Indian SMEs: critical to drive EE
Delhi, 02.02.2011 - REEEP International Secretariat
How to fast-track energy efficiency in small businesses was the focus of a side event held this morning in the run-up to DSDS, co-hosted by REEEP, TERI and the Embassy of Switzerland in India. The conference attracted some 60 energy stakeholders from around the world for rich discussions on how best to activate micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in India to become more energy efficient. It was opened with addresses by Amit Kumar, Director of Energy Environment Tehcnology Development at TERI and Dr. Gerolf Weigel from the Swiss Embassy.
In her own opening comments to the inaugural session, Dr. Marianne Osterkorn, REEEP's Director General, pointed out that India’s 380 business clusters account for a third of the country’s electricity consumption, and that the sector must by necessity play a critical role in driving energy efficiency. Her comments opened the way for two recent REEEP-funded small-business energy efficiency projects to be highlighted. Prosanto Pal of TERI discussed the energy efficiency transformation in the metal-casting cluster of foundries in the Coimbatore District of Tamil Nadu state. He was followed by Pradeep Kumar of the Alliance to Save Energy who outlined the efforts to link carbon financing with the energy efficiency drive in Indian SME clusters.
After the two case studies were presented, a panel discussion of prominent figures was chaired by R.R. Rashmi, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Forest, which brought together the varied perspectives of Dr. Veena Joshi of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Ayumi Fujino of UNIDO, Joint Development Commissioner A. Bakre of the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Dr. H. Sundara Murthy, Vice President of the Institute of Indian Foundrymen, Sandeep Garg from the BEE, and Girish Sethi of TERI.