We need virtue of frugality for energy saving: President

New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) India needs to bring to bear its traditional virtue of frugality for effective energy conservation in the country, President Ram Nath Kovind said on Thursday.

Speaking at the annual National Energy Conservation Awards event here, Kovind said that although India had become power surplus in the last few years, much remains to be done on energy efficiency, which is best done following the ancient Indian emphasis on saving.

"It would greatly help if the old concept in India on the virtue of saving wealth is also employed in the sphere of energy efficiency," Kovind said, elaborating that it was the country's fabulous wealth built up through saving that had earned her the epithet of the "Golden Bird" ("Sone ki Chidiya").

"In our traditional culture, people who spent lavishly were not considered wealthy... instead, those who saved to build their wealth were regarded as wealthy," he said, pointing out that many of the banks in south India earlier had been started by people who had saved a lot of money.

"The time has come for us to save on energy. Today we need an energy bank, which will help us go ahead."

Addressing the gathering earlier, Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister R.K. Singh said India is committed to the path of sustainable development.

"We are commited to our climate change targets as agreed at the COP 21 in Paris. At the same time, we cannot ignore our development needs," Singh said.

It is in line with this vision that by 2030, 57 per cent of the country's installed power capacity would be generated from eco-friendly renewable energy sources, including hydropower, he said.

The minister said that in a major move to encourage energy saving, the government has effected a labelling programme for items of mass consumption displaying the standards of energy efficiency for 21 products and standards for TV sets would be issued soon.

"Besides, all states have agreed on making obligatory their RPOs (renewable purchase obligations)," he said.

Singh also said the Centre is drawing up a plan to power parts of cities with renewable energy and Delhi would be the first to implement it.