India to increase energy use with growth targets: PM

Increased energy consumption can be expected for India to reach its target of 9% economic growth.

“This high rate of economic growth would require our energy consumption also to increase rapidly,” said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Singh said since the country relies on imports for a large component of its energy requirement, it is vital to “re-double” efforts to enhance energy efficiency as a step toward reducing the energy intensity of the national GDP.

“Since we are largely dependent on fossil fuel, any improvement in energy efficiency of our thermal power generation plan would help reduce the energy intensity of our GDP,” the Prime Minister said.