Preface
electricity, and 400 million of them, incidentally, live in India.
The project “Lighting a Billion Lives� The Sunderbans, West Bengal. Lighting up this web of islands is still a distant dream, but hope has found its way. The sun is lighting up the nights. Solar lanterns are turning night into day. Studying is full of joy. The struggle to cook in the dark is over. Electricity has brought new pride. Bina has become an entrepreneur. She runs a solar charging station with her friends. They rent out lanterns to the villagers and even repair them. The villagers are discovering new vocations. Betel-leaf cultivation, coaching centres, furniture making. TERI is bringing light to rural homes across the world. The first bearers of light that will change a billion lives. Lighting a Billion Lives. An effort to banish darkness. A movement to illuminate homes. A mission to clean the Earth. Come join our mission. We are committed to enabling a billion lives to access light from solar technologies. For details contact: LaBL secretariat: akanksha@ten.res.in.
This is just an example of the many innovative things that we can do and the need now is for us to think outside the box, to look at the enormous opportunities we have and the challenges we face, and if we work together clearly we can come up with a whole range of initiatives that can give human society a much brighter future. So let me, in conclusion, thank the organisers for giving me this opportunity, and may I compliment Casa Asia and may I pay tribute to her Excellency the minister Beatriz Corredor for the remarkable things that she is doing and the 16_Rajendra K. Pachauri
Government of Spain is doing in this country. We stand in admiration of all that you are doing, and I hope the rest of the world will follow the lead that you are setting.