The country’s national LED programme titled Unnat Jyoti Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) will be implmented all over the country by the year 2019. This was recently told by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Power and Coal. The UJALA scheme which was launched a year ago on 1st May 2015 has till date resulted in sales of total 90 million LED bulbs nationally, which has resulted in huge energy savings for the country.
The minister said that when the country completes replacing 770 million incandescent bulbs in 2019, it would help citizens save Rs 400 billion in energy bills, while meeting the country’s energy security demands.
Prices of LED bulbs have come down to Rs 52 from over Rs 332 two years ago and this primarily due to government’s incentives and strong will to save energy and make Indian consumers get used to LED bulbs. The government is also encouraging LED manufacturers to set up base in the country by giving them numerous perks. Today, 12 per cent of all LED lighting systems sold in the world is consumed in India.
By Atanu Kumar Das
