About Prayas Energy Group

[Kaustubh Nimkar]

I am writing this mail to tell you about a Pune based NGO called Prayas. I worked with them for about a month during August-September this year.
I particularly felt that there are several ways in which we can collaborate with them. This mail can give you a better idea.

Prayas works basically in three key areas.
1. Health
2. Resources and Livelihoods
3. Energy.

I worked with Prayas Energy group (PEG). They particularly work on issues related to Power(Electricity) sector in India.

Power sector in India is a vast field for different studies. Policies of government often lead to some controversies and chaos.
Even today, many years after independence, it is just the government that plays monopolistic role in policy making in power sector. The real consumers of electricity and those who are still deprived of electricity cannot actively participate in this process. In many democratic countries, the model is quite different where consumers can play a key role. PEG tries to bridge this gap in our country by creating awareness in the society that consumers can and should participate in the process. PEG itself takes part in many governmental, non-governmental policy making processes as consumer representatives. They are active in this area for last 18 years. They also write many reports, papers and publish them in public domain. Some of their key outputs include an alternative plan for Narmada Valley Development Plan (NVDP),Analysis of Enron Project and controversies related to it. Presentations/reports on their site can give you a better idea.

http://prayaspune.org/peg/energy_home.php

My work :

There is a magazine called Economic and Political weekly (EPW). This small article on wikipedia can be a nice start to know about this wonderful magazine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_and_Political_Weekly

EPW has collected large statistical data about Indian Power Sector from authentic sources. This data records different figures about how power sector has evolved in India for last 50-60 years. It includes information about installed capacity of power plans, the actual generation, losses, financial details, fuels used, manpower and much more. EPW needs some commentary on this data that can describe some interesting trends. PEG is working on this and I worked with them. I worked for a short duration but I will see if I can continue working remotely. It was indeed a nice learning experience for me.

What I learnt :

This is a vast area for studies. It involves science,technology,environmental issues, social sciences,economics,finance, politics and law.
Interestingly one can work on any part that interests him/her. Due to issues like global warming and climate change, studies in this field have got great importance.

How we can contribute :

As I said, PEG is a part  of Prayas. The other groups of Prayas also work on the same lines.
We alredy have a nice collaboration with Prayas. Prof. Subodh Wagale of CTARA,IIT Bombay works with the resources and livelihood group of Prayas. Prof. Sohoni also works with him on some projects. Prof. Purushottam Kulkarni is associated with PEG to some extent.
We as students/members of Kritagnyata can assist them at any level. It requires some initial studies, very similar to our literature surveys for M.tech projects. Devoting some time from our M.tech projects is not that difficult.
 

Last but not least, the most important thing that I learnt. Working for a society,people around is a good thing. However everyone maynot have the same motivation, persistence to work. Irrespective of the interest for social work, there are hundreds of areas in our country in which we can work which can be as enjoyable as any other job we can possibly think of. Only part is, sometimes we're just not aware of it.

 -Kaustubh.