Role of an Engineer : India

Many of today’s concerning societal problems are problems that could potentially become more urgent in the future, and will require an approach identical to that has been the prime aspect of engineering for the past several decades. Some of these close-to-impossible and complex problems demand a form of analysis. This analysis must not be founded only by logic of science, but needs to also be tempered by experience and good judgment. The problems demand teamwork and sincere commitment to obtain workable solutions. Being from India, the issue that I think faces my society today is high carbon emission and pollution. These emissions due to anthropogenic (human) activity are increasingly either causing climate change (global warming) or making climate change worse. Scientists are concerned about the negative impacts of climate change on humanity in the foreseeable future.
What is the solution? Low-carbon power! Low-carbon power comes from processes or technologies that produce power with substantially lower amounts of carbon dioxide emissions than is presently emitted from conventional fossil fuel power generation [1]. This includes generation of power through sources such as wind power, solar power, Hydro power etc. Since I’m assuming I could work anywhere to help reduce this problem, I’d like to work for the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE). The activities of INAE promote science and technology in the country, development of technological policies for societal benefits, promoting engineering education in India etc. Amongst other things INAE is part of the “Energy Committee 2013” whose prime focus is to transition our current economy to a lower carbon economy. Lower carbon economy is an economy that has a minimal output of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions into the environment biosphere, but specifically refers to the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide [2]. India faces a challenging target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 50% (against the...