POWER CONSERVATION OR POWER REPRESENTATION

Like most of the world, however, India is facing testing economic times in 2008. The Reserve Bank of India had set an inflation target of 4%, but by the middle of the year it was running at 11%, the highest level seen for a decade. The rising costs of oil, food and the resources needed for India’s construction boom are all playing a part.

India has to compete ever harder in the energy market place in particular and has not been as adept at securing new fossil fuel sources as the Chinese. The Indian Government is looking at alternatives, and has signed a wide-ranging nuclear treaty with the US, in part to gain access to nuclear power plant technology that can reduce its oil thirst. This has proved contentious though, leading to leftist members of the ruling coalition pulling out of the government.

An energy summary of India

India is both a major energy producer and consumer. India currently ranks as the world’s eleventh greatest energy producer, accounting for about 2.4% of the world’s total annual energy production, and as the world’s sixth greatest energy consumer, accounting for about 3.3% of the world’s total annual energy consumption. Despite its large annual energy production, India is a net energy importer, mostly due to the large imbalance between oil production and consumption. An historical summary of India's Total Primary Energy Production (TPEP) and Consumption (TPEC) is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: India's TPEP and TPEC, 1993-2003
(in Quads)

	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
TPEP	7.49	8.00	9.48	8.75	9.17	9.37	9.58	9.83	10.23	9.99	10.15
TPEC	9.24	9.97	11.49	11.14	11.76	12.17	12.74	13.50	13.85	13.79	14.03

Note: 1 Quad = 1 quadrillion Btu Source: DOE/EIA

Petroleum

India's proved oil reserves are currently estimated (as of January 2005) at about 5 billion barrels, or about 4.5% of the world total. Most of these reserves lie offshore near Mumbai and onshore in Assam state. However, exploration is still happening, and India's offshore and on-shore basins may contain as much as 11 billion barrels. India presently ranks as the 25th greatest producer of crude oil, accounting for about 1% of the world’s annual crude oil production. About 30% of India's energy needs are met by oil, and more than 60% of that oil is imported. A strong growth in oil demand has resulted in India’s annual petroleum consumption increasing by more than 75% from what it was a decade ago, and petroleum consumption is projected to climb to about 3 million barrels per day by 2010. India is currently the world's sixth greatest oil consumer, accounting for about 2.9% of world's total annual petroleum consumption. An historical summary of petroleum production and consumption in India is shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Petroleum Production and Consumption in India, 1993-2003
(in thousands of barrels per day)

	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Production (total)*	578	651	770	751	780	761	765	770	782	813	815
Production (Crude Oil only)	534	590	703	651	675	661	653	646	642	665	660
Consumption	1,311	1,413	1,575	1,681	1,765	1,844	2,031	2,127	2,184	2,263	2,320

* Includes crude oil, natural gas plant liquids, other liquids, and refinery processing gain Source: DOE/EIA

On one hand country like India is striving against power crisis and the development of nation. We are again now indulged in problem of fighting against terrorism. In such an era we need more power for production, definitely not for representation.

In India communalism has a vital part to play in, each community wants to display their power so that other    communities don’t dare to take “panga” with them and stay away. Such processions are held in every city of the nation and these include display of religious beliefs in form of jhanki. Each procession goes its way covering the city in about 8- 10 hours. Many trucks, hand pullers, bands go all the way with this procession.

Liters of petrol/ diesel are wasted in these continuously on trucks, generators used for lighting and music. We have no account on records that how much power we are wasting just for the sake of power representation. This is not all traffic interruption due to this procession makes people travel longer distances and traffic jams make inconvenience to hang at one place for hours, where our vehicle move just 100 yards in about 45 minutes but petrol is on all that time. We again cannot account the amount of petrol/ diesel wasted in this procedure.

 Similar is the case followed upon during election campaigns and visit of a minister in any city, during his visit to honor him a big procession follows him all the he goes.

 Does a developing country like India really affords to waste such a huge amount of power just to represent their said hollow power?