Cleantech - key to India’s future
A few weeks back, Rajesh Jain wrote a small post on why India needs a CTO & CEO. The post struck a chord and got me thinking real hard. Without a doubt we need some hard core professionals and visionaries to lead India and lay the foundation for its future.
Amongst other things, I think one of the key areas where India needs some serious leadership and experience is cleantech. Energy sector in India is a crisis waiting to happen. Due to the subsidized oil prices, state run oil companies are bleeding money. India spent close to $55 billion on oil imports in the first half of 2008, while it spent close to $35 billion in the same period in 2007. This ~60% increase just goes to show how immune we are to the fluctuating oil prices. Oil prices have always been a politically sensitive topic and to appease the public, politicos have continously subsidized oil prices, instead of letting market factors determine the oil prices.