Jayant Sinha calls for innovative ideas to tackle environmental problems

Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha called for sustainable development, stressing on the need to adopt innovative ideas to solve environmental problems.

Addressing the 15th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit in New Delhi, Sinha said that water scarcity, pollution and climate change were major challenges to sustainable development.

"As Indians we need to protect our environment, not only because we are a responsible country but also for our own sake. The high growth trajectory that we envisioned and the massive creation of jobs towards which we are working will undoubtedly pose challenges to sustainability. I see three major challenges from an environmental perspective which can prevent us from sustainable development. Its water scarcity, pollution and climate change. All of these issues will become more serious as we keep growing faster and all of them impact or life in very direct way," said Sinha.

Sinha invited country's entrepreneurs and innovators to bring about a change in several important areas like power, transportation, etc.

"We should not only 'Make in India', but we should also innovate in India, for India. It is this innovation that can help us solve our environmental problems and help us grow sustainably. We need to develop a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem which incubates, nurtures and promotes entrepreneurs who can develop innovative products and can find solutions to our problems," he added.

He also stressed on the need to put solar panels, electric cars to better use in order to prevent pollution.

India is seeking investments of 100 billion dollar over seven years to boost the country's solar energy capacity by 33 times to 1,00,000 megawatts.