PM Launches Solar Mission

As part of efforts to combat climate change, PM Manmohan Singh advocated creation of Solar Valleys in India on the lines of Silicon Valleys and asked industrial houses to view the Solar Mission as a huge business opportunity. Launching the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission “Solar India”, he said its success has the potential of transforming India’s energy prospects, while contributing to national as well as global efforts to combat climate change. The role of industry in this mission that set an ambitious target to generate 20,000 MW of solar generating capacity by the end of 13th Five Year Plan, would be critical. “Eventually, if the ambitious roll out of the Mission is to become a reality, we will have to create many Solar Valleys on the lines of the Silicon Valleys that are spurring our IT industry across the four corners of the country,” Singh told the gathering which included Union ministers Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Jairam Ramesh. Noting that these valleys would become hubs for solar science, engineering and research, fabrication and manufacturing, the PM urged Indian industry to see the Solar Mission for the “huge business opportunity that it is”. “I am convinced that solar energy can be the next scientific and industrial frontier in India after atomic energy, space and IT”, he said. Singh said though the Mission’s target of 20,000 MW was ambitious, it was “doable and we should work single-mindedly to achieve it”.