Govt to extend cooperation to institutions, researchers: Dharmendra Pradhan

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday stressed on the importance of energy in the development of the country, and conveyed to the students of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay that the government is committed to extend all kinds of cooperation to the institutions and researchers.

Speaking at the 6th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research at IIT Bombay, Pradhan said that scientific innovations can only be beneficial to the country's economy if the general public can reap the benefits of such innovations.

"There is no alternative to affordable, accessible, clean, sustainable energy, and our government is committed to extend all kind of cooperation to our institutions and researchers," he added.

Pradhan also enumerated the government's initiatives for moving towards cleaner sources of energy, and told that India has become one of the first economies to make solar energy available to public in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Government also provided clean fuel to households across the nation.

"The government has provided clean fuel to 21 crore 50 lakh households out of total 25 crore homes, in the country so far. Before, only 13 crore households had LPG," Pradhan said.

"With the efforts of our government, every village in India will get electricity by December 31 this year. This is our commitment and it is near completion," Pradhan said, and added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched another project of electrification of four crore houses by December 21, 2018.

Emphasizing on clean energy, the Union Minister urged the students to contribute to the development through their research and innovations.

"Without energy, one cannot imagine a modern economy. That is why I put it lightly that if IIT Bombay's energy school wants, our country can progress."

"There is no dearth of scientific innovation, research, papers, and products but there must be a synergy of policy, industry and institution," he added.

The three-day conference at IIT Bombay, started today.