India taking the lead in addressing global concerns says Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh
“PM Modi leading the global climate movement and the world is ready to be led
by India in its fight against climate change”: Dr Jitendra Singh
Dr Jitendra Singh calls upon Industry to commercially exploit India’s first
indigenously developed hydrogen fuel cell bus
India is
taking the lead in addressing global concerns, the Union Minister of State
(Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public
Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said today.
“Prime Minister Narendra
Modi is leading the global climate movement and the World is ready to be led by
India in its fight against climate change- a concern that like the COVID
pandemic knows no borders, respects no wealth or any other artificial human
division,” said Dr Jitendra Singh, while interacting with a delegation of the
PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) who called on him here today.
The PHD Chamber is
an Industry Partner for ENTICE – Energy Transitions Innovation Challenge, an
innovation platform for accelerating people-positive energy transitions. The
Chamber has also set up the Centre of Excellence in Green Hydrogen (CoE-GH), a
state-of-the-art knowledge facility to bridge the gap between government,
academia, and industry. The Centre aims to facilitate partnerships for capacity
building. The Centre intends to assist the SME sector that focuses on the green
energy transition and is interested in starting a new business in the green
hydrogen sector as well. This Centre is the only facility of this sort in India.
Singh called upon
the PHDCCI to commercially exploit India’s first indigenously developed
hydrogen fuel cell bus, developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research – National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) and Central Electrochemical
Research Institute (CSIR-CECRI) in collaboration with KPIT Limited, a Pune-based
software multinational. The hydrogen fuel cell bus was launched by Dr Jitendra
Singh in August last year.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, under the leadership of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, India is implementing the largest Renewable Energy (RE)
expansion programme in the world envisaging a 5-fold increase in the overall RE
capacity in the country.
“India is committed
to achieve 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel
sources by the year 2030 and reduce the projected emissions by one billion
tonnes from now to 2030,” he said.
The Union Minister
said that the last nine years have witnessed the Indian crusade against climate
change. “We have already achieved our commitment of 40% energy production from
renewable sources, way ahead of the 2030 Paris Agreement target,” he said.
He added that apart
from the thrust on renewable energy from solar and hydel, the Prime Minister
announced major strides in Hydrogen energy from the ramparts of the Red Fort on
15th August 2021.
India also launched the National Hydrogen Energy Mission to enable cost
competitive green hydrogen production.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said India’s energy-mix strategies include a larger shift toward clean energy
alternatives, increased manufacturing capacities, energy use efficiency and a
policy push for hydrogen including production-linked incentives. In addition,
the emerging technologies like 2G Ethanol Pilot, Comfort climate box for
tropical regions, Hydrogen Valleys, Heating and cooling virtual repository, are
all on the table, the Minister emphasized.
Singh said India has
developed a roadmap and a strategy for a Bio-based economy which is inching
towards 150 billion USD by the year 2025. He said, this will facilitate
infrastructure for Bio-manufacturing of low-carbon bio-based products.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said, Government of India through Public -Private partnerships is ensuring the
funding for clean energy innovations as envisioned under Mission Innovation
2.0. He said that the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) setup has been able to
provide a unique opportunity for India to showcase its contribution to clean energy
development nationally & internationally and quoted some major CEM
initiatives which includes CEM’s Global Lighting Challenge (GLC) campaign,
Street Lighting National Programme, Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All
(UJALA) programme, The One Sun-One World -One Grid Initiative which was first
floated by the Prime Minister of India to harness tremendous potential of solar
energy.
Dr Jitendra Singh
asserted that India, through "Mission Innovation", is actively
engaged in collaborative efforts to catalyze inspiring innovation goals. He
said, National Mission initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India,
Start-up India, Green India and Smart Cities have encouraged hubs of clean
energy innovation all over the country. Alongside, India has also taken R&D
initiative to develop low carbon alternatives to Single Use Plastics in an
integrated manner, the Minister added.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said PM Modi had at the 26th session of the
Conference of the Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Glasgow, United Kingdom in November, 2021,
expressed to intensify its climate action plan by presenting to the world five
nectar elements (Panchamrit) of India’s climate action plan. He said, apart
from a five-pronged target for India and its commitment to Net-Zero emissions
by 2070, PM Modi also asserted the need to follow a sustainable lifestyle and
emphasized on the idea of making ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ (LiFE) a global
mission through bolder steps by the global clean energy fraternity.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said India is on course to achieve its targets toward climate action like-
Reaching a non-fossil fuel energy capacity of 500 GW by 2030; Fulfilling 50
percent energy requirements via renewable energy by 2030; Reducing CO2
emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030; Reducing carbon intensity below 45 percent
by 2030; To pave the way for achieving a net-zero emissions target by 2070.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said, today when India is celebrating the 75th year of its
Independence, the roadmap for the next 25 years for India @100, will be
determined by scientific and technological innovations in all walks of life.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said, at the initiative of PM Modi, the United Nations observed the
International Yoga Day and this year is being celebrated as the International
Year of Millets. With Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, the
government is taking healthcare protection to a new aspirational level. This is
the world’s largest government funded healthcare programme targeting more than
50 crore beneficiaries.
Besides, said Dr
Jitendra Singh, India is today the world’s 5th largest economy and the
total length of the National Highways in the country increased by about 59% in
the last nine years. As a result of this expansion, India now has the second
largest road network, after the US. Under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin)
the Government achieved the impossible task of increasing the sanitation
coverage in just five years from 39% in 2014 to 100% by 2019. Under the
programme, 10.28 Crore toilets were built in the country and all the districts
declared themselves Open Defecation Free (ODF) on 2nd October 2019 as a
tribute to the 150th birth
anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It is the world’s largest behaviour change
programme.
Dr Jitendra Singh
said the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – Har Ghar Jal’ is the world’s largest
drinking water project. When the programme was launched in August 2019, we were
at 17% and today JJM has achieved a new milestone of ensuring safe and clean
drinking water through taps to more than 12.75 Crore (65.75%) rural households
of the country.