, he’s the head of the International Energy Agency, Ibrahim Baylan. He said the whole of Europe is benefitting because of India’s LED programme, because prices of LEDs have collapsed in Europe.
After all, when Prime Minister Modi spoke about sustainable lifestyles in Paris, this is exactly what he meant. You can’t have a situation where a large part of the developed world keeps ignoring their contribution to the big mess that we are in and is telling the rest of the world, which is still developing, which is still trying to improve their infrastructure, create a better future for their children, that it is their responsibility to protect the planet.
Many of you may have seen me very often come out with my mobile phone, fortunately, I am not carrying one just now. It’s good for you and good for Mr Mark White also for that matter. I don’t have the images that I wanted to show you. But, any of us who has been to any of these capitals or cities like New York, Washington, London, across the world, the kind of waste that is going on in the whole world, the whole nights we have 100-storey buildings lit up as if there was no tomorrow, with not a single person occupying the building the whole night. And then we are talking about addressing concerns of climate change. Where is the sensitivity to waste?
And, thanks to the efforts of Prime Minister Modi, we were able to get the world to accept that promoting sustainable lifestyles is an integral part of protecting the planet, protecting the globe. Of course, it’s another matter we don’t know whether with what sincerity we can hope to see an effort from the rest of the world to promoting sustainable lifestyles. But, certainly, we in India stand committed to that. We believe that every bit of waste is not good for the people, is not good for the country.
And, therefore, I do hope together all of us can make this programme a grand success. I do hope the Ministry will take this up on a mission mode, aggressively engage with all the stakeholders, not in a bureaucratic fashion but in a progressive business-like manner. Take it to the people, take it to the architects, understand what their concerns, their ideas are. Reformulate to bring in more synergy between what they want, what is in the interests of the people and what’s good for policy makers to implement.
And, we should be willing to learn. I mean I remember, I put up these white LED bulbs with great enthusiasm in a lot of the heritage places, including my own city of Mumbai. And, there was a hue and cry, and I had that hue and cry, including at my own home, with my wife very-very unhappy. And, it’s only after we changed to the yellow lights that we were able to bring out a win-win solution where the beauty of the precincts, the structural beauty, the heritage beauty, all of it could also be protected.
So, I think we should all be willing to learn, all keep an open mind, all be willing to adapt to change, to newer ideas. Of course, initially, we were given to understand, from the security perspective it’s better to have white lights, so we kept on pushing the white light. We thought that it also gives much brighter light, which is good. It will consume less electricity. We can have less wattage. But, then one also has to balance beauty with energy conservation and in a balanced way come up with a win-win which will really get implemented.
So, I am sure we can all look at this in a very mission mode kind of speed. I was told somewhere that EESL has started the process of retrofitting buildings. I think whatever you are doing you just need to expand that a 100-fold, nothing less than that. And, I wish more from the private sector would come up and set up credible and honest businesses around this. Sadly, I have heard of some of the fly by night operators who have been selling or hawking the power audit story, but taking away very large part of the savings, instead of really sharing it with the stakeholders. So, I think some more publicity about what are the broad levels of expenditures that are called for and what kind of savings models are possible, the ESCO model. If publicize will help create more competition, will help newer players come into the field. You yourself should look at expanding massively across the country to promote energy efficiency, building audits and all. I was given a target of, that you are planning to invest a 1000 crores by 2020 in 10,000 buildings over the next 3 years.
Now, Sourav you should know that I can’t accept this kind of a target. I think by 2020, every building in the country should be retrofit. Can anybody argue with that? Isn’t it good for the country? And, just imagine, suppose you save even 10 billion units of electricity, forget the larger savings. Now just juxtapose that to a poor person’s home who doesn’t have electricity and look at his typical need. He needs 3-4 LED bulbs, an energy efficient fan, hopefully, you can give him a cooler, a mobile charging unit, with all of that put together, his consumption in a month will not exceed what, 30-40 kilowatt hours, 70 kilowatt hours, 60 kilowatt hours?
Now, the retrofitting of these buildings that you talked about and you gave me the figure that 30 or 40 billion kilowatt hours of electricity can be saved. Can you imagine, just juxtapose that into a number of households, you could have 50 million households getting free electricity, round the year, out of this saving alone. Just like all of you, and looking at the audience in this room, I would suspect that at least 70-80-90% of you would have participated in the Prime Minister’s clarion call to give up your LPG subsidy, so that some poor women can get a free LPG connection and better her life and her health. Just in that same way, and if suppose each one of us was to take it up as a mission that I will ensure a saving of X number of units of electricity, and, possibly, with that, a sensitive government can give so many million homes or so many hundred homes or so many thousand homes even free electricity if they can’t afford it.
