Empowering Bihar: Policy pathway for energy access

Energy is considered as a prerequisite for the development of any country or state. Bihar which is on a path of tremendous growth, is suffering from extreme energy deficit. The energy deprivation will directly or indirectly impact its pace of growth across sectors in the coming years. However, with the lowest per capita consumption of 122.11 kWh, Bihars greatest challenge lies in providing assured energy access to more than 80% of its population residing in rural areas. Greenpeace India has been working on the issue of Energy Access and Rural Electrification for more than 4 years. Rural India has been neglected in-spite of large capacity additions in power generation in the country, with quality and reliable power still being a dream for most rural parts of the country. Greenpeace believes that a decentralized and sustainable approach is needed to the tackle the rural electrification conundrum. As part of the same efforts, Greenpeaces campaign on decentralized renewable energy has been pointing towards the need for a policy and regulatory pathway in Bihar to enable quality and secure energy access for its rural population. A comprehensive report has been prepared to shed light on some of these points. The report has been authored by Dr. Anjula Gurtoo, IISc. Bangalore and Prof. D Lahiri, IIT, Kharagpur, and illustrates the changes needed to be made in both institutional and government policies to enable Bihar to meet the energy requirement for its rural areas. We cordially invite you for half a day conference to understand the implications of the report and discuss the way forward for Bihar. The details of the conference are given belowPlace: Date: Time: Hotel Chanakya, Bir Chand patel Marg, Patna 24 January, 2012 9:30 am to 1:30 pm

The details on the agenda will be shared soon. We look forward to receiving your confirmation in this regard and your further participation in the Conference. Should you need any clarifications about the event, please feel free to contact me.