GREEN MANUFACTURING: INDIA BY 2040

With the rising energy consumption, there is a need to focus on sustainable modes of electricity production and explore viable alternatives. The article elaborates on why green manufacturing is the need of time and how it can help grow the country.

- Ashwini Kumar

Energy access and usage impacts the overall quality of life for any individual and forms the basis to measure the real human development in a country. Energy drives the growth of any nation, and India is stated to become the second-largest consumer of energy by 2040. Indians utilised 6,924 kWh per capita per year compared to Singapore (169,886), Canada (105,540), the United States (79,897), Australia (70,664), Russia (56,756), China (27,452), and a world average of 21,027 kWh per capita per year according to data estimates for 2016. Energy use not only includes electricity but other areas where consumption of energy takes place, including cooking, transport, industrial use, etc. India’s per capita electricity consumption is also among the lowest globally at 1181 kWh per year in 2018 compared to a world average of 3260 kWh.

Energy use in India is growing dramatically, its villages are getting electrified, cooking gas has reached almost every household, and consumerism is making inroads into the lives of the financially weaker sections of society. Travel & tourism is increasing by leaps and bounds post COVID-19, and industrial output has risen steadily even during the pandemic. All this would make India’s per capita energy consumption rise to beat the global average within the next ten years and increase further by 2040.

TIME TO GO GREEN