AT THE G20’s 14th CLEAN ENERGY MINISTERIAL (CEM) MEETING IN GOA…the key players from the country over and abroad made presentations and promised a clean energy future for India! This side-event saw the exchange of 15 crucial Memorandums of Understanding showcasing EESL’s dedication to exploring innovative solutions for energy access, clean cooking, decarbonisation and energy efficiency initiatives. (Inbox) Jorg Marius Ebel of BSW, German Solar Association, who sees India having a great future in tapping solar energy, Germany is here helping put up many installations.

EVERYBODY is worried about the weather otherwise called climate change holding the developed and underdeveloped world at ransom or so to speak. Can the climate crisis be solved or mitigated with more science and technology solutions? Apparently, it can and solutions were being mooted full speed ahead at the high-powered presentations, deliberations and signing of Memorandums of Understanding at the final 4th Energy Transition Working Group Meetings under India’s G20 presidency.
Some of the sessions took place on July 23, 2023 when EESL forged INR700 crore partnership at the 14th Clean Energy ministerial meet at the Grand Hyatt Bambolim venue. The presentations were all about collaborations for energy access, clean cooking, decarbonisation and simply more energy efficiency across India. Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a prominent joint venture of Public Sector Undertakings (under the Ministry of Power) hosted a side event titled “Accelerating India’s Net Zero Transition through Energy Efficiency, Sustainable Cooling & Mobility.”
It was attended by Stanzin Chosphel (executive councillor, Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Leh), Pradeep Kumar Jena (chief secretary, govt of Odisha), Ajay Jain who was special guest (special chief secretary, govt of Andhra Pradesh) and Tilman Kuban (member of German Bundestag), apart from participants from BEE, industry, academia, state nodal agencies, development and international organisations interested in doing business with India.
An MOU was signed in close collaboration with USAID India, reinforcing EESL’s pivotal role in driving India’s net-zero aspirations. Something like 15 MoUs were signed at this event promising to shape India’s forward-looking strategies and programs in key areas of super-efficient cooling and heating, integrated energy efficiency services, utility energy management, demand flexibility, electric mobility and regional expansion in South Asia.
Amongst the speakers was Stanzin Chosphel from Ladakh who was all praise for EESL for bringing energy efficiency into the ecosystem of Leh-Ladakh by distributing 40,000 energy efficient bulbs in the region. ESSL is at the forefront of discovering innovative ways to incorporate energy-efficient solutions into buildings with the goal of transitioning these structures into net-zero buildings.
Chief Secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena of Odisha highlighted EESL’s initiatives in the field of energy efficient lighting, cooling and EMobility, saying that EESL is the largest platform for promoting energy efficiency in the world. EESL’s chief executive Officer Vishal Kapoor, said “These partnerships and collaborations reinforce our commitment to driving energy efficiency and sustainability in various sectors. The MOUs exchanged mark a significant step towards achieving India’s ambitious energy goals. By pooling our expertise and resources with experts, we will accelerate the pace of India’s transition towards clean energy solutions. “
They have partnership with BAPS Swami Narayan Sanstha (Akshardham) focussing on implanting energy efficiency measures across BAPS centers and temples in India; other significant MoUs are with Shakti Foundation, Clean Cooling Collaborative, Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy, collaborative Labeling & Appliance Standards Programme, EMC Kerala and Saibaba Sansthan Trust in Shirdi. These collaborations aim to drive the adoption of clean energy technologies to eventually achieve a Net Zero goal. From the sound of it EESL is poised to lead the country towards a secure, sustainable and energy-efficient future.
ALL this sounds very exciting and an interesting person at the event to meet was Jorg Marius Ebel from Germany, who said as far as solar energy solutions are concerned it is better than nuclear power. If Germany in the last ten years with its population of about 80 million can go from 2% to 12 % in all electricity consumption (using solar instalments), there is no reason why much of India cannot seeing how much more sunlight it gets than Germany. He tells me that Germany is the 7th largest industrialized country globally, “I am very excited about India’s prospects in this field and this year Germany will install 11 or 12 solar projects…”
Yes, his company BSW of the German Solar Association is already in India and last year they installed 14 gigawatt projects in Gujarat, this year they are installing 12 gigawatt installations to cater to about 1.4 billion inhabitants, “India has amazing successes!” He thinks clearly solar is the way to go in India and not nuclear “for nuclear has poisonous waste.” Interestingly, I was amused to learn that energy is measured in watts, kilowatts, megawatts, gigawatts and terrawatts on a reference of scale!
ALL this and much more about India as the next largest global destination for business, except that at the end of the day I couldn’t help thinking that if there is no political stability and everybody is hating everybody over religious superiorities – might as well go back to the bullock cart age. Actually, I like the idea of acquiring a bullock cart seeing the pathetic conditions of capital city Panaji’s roadways!

