India can be solar power leader: PM

Solar can help secure India's energy independence and tackle climate change, Singh said, as well as offering new opportunities for industry in a country with a crippling shortage of power.


"The rapid spread of solar lighting systems, solar water pumps and other solar power-based rural applications can change the face of our rural energy sector," he said

The prime minister said India boasted some of the world's greatest science and techology minds and they had revolutionised atomic energy, space and information technology.

"I am convinced that solar energy can be the next scientific and industrial frontier in India," he said.