The department of telecom in India has decided to offer financial support from the Universal Services Obligation fund to telecom players using renewable sources of energy to power their base stations in rural areas. The government has announced that it will give 50 lakhs per installation to those companies that use renewable energy for their towers in rural areas.
I think this is a laudable move; it is not many times that we ordinary citizens of the country feel like applauding our government, but this is certainly one such idea for which we need to.
It tries to achieve two important things. One, getting more and more industries to start using renewable sources of energy. Two, by giving this incentive only to rural areas, the government could make renewable energy sources such as solar spread faster into villages and rural areas. Given that a majority of Indian villages do not have access to grid electricity, this is indeed a welcome step.
This scheme is right now just running on a pilot stage. Tower companies such as Reliance Infratel, GTL, National Information Technologies and Vodafone Essar are eligible to apply for this subsidy
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