Energetica India Magazine March 2022

industry? What more could be done to tap this as an opportunity? Dr. Rashi Gupta: There is a big gap be- tween what academia is creating and what industry needs. The manpower is just not industry-ready at all. There is a clear need for first and foremost the fac - ulty development program at a light- ning speed, and the second appeal is to the students to develop skills outside the curriculum which will make them industry ready for an illustrious career. We have to step out of this traditional educational system and think out of the box to have a pool of useable manpow- er. We need mentoring and role models from a very early stage of education and more specifically for the parents as they are playing a very significant role in what the child will be like when he will grow up. Many girls take up STEM education but fail to make it a career. The attitude and the approach of so- ciety now need to see us in a different light to create a gender balance. Q How important is the role of the family in maintaining a balance be- tween office work and family life for a working woman? Dr. Rashi Gupta: Family is very very crucial; without the contribution of the family members it is extremely difficult to achieve a work-life balance and you are pivotal to get the family’s contribu- tion. A working woman has many more challenges to deal with like the daily household chores, kids, spouse, family, energetica INDIA- Mar_2022 31 and most important herself. She has an expectation from herself to be a “Su- perWoman” who can do it all by herself which leads to many mental and phys- ical health issues, careers hindranc- es, and overall dissatisfaction at some point. Delegation is the key whether at home or at work, involving your family members in your daily chores helps a lot. Small changes in time management go a long way with loads of happiness. Also, a key aspect is raising how to we raise the male child what value system is being imbibed from childhood, does he see his sister as an equal, has he been raised to do his chores himself and not his mother or his sister or his grand- mother or other female members of the house. Has he been taught to respect women and put them before him? It is now up to us to build a gender-neutral society. Q In your view, what are the biggest challenges in the energy storage sector in India? Dr. Rashi Gupta: India always has been a Pro-storage nation, we like to save and store, now we are learning how to store electricity effectively and efficiently. In terms of Technology, we have tradi- tionally been in our comfort zone and usually we look outside our country for it and just quickly adopt them, but it is time now that we create ourselves as our needs and requirements of energy are very unique just as our nation is. We have to innovate in this sector to prog- ress and have more localization. Once we do this the mass adoption of energy storage will be an affordable reality. So manufacturing of the core components, adding advanced technologies, ancillary ecosystem, flexible policy framework, skilling the manpower is the need of the hour to bring agility to this segment. Q Is this the right time for India to work simultaneously on aggressive policies for recycling of batteries, so- lar modules, etc as well? What do you think? Dr. Rashi Gupta: It is the perfect time for us to work on recycling and reuse, the next billionaire is going to be from this industry. We are aiming to be a 5 trillion economy with 500GW through non-renewables and 50% energy from renewables which is a massive deploy- ment and will generate a massive waste. The resources have been depleting at a much faster pace than ever. The only way to make them available for future deployment is to recycle and reuse and if don’t start now we will never make it there. The government and the in- dustry are collaborating on this to have standards by BIS soon in this segment, but the challenge would be in the ef- fective implementation of these. Solar modules, batteries, cables, e-waste, etc needs to be recycled and we need to cre- ate a very large infrastructure to cater to this waste that will be churned out in the next 5 years. Q Where did you see India’s energy storage industry’s road towards ‘AatmNirbhar’ in the next five years? Dr. Rashi Gupta: India’s energy stor- age journey is going to be successful and very much “AtamNirbar”. The PLI scheme is one such initiative that has come up and with recycling, re- use and better technologies our way, manufacturing in India will have the much-needed limelight and focus. The next five years are very crucial to se - cure the raw materials, create a robust sustainable resilient supply chain, skill the next generation, add infrastructure and develop ancillaries and last but not least have financial and technological INTERVIEW “When it Comes to Green Energy Sector, Women Need to Participate More because they Bring a Value that is Unique.” “