CM PROMISES GOODIES TO JOURNOS!

NEVER mind that it was raining all the way down Panaji’s main thoroughfare Dayanand Bandodkar Marg flooding over miserably with traffic swishing by, swamping me with whoosh of waterfall…I made it for the 46th Union of Journalists Foundation Day and Journalism Awards 2021 celebration at the Institute Menezes Braganza venue on July 26, 2923. The media crowd was thin this year and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had already arrived bright and early in the morning (seeing assembly is session these days).
Media events have their moments and though it was raining furiously outside, inside the hall it was clearly a pink day of roses and chocolate cake for all…and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant in a good mood, agreed to a “Patrakar Kaksh” in Panaji with all facilities for journalists. He said a budget provision will also be made for a housing scheme for journalists but next year. He congratulated all the winners of the GUJ journalism awards and another plus, “I am happy to say that the budget provision for E-bikes to journalists has already been made and we are working on it.”
He felicitated veteran rural journalists Ramnath Desai (Bicholim) and Dayanand Rane (Vasco) for their dedicated service in rural journalism and gave away some of the awards before rushing off to attend Assembly proceedings, on his way out posing with the family of a media person for a picture. Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao listened to the panel discussion on “Media Credibility in the Time of Fake News” and afterwards observed, “I say with concern today politician thrives on fake news. Fake news has power to assassinate character and can also ignite riots. It is therefore appropriate that GUJ organised a lecture on media credibility in the time of fake news.”
Present were Resident Editor of “The Times of India” Rajesh Menon, IPS Superintendent of Police (North Goa) Nidhin Valsan and Pandurang Goankar (editor, “Goan Varta” who were resource persons for the panel discussion moderated by veteran journalist Sandesh Prabhudesai. I got in late and am sorry to have missed the panel discussion when I’d particularly wanted to listen to it. Anyway, what is there left to say about fake news nowadays in our stressed out times …see how the Manipur is going up in ruthless bloodletting and violence of hate, and nobody has yet put a finger on the fake news which ignited it.
Dipak Bandekar (director, Department of Information & Publicity) handed over more GUJ awards to winners and now there are digital video presentation journalism awards too. GUJ president Rajtilak Naik welcomed everybody, secretary Vasudev Pagi proposed the vote of thanks, Sachin Surlikar and Pradnya Rane compered the event ably. For me it’s a pleasure to say hello to the media folk of yesteryear, but this time few had made it…and I really wish GUJ had appealed to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for free health care for journalists and their family at the GMC!
I mean, haven’t we seen media people in tragic road accidents and well, media people too grow old and are in need of healthcare which many can barely afford – the media profession by no stretch of imagination being a lucrative profession. At least during my time in active journalism it wasn’t a lucrative profession although we worked like dogs from early morning to late night on shift duty.
On that note its avjo, selamat datang, poiteverem, au revoir, arrivedecci, hasta la vista and vachu yeta here for now.

—Mme Butterfly