Workshop on Energy- Explore, Harness and Conserve

National Council for Science and Technology Communication, Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India launched the program “National Children’s Science Congress” in 1993. Ever since, Karnataka Rajya Vijnana Parishath (KRVP) has coordinated this program in Karnataka. A theme is chosen for every couple of years and the focus for this year is Energy- explore, harness and conserve. This is an essential issue for the stability of India and needs a lot of attention and popularization among the current generation.

Every citizen is getting into the league of power users and there is an urgent need to regulate the generation and distribution. It is said that since independence we have electrified over 50 thousand villages and there are some 80 thousand villages to be electrified. All cities have been electrified and there is an ever growing demand in them. Some cities witness severe power cuts. Our industrial sector is the greatest guzzler of power and the Agricultural sector is experiencing the greatest pinch.  Without electricity none of the modern technologies work. As a result many people leave agriculture, village life and move on to the cities. Because of this, the policy makers keep projecting Power Generation necessities upon projected latent demands. Also we should bear in mind that development is inversely proportional to preservation of Nature.

In this context it is high time we consider looking for alternate and cost effective sources of energy rather than depending on the vast power grids of the country. Local means of generation reduces the initial cost of production, would cause less environmental impact and save upon the transmission and distribution loss.  Such congress that has a design of initiating the thought process at the school level is a welcome initiative.

With our governments going on an all out mission towards a Nuclear India what relevance does such programme have?  Thousands of crores of rupees are invested into Nuclear Energy research and installations which caters only about 3 percent of our requirement till date. On the other hand the Departments of Alternate energy in the universities is systematically made to shut their shop. ASTRA of the Indian Institute of Sciences Bangalore and CART (Centre for Appropriate Technologies) of National Institute of Engineering are examples of such institutes that have left behind land mark inventions.

Nuclear technology has become a strategic instrument of US Foreign policy and is working to reach a Global nuclear Market to 750 million dollars over the next ten years and a power starved country like India becomes an important customer on their policy. Indians must look for alternative sources if it really needs to become self reliant.  But our politicians and policy makers are letting us down. Indian needs to do more than simply conduct such children’s congress. We need a collective will to tap the vast reserve of renewable resource sector and talk more of saving power and money than how much you spend at the policy level.

INDIAN POWER SCENE

 Sincere and dedicated teachers like Bhavani Shankar and Kantharaju of the Chamarajanagara unit of KRVP have been facilitating science teachers to undertake student projects through their schools. They are involved in the field for over a decade and promoted the national cause. The teachers from their circle have reached their students to the state and national level competitions several times.  On the 17^th August they had organized an introductory workshop in which 60 teachers had taken part. Mr. Manu. K and Mr. Dinesh Kumar, Project engineer of KREDL delivered the guest lecture and enlightened the teachers.

Mr. Bhavani Shankar

Mr. Kantaraju