Alternative clean energy is India's future, says US politician Hillary Clinton
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Ahmedabad: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the Indian Institute of Technology-Gandhinagar (IITGN) on Tuesday and said that alternative clean energy is India's future.
She said clean energy will not burden the country but generate more income for local communities. "Sustainable climate solutions should be adopted in our day-to-day life. Today India is well-positioned to adopt clean energy to achieve economic growth."
On Monday, she met with women at a salt pan farm in Gujarat's Surendranagar district who use solar-powered pumps. Citing the example, Clinton said the opportunity for India to be a leader in clean energy is "dramatically available" as it can bring down costs and decentralise clean energy using creative thinking and the scientific know-how of institutions like IITGN. She added that the whole world should come together and try to cooperate and prepare for new challenges posed by climate change.
Addressing a pandemic-related question from a student, she said it is important to build a public healthcare infrastructure that does not collapse during an emergency. It should have better communication and supply chains. "There is a lot of uncertainty, which is understandable at the start of such a global pandemic, but we didn't really communicate effectively with large portions of our population," said the former First Lady of the US.
She added that every country, especially China, needs to be more open and transparent in sharing accurate information in real-time. "They cannot continue to guard information the rest of the world needs to know...The whole world should come together and try to cooperate about how we are going to prepare for whatever comes next."
Clinton asked students to prioritise self-reflection and shut down social media to cope with a fast-paced world that makes a room for overstimulation and misinformation. The politician also encouraged girls to develop resilience and support each other to deal with adversity.