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1st Abdul Kalam Conference: INDIA 2020 UPDATE

“Sustainable Human Development”

IITM, Chennai, India

July 11-14, 2019

How can India reach the top HDI while keeping the ecological footprint sustainable?”


WHY INDIA?

India represents 1.3 billion people: the largest free society in the world, by a long way. India has reasonable stability of governance, because governments are elected in the most effective election system in the world. The government of India is clearly focused on development. In the past decade or so, over 270 million people have risen from poverty to middle class standards of living in India: a mind-boggling achievement.  Consciousness and concern about global issues such as environmental pollution are both immediate and present long-term in the Indian public discourse. Melting Himalayan glaciers, a very long coastline where sea-level rise is a constant concern, extreme weather events and critical dependence on the annual behavior of the Monsoons for subsistence, all pose urgent priorities.

But India is also where opportunity beckons. Alternative paths to achieve high Human Development Index are urgently needed. All of the issues in the Sustainable Development Goals cited above, are clearly seen in the Indian context. Hence solving the problem in India is most appropriate.

But it does not stop there. The similarities with the realities in Africa and Central America mean that templates developed in India can very well be transferred to address issues worldwide.

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India's position in Human Development Index and Ecological Footprint

EnergyPerCapita



SocialProgressIndex


The above story shows the problem that we are trying to solve. High "Social Progress Index" comes with extremely high per capita use of energy. The "easiest" way to use more energy is to use fossil fuels, whether imported or domestic. The use of fossil fuels has a terrible impact on the environment and hence on health. Importing fuel has a far worse compounded effect, that is seen in the 3 linked figures below. The amount of oil imported by India has risen from under 10 million tonnes per year at the start of the 1970s, to around 180 million tonnes per year by 2012: a factor of 18. The price of a barrel of crude oil in US dollars has risen from around $3/barrel, with huge and sharp fluctuations, to a level of around 90 to 100 dollars per barrel today: a factor of 30. The number of Indian rupees needed to buy a US dollar has risen from around 6 per dollar in the 1970s, to approximately 72 today, a factor of 12.
Readers can come up with their own conclusions. One conclusion is that India cannot rise steadily without stabilizing the cost of energy, and the only way to do that is to become energy self-reliant. Since fossil fuels are limited, and nuclear energy availability will rise far too slowly, India has to turn to other renewables. The solution that we present is distributed, rural generation of solar, biogas and wind power. By "solar" we do not mean just photovoltaic, although that appears to the easiest and quickest starting point. The scale-up should probably occur with solar thermal means, including a wide variety ranging from water heating, to liquid fuel generation from vegetation using anaerobic, intensified solar heating. This is the basis of the Roadmap for Rural Energy Self-Reliance that was mentioned at the outset.


Import vs. Rupee
                Value


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The 1st Abdul Kalam Conference will start a biennial tradition to generate practical and exemplary solutions to large societal challenges. India must rise in human development index (HDI) from today’s 0.6, to the 0.9 of a developed nation, while avoiding the terrible cost in ecological footprint (10 hectares of resources per person for developed nations versus India’s 0.8, and the sustainable limit of 2.5). A look back at 1989 shows India’s amazing rise towards the dream of a “developed” India by 2020. Six Working Groups will come together at this first conference, inspired by this record, to sharpen the plans to tackle the massive challenges ahead. The first group titled Human Indicators versus Ecological Footprint, will integrate the efforts of the other five groups:

Countering Climate Change, Rural Energy Self-Reliance, Space Resources, Technology for Security, Freedom, Equality, Justice and Fairness, and Global Alliance For Wellness and Healthcare.

 

We are seeking thought and action leaders in all these groups. The conference will be hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai, with the Taksha Foundation as the US partner. The groups will synergize researchers, practitioners, educators, planners, business leaders and administrators, from India, the United States, and other nations. 


What is India 2020?
Who was President Abdul Kalam?
Why this Conference?
What is a Working Group?
Who is organizing this?
What is HDI?
What is Ecological Footprint?
Why India?




















 

 




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