Towards energy efficient smart cities (Ravinder Kumar, South Asia Monitor)

As India is industrialising rapidly, it is entering its most energy-intensive phase of economic growth building new infrastructure, and increasing the use of transportation. Its energy demand was nearly 700mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) in 2010. This is expected to cross 1500mtoe by 2030.The increase in energy consumption is directly linked to the steady growth in population, not only in India but also across the globe. As per Ministry of Urban Development, it is predicted that the world’s urban population will double by 2050. The urban population in India is currently 31 per cent of the total population and it produces 60 per cent of the country’s GDP. In the next 15 years, we can expect 75 per cent of India’s GDP coming from urban India. In such a scenario there is an urgent need for the nation to plan cities that can cater to such large scale urbanisation.

http://southasiamonitor.org/news/towards-energy-efficient-smart-cities/development/19705