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. 

We really need to push the innovation in clean – green technology in India. With its unreliable energy infrastructure and services, India provides a huge market for consumption and application of cleantech services & technology. Considering that cleantech often times has a higher capital cost, government participation will be crucial to the success of cleantech in India. More than missing on the cleantech innovation bus, India needs clean tech to sustain the increasing energy demand in the future.  

And to make this happen, we really need someone who understands the significance of cleantech to India’s future – someone who’s not in the game for votes or appease the public — but to preserve and build our future. 

If you’re interested about cleantech in India, here’s a presentation on VC / PE cleantech investments in India.

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Comments

5 Responses to “Cleantech – key to India’s future”

1. Guru Panguji says:

   November 16, 2008 at 10:59 pm

   Without a doubt. I believe in the concept that countries, much like companies need to position themselves. In his latest book, Thomas Friedman claims that the next revolution to happen will be green tech. And India is at the right place to take advantage of this and rise into the world’s centre. Furthermore, it’s the best chance that India has to be the epi centre of world economy and not be an also – ran.!!

   Reply
2. sadru mitha says:

   November 16, 2008 at 11:48 pm

   No doubt, India has progressed unmatched in past 1`0 years, credit goes to its private sector and its people, committed and result oriented. inspitae of havinga realized urgent need for enerfy , GAovt is delaying Iran/Pak/India gas pipe line for past few years, the result ? higah cost of installing the Line which can cross 10b $ from original 4b$ and suffering of needs of India not mitigated.
   India should stlop taking dictates from USA by puttaing its economic survival in jeapody.

   Reply
3. pranav says:

   November 17, 2008 at 10:00 pm

   Yeah – India has the potential to become the innovation hub for cleantech if we act now. Else, we may just end up becoming consumers of all the innovation..

   Reply
4. MuchMuch says:

   November 22, 2008 at 9:30 am

   Actually, I too thought of thinking hard about cleantech, but then I read a lot into your post of not trying to give too much advice to anyone. You see, given the unduly limited resources forced upon the intelligent middle class by the _stupid_ ill-mannered ruling elite, both in India and US, my particular situation does not allow me to churn out startups by the week, or heck, even *blog posts* by the speed of ideas that we all aspiring “world changers” get.

   Enough already, after all.

   So when all the wise leaders tell to stop words in excess, well I thought good to stop in excess any words at all
   Enjoying the silence,
   Muchmuch

   Reply
5. Rags says:

   November 23, 2008 at 11:06 am

   cleantech is a company or a technology or is it a generic name for what we aspire “clean technology”? its not clear to me from ur blog as to which of these u mean when u say cleantech

   —rags

   Reply