Energy Issues in Indian Clusters A Background Note on Energy related interventions in Indian Clusters

There is interaction among energy, environment and sustainable development in an economy. As most of the environmental problems are associated with energy use and economic development without energy use is difficult, there is an “energy trilemma” involving energy consumption, economic development and environmental impact (Khan, 1992). Industry has emerged as the major energy-consuming sector in India as well, with a share of about 42% of the total energy consumption (Reddy and Balachandra, 2003). From the clusters’ perspective the maximum energy intensive industries are the part of traditional manufacturing clusters and some of the prominent energy intensive clusters include Foundry, Glass and ceramics, Electroplating, Rubber and Plastic, etc.

As there is no macro level information available to map the energy utilisation of MSME Clusters, analysis for the entire MSME sector is being presented to understand the scenario. The data also suggests that energy source in the MSMEs is dictated by availability, price, reliability and convenience of use and not much on environmental considerations.