India is offering various aspects in sustainable development on energy related domain to Afghanistan as part of South-South co-operation initiative.
The Energy and Resource Institute, a Delhi based think-tank, has been engaging in sustainable development programmes with Afghanistan.
Under the TERI-ITEC programme which is sponsored by Ministry of External Affairs, nine courses are being offered which include applications of biotechnology and its regulation, energy and water use efficiency, climate change and sustainability, decentralized energy solutions-planning and implementation and much more.
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The decentralized energy solutions course has many participants from Afghanistan.
The solar panel project helps to provide alternative energy for livelihood generation in Afghanistan.
“When I mean decentralized energy solutions, TERI has a division which is working on energy access, social transformation. Mr. Hafeez Rehman leads that division so the colleagues from that division had gone there. They have put up solar panels and decentralized energy solutions where it was needed and they had helped those communities over there because livelihood generation happened,” said Anandajit Goswami, Fellow, ITEC-Coordinator, The Energy and Resource Institute.
The first energy related programme conducted by TERI on South-Asian countries was in 1988 with participants from various south Asian countries including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan.
“ITEC gives us one of the major opportunities to do that in a institutionalized way. ITEC which is a flagship programme of Ministry of External Affairs was established on September 15, 1964 and since then it is India’s best efforts to connect to the outside world and to several developing countries those who are facing very similar challenges like us,” said Anandajit Goswami, Fellow, ITEC-Coordinator, The Energy and Resource Institute.
India has been able to maintain alumni connect over the years and that is developed through ITEC programme.
“The Indian Mission in Afghanistan has been very helpful. They have supported us in getting more and more participants. The relationship between India and Afghanistan through our training programmes has increased. I mean last year for one course we got four participants from Afghanistan. This year for the social enterprise course we have got two participants from Nepal. These are fantastic participants with lot of dynamism and vibrancy to do something new,” said Anandajit Goswami, Fellow, ITEC-Coordinator, The Energy and Resource Institute.
India has been helping Afghanistan in various developmental projects for capacity building.
TERI has a social transformation division which is dedicately working on energy access related areas. There have been enormous efforts and there are policy groups which are working on green growth and development issues, resource efficiency issues, trade and development issues, modeling and scenario building issues,emission pathways, energy related security issues for the country.