Can you imagine what a national service each one of us would be doing? Can you imagine the satisfaction that you will get? You don’t even need to do it out of charity, do it for yourself. Because, that satisfaction is what you will get.
So, end of the day, the India story is your story. You are the architect of India. You are all going to create the new India, the new India of the dreams of the youth of India. And, it’s only when all of us, collectively, decide that this is going to be a success, that we are going to collectively ensure its success, not by mandate, but because we believe in it. It is that self-belief, that confidence that each one of us in our ability to shake the destiny of India that is going to truly decide where this country goes from here, what happens to those millions who have yet to see an electric bulb in their life. What happens to that young girl who has never imagined a life as an equal with all these young girls sitting here. Keep them at the back of your mind, keep them in focus, keep them before your eyes and I promise you, we won’t have to have mandated codes, we won’t have to have these programmes. We can really make this happen. We can make this happen fast. We can make this happen well.
Thank you.
Q&A.
Q. Sir, Sundaresan from News Rise, sir I just have one question. Will this Energy Conservation Building Code also have fiscal incentives such as interest subvention on………..?
A.Young man, I don’t believe that success of these programmes should be on the back of subsidies and government intervention. I have often spoken about our programmes on solar water heaters, on LED bulbs. Wherever we remove subsidies and government involvement, we found the roll-out to be much faster, much more efficient, no questions of corruption or any other misuse of government support and also not a barrier to the limits where you can go. So, I personally believe there should be no support, don’t even plan on that, make it economically viable, through its very share of India’s size and scale. That’s my approach.
Q. I am SB Dangahej from Syntex Group of Industries. Just a small question, why can’t we make it a prerequisite now onwards for all the green building certification programmes, whether they are TERI-GRIHA or they are US GBC or IGBC. I believe that from now onwards, all the certificates that are given under these programmes must be compliant and obviously meeting the ECBC 2017.
A.Well, fine. It’s a good suggestion. I have no problem on that. But, all of those certifications, as I said earlier, can keep happening. I am less concerned about certifications. I am more concerned about action on the ground. But, there is no harm. We can talk to these agencies that when they give LEAD and whatever certification – Platinum and Gold and what not, LEAD certifications, we should seriously consider that these are implemented. We can talk to those agencies.
Q.My question is to the honorable Minister. My submission is that although we understand your feeling about this thing that the government, there should be lesser government aids towards the energy conservation and using this energy saving equipments and all that. But, still government has to provide something for that, like you see…..
A.Thank you. I have not much to say. I think I have said enough on this subject.
Q. Sir, GST……
A.GST is all decided, finalized, now move on in life. Please understand ladies and gentlemen, there is a bogey that some people are again and again raising about GST impacting their industry. After all, it’s common for everybody in the country. Now, it’s one nation, one tax. Whatever the tax, it’s the same for everybody. So, I don’t understand where it’s going to impact any particular industry. Frankly, it’s beyond my imagination. I in my power sector am extremely satisfied, the GST regime is very robust. It has given concessions to things where I needed the concession or a lower rate of tax. Beyond that, we have no further demands. We have discussed with our power sector players also. By and large, we are okay. If at all there is any more anomaly we will sort it out afterwards whenever the time comes if there is a legitimate need.
Today, it’s no more an issue. Everybody pays the same tax. It’s as simple thing as that. So, if there is discrimination, and which states had earlier, different states had different structures. One can say that it’s not being promoted enough here or there, on the same rate, it’s a non-issue.
Q. Sir, in the previous Codes, there were some property incentives …………… can we expect them to continue in the …..?
A.It’s a state subject. If any state wants to give some incentives, we are free to give it. But, I personally am not going to be sitting and pleading with them. I believe in two things, (a) I believe as we scale it up and costs come down and we get better technologies in the system, and no practical implementation, we won’t need any subsidies or any incentives. It will be an economic benefit itself for people who are investing in this – point 1.
Point 2 – Even if not so, it will have an impact of Rs 5-10-15 per square foot in a office building which goes for Rs 3000-5000-10,000 a square foot, I think it’s ridiculous to be so petty about talking about some of these small incentives.
