Opportunity knocks

India can be a great power, ushering in a game-changing third industrial revolution by utilising its renewable energy resources and collaborating with power producers and suppliers, says American economist and author Jeremy Rifkin.

The country can leapfrog into the third industrial revolution by creating infrastructure that allows individual buildings, houses and villages to generate energy by utilising renewable sources like solar, wind and geothermal energy. Houses could then sell the energy through internet or distribution companies, he told IANS. This will give level-playing field to the rural areas in terms of industrialisation. Else, a juvenile infrastructure for third industrial revolution would take 20 years and another 20 years for a mature infrastructure.

Rifkin was in New Delhi for the release of a report, Mega Trends of the Emerging Third Industrial Revolution in India, prepared in collaboration with FICCI Young Leaders (FYL).

The report, which identifies India's transit to a post-carbon economic era, claims that if 20 percent of all energy needs be sourced from renewable sources, it would create jobs and industries that in the long term will lower the cost of generating energy through these methods.

Makes sense. But who will take the lead? Where is the leader with vision?