Its tech industry, and the influence and impact of its two million developers
and tech and BPO workers, are on a high, and rising. The economy, facing a big
squeeze from the global recession, struggles to keep growing. And a people known
for their never-say-die spirit, entrepreneurship and jugadu streetside
innovation, are reeling from a year of terror.
In this new-year milieu, it may sound odd if I speak of green tech and power
as major issues. But even if you ignore the fact that the top threat facing this
21st-century peace-era world is global warming, which has melted thousands of
tonnes of ice, raised the mean sea level, and changed local weather patterns...
...you can't get over the fact that a major issue facing India, and its tech
and other industries in this new year, will be power shortage.
It's pushing up costs, limiting places small businesses expand to or families
relocate to (in Gurgaon, so many families insist on an apartment with 100
percent power backup, and with good reason).
It's also the main driver for green technology adoption in much of India: the
cost of backup power, and business continuity.
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Prasanto K Roy |
The channels in the past have ignored green, or viewed it with suspicion,
equating it to environment concerns.
That is changing, along with industry demand. Take the telecom sector, in
which the top businesses like Airtel and Reliance spend thousands of crores each
on energy costs, and are willing to invest hundreds of crores to save a part of
this opex.
Across our group of publications at CyberMedia, we're taking up a common
focus in 2009 on green tech and energy efficiency: the need, products,
solutions, opportunity.
DQ Channels will focus on the opportunity that green tech provides for the
channel and solution partners. And feature their success stories in implementing
green solutions.
While Dataquest will focus on the solutions and strategies for the
enterprise, PCQuest will test IT hardware and software for power efficiency.
All sizes of businesses are worrying about power. If a company replaces 500
monitors from CRT to LCD, there's a 25 kilowatt drop in the power draw when
they're in use. And there's standby power: the business can save further, if the
systems are set to go to standby in 10 minutes of non-use (and if they've bought
energy-star rated monitors). So that's power savings of over Rs 5 lakh a year,
plus capex savings in backup equipment. Customers would pay a premium, if they
see the value.
And finally, I need to hear about your challenges, questions, and answers, in
our journey toward greener technologies. Have you implemented a major green
project, or an innovative green solution we can feature? Do you sell a product
that cuts power usage sharply? Write to me.