And 3rd and most important, and I hope you will write about that is where is the sensitivity of our nation? Where is the sensitivity of our people? As I said, can we not even be as sensitive enough as to understand that this waste is going to cost the world dear, it’s going to cost our country dear, it’s going to cost our future generation dear. And the saving can go to help light the life of a poor person. So, I think that sensitivity itself is cause enough for a greater and faster roll-out. I have the confidence in the people of India.
Q.(Inaudible)
A.Mandating help, save energy? Well, I think we disproved it after the Give It Up programme. We didn’t do any mandating, we had better success. UDAY – it was voluntary, except for one state in the east, which for whatever reason doesn’t want to take the benefits of that programme for their people of that state. Everybody else is onboard. So mandatory is not required, sensitivity is enough in this country.
Q. (Inaudible) Since the time the standards were first made voluntary and then mandatory, the energy efficiency of air conditioners in India has seen a step change, because of mandated….?
A.Well, you didn’t do your job right in the first place, probably. I am sorry Ajay. Because, same Ajay Mathur rolled out LED programme. What did he mandate, nothing. Even in those air conditioners, if you are on the defensive, then what happened yesterday will happen to your programme. You should play on the front foot.
Q.Sir, my name is …….. When we are talking about the flagship programme smart cities and we are going to see a lot of action here. And, are we thinking that ministerial and bureaucratic machinery has to work very closely with Ministry of Urban Development and Smart Cities, especially …….. to get this in a mission mode?
A.Well, why only smart cities? Do that with the smart cities, I have no problem in that. But, the whole country needs to be smart for us. We want to see a smart India, not just a few smart cities. Of course, that’s a pilot programme. It’s a roll-out of a very-very beautifully designed urban initiative to kick-start faster development of those cities in an organized fashion. But, on energy efficiency, we should be looking at a national pan-India grand scale up, so that the benefits of scale, economies of scale also come to the people of India. These projects should all be self-sustaining.
After my success on solar, on LEDs, now even wind is coming on line, power purchase. You name the item. Wherever we brought transparency, we worked in the new style of governance that Prime Minister Modi has introduced into this country of honesty and integrity. Wherever we looked at the benefits that the people of India deserved to enjoy, in all those programmes we found tremendous success. And, looking at this, I see no reason at all that this cannot be implemented across the country, smart cities included.
Q.Good afternoon sir, myself Jatender Kaur, I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture. So, I have been teaching the students of architecture since last 20 years, so I have specially come for this event since I was really interested. I have just felt that there is a very strong need for BWE to collaborate with the students also. I mean the Council of Architecture is one body which is governing us, so if Energy Conservation Building Code training programmes can be, I mean there should be a sort of collaboration, those people, they should mandate us or they should tell us at least that Energy Conservation Building Codes should be taught to the students may be as a part of the training programme for a few weeks only.
A.Madam thank you for being here. I am absolutely delighted to accept your suggestion. Where is this Council of Architecture situated in Delhi? So before the day is out, I want somebody from your department or you yourself contact them whoever is the President or the Secretary or whatever. And discuss with them, sign up with them before the end of this week and plan out the roll-out how this is going to reach out to every architect and every institution in the country. Thank you, good suggestion.
Q.If there is a commercially viable solution that you are talking about, how would we roll it out to all the government buildings…..?
A. Absolutely, good point. But, by the way, you saw that if the mike didn’t work. Our Indian voice is loud enough to be heard even without a mike. That should be the spirit while implementing our projects. Right? But, you are absolutely right. Pujari sahib, talk to all your colleagues and your batch mates, right away, and let’s get all the states and the central government buildings, our PSUs, all of them at least commit to adopt this in a defined timeframe. Good point sir, appreciate it.
Q.Sir, my name is Gourav Mathur, I am from ….. Pumps. So, it’s a pump industry, it was one of the greatest consumers of energy in buildings. My question to you sir is that most of the time when any programme is implemented the greater focus is on bringing in the technology, and later on the commissioning and the working throughout the lifecycle is not being monitored. So, if we can connect the initial implementation of the best technologies, at the same time we also ensure that the equipments which we have installed they work in the most efficient manner. Selecting an efficient equipment is one and making it adaptive to the changes of the building is second point. So, if we can look at that.
In second sir, we don’t want monetary benefits, but if some of the buildings are really doing good work that should be projected and they should be brought as role models and maybe in media or on your website, they should be brought forward as the role models.
