Monday, October 23, 2006

The Newly-rechristened Ministry Of New And Renewable Energy

'Rose smells sweet - call it by any name' is the famous quote. But some subscribe to the belief that whether the intrinsic worth of anything remained strong or not, a mere change of name does enhance it. The ministry of non-conventional energy sources of Government of India has been given a new name - Ministry of new and renewable energy. Though the ministry has the responsibility to facilitate the development of non-conventional energy sources in view of India's own oil supply being far less than the demand and the other sources like coal getting depleted fast, it is one of the ministries lowest in the ladder of political or financial power. The petroleum and natural gas ministry officials supported the name change and said "The new name gives a more positive outlook compared to the earlier name."
Let us all hope so. We are very fond of changing names without any rhyme or reason. The three metros earlier known by their names Bombay, Madras and Calcutta have become Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. I have not seen any perceptible change in the quality of life in these metros except that a lot of stationery, signboards, visiting cards and records had to be changed involving expenditures of several hundred crores.As far as the change of name of the ministry from the ministry of non-conventional energy sources to the new one, the industry has been crying hoarse that it gave out a negative message.
I think the name indeed is not striking. But it is a sad commentary of how we function if we could not make much headway in popularising or researching new and renewable energy sources merely because the name was uninspiring. It is a classic example of the saying "A bad workman quarrels with his tools". I hope the new name of the ministry will inspire and revitalise all so that our dependence on conventional source of energy gets reduced.
It should not turn out to be a case of 'an old wine in a new bottle'!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It could well turn out to be old wine in new bottles. I can suggest something better for human beigs-

Make your passion your profession

Ashish Agarwal said...

Non-conventional energy sounded pretty fine to me, not negative in any way. It infact seemed to be as forward thinking as the new name.
Big question: Will this result in any change ? Will the ministry grow in importance and be able to push bio-gas, bio-fuel, wind, solar, tidal, and numerous other energy sources that are relatively pollution and import free and which will not gather strength till the Govt makes an effort to push them to a high level ?
Easy things they can do ? Make all street lights solar, insist that all new complexes use solar heating for their water heating, and so on..

Satish said...

Ashish and Hiren,
Thanks for your your comments.