India's economy needs to grow in two decades: Official

Hyderabad, Nov 13 (UNI)The Director South Asia Regional Initiative on Energy(SARIE), USAID New Delhi, S Padmanabhan today stressed that India's economy needs to grow rapidly over the next two to three decades to eliminate endemic poverty.

In a keynote address at the two-day all India seminar on 'Carbon Footprints - Sources, Strategies and Solutions', organised by the energy conservation mission in association with Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh here today, he said while significant progress has been made in several infrastructure sectors such as telecommunications and roads, the power sector continues to lag behind, despite introduction of several legal, policy and regulatory initiatives.

Mr Padmanabhan said studies by several experts indicated that if India is to grow at eight per cent over the next 10 years, the country's power demand is likely to grow by over 100 per cent from the current level of 120 GW. The power demand would reach 315 to 335 GW levels by 2017, as per the studies, he added.

The Director said planned capacity additions would significantly increase emissions as power sector is one of the principle contributors to the green house gas emissions. The National Action Plan on Climate Change, released by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in June this year, was timely and recognises the fact that developing countries such as India and China had an important role to play in dealing with this global challenge, he added.

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