A.Gentlemen, both very good questions. Of course, the second one is a little difficult for me to implement because sadly, there is very little space in the media today for good news. मेरा तो गला बैठ जाता है बोल बोलके यह किया, वह किया, यह करना चाहिए तो पता नहीं 20th page में भी mention नहीं आता है उसका | They are still searching कि क्या चीज़ पर controversy create कर सके, breaking news क्या होगी |
Of course, don’t blame the media alone. All of you also introspect. If a Doordarshan programme is telling you about Soil Health Card, how many of you sit and watch it? You will not! But if there is an unfortunate distress somewhere, you will be glued to the television all through. Instead of that, if we were all to be even more concerned कि Soil Health Card कैसे implement हो? How can we help the farmer assess what production is ideal for his farm, how he can increase productivity, may be save energy and give the farmer also cheaper or low-cost affordable energy so that his pump which you manufacture can be put to use and help him get more income.
So, this is something where all of us have to collectively introspect and see what is our role. Very easy to say government should promote…… if I take out advertisements you will again criticize me that I am showing off or I am taking out advertisements to, just to talk about what good work we are doing. So, in every respect, this is something where, collectively, everybody will have to be more conscious.
And as regards quality, even when we did the LED programme, our quality specs are amongst the finest in the world, if not the finest. In fact, Secretary Moniz, I am told at some of the Clean Energy Ministerials has very loudly complimented India for our energy efficiency programme for being really benchmark for the rest of the world to follow. But I appreciate, quality is, we should not compromise on quality. However, while defining the code we have to be technology-neutral, agnostic to different technologies. I think that was one of the things that I read just now that while preparing this code we have ensured that they are not using any particular technologies. It’s technology agnostic. So that will be our approach to all of these things. While recognizing the good quality is very important, just in the garb of good quality we can’t load too much costs also.
India is a capital constrained country, we must recognize that. Second, sometimes you can get a Mercedes Benz or a old Fiat Car to reach your destination. India has not yet reached a state that a 1.2 billion people, and don’t take it literally, I just use it as an example. कोई इसको misquote मत कर देना, by the way. What I mean to say is everybody is not yet got the luxury of large incomes or 60,000-70,000 dollars per capita income annually to be able to afford the best of class of everything. But, let not the best be the enemy of the good, you know.
So, we should be practical, see what our pocket can afford. What will still get us to our destination. Maybe we won’t save 38% energy but we may save 33% energy at one-third the cost. But, I would rather save 33% at one-third than live in a Utopian world where I wait for myself to have the ability to spend more and save 38%. So, we have to have a practical approach in these things.
Q.Sir, thank you so much for bringing out this issue of marrying duty with efficiency, I think as an architect that’s essentially a most important part of making buildings. But, you know, sir apart from technology and education one very important of efficiency is communication and when you talk you talk about energy efficiency in buildings, it’s actually hidden. Nobody knows. So, one of the measures that’s been very successful as a voluntary measure is for people to declare their building’s energy use, give labeling for buildings that perform better and that has something that public can engage with directly.
A.Well true, I agree with you. Why don’t you also sit with Mr Bakre and maybe over a cup of tea after the programme. And, you look to be an architect I believe? So, help us in designing that, help us in creating that awareness, it’s a very good idea. In fact, in my own work some of you may know that I have tonnes and tonnes of mobile apps. What’s the purpose of these apps? For some, it may be that I am showing off because I have had some good achievements under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership. But, the bigger idea is to keep the people informed and engaged that they can be a part of that.
So, when I have my app which speaks about Ujala, the LED bulbs programme, when people read that and they see that, oh my God, they have already sold, one government company has sold 242 million LED bulbs in the last 2 years and 3 months, it encourages others to follow. Because on the back of that, even the private sector has sold 332 million bulbs, which put together really is, probably, the world’s largest roll-out of LEDs in such a short span of time.
So, there is a demonstration effect which you are talking about, same knowing this programme, it would be great if we could encourage buildings to show on their name plate itself how energy efficient they are, how much net energy they are consuming or how much they are generating, what is their saving and all that. It’s a great idea but we will need the buy-in of all the architects, now that I certainly can’t mandate. So, that will have to come more from the consciousness of building owners and architects. But, I promise you, it will be a great selling point. Everybody who enters that building will pause for a moment to read that. I would pause, I don’t know many of you, but I would pause to read if that data was available as I entered a building.
So, it’s a great idea. Please discuss, see how we can make people aware, can we make some standards or some common ways on a per square foot basis what consumption is there in this building, something simple, nice, cute and simple. So, it is not so complicated like your calculations and all that you have put into this all those charts, वह सब मत बनाना ज़रा | Make it very simple that a common layman, uneducated guy like me can also understand.
Thank you very much sir.
