Industrial Development

Irrigation and power form the basis of the agricultural and industrial development of our country. After the draughts of the previous two years, no one in India needs any reminder about the vital importance of irrigation. There is also no doubt that electricity will always be a basic element in any formula for progress. The draught has also proved that electricity is an input for agriculture. I am glad to be here because as engineers, scientists and technologists, you represent the future. As citizens and administrators, we look to you to uncover our natural resources and suggest how best these might be exploited in the national interest. Technology is moving ahead in every direction, and day by day, new opportunities are opening up before all of us. What we need is the availability of large quantities of power at very low prices, which would influence changes in technology and stimulate the development of a new technology. 

We have vast water resources in the Indo Gangetic basin of which I am being constantly reminded by our Minister Dr. K. L. Rao. These must naturally be tapped for irrigation. When one merely thinks of all that our institution or a board such as yours can do, the prospects are truly exciting and open up new vistas in many areas of national life. You have already mentioned, Mr. President, the importance of electrification and I am glad to find that some aspects of rural electrification figure on your agenda. In most of our 5 lac villages, people are still prisoners of day light and, therefore, have a short working day. At one time we hoped that we would be able to electrify at least 1 lac villages by 1970, which is the Gandhi Centenary Year. I still hope that we will somehow manage to reach this target and will continue to make rapid progress towards bringing electricity to the remaining villages. 

Today we are able to build a good deal of the generating and transmission equipment which is required, but we have also to improve the economics of out power generation and transmission so as to supply cheap power to needy consumers and yet earn profits on the operations of our electricity undertakings. The development of regional grid will assist in optimizing the distribution system. This will be a great help to enrich all of us and yield better and quicker results.