In his Independence Day speech from Old Delhi's famed Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced plans to replace India's 64-year-old Planning Commission with a new central government think-tank led by mix of experts. The new eight-member institute would focus on creative thinking, broader development and take several critical functions previously performed by the Planning Commission. One such function that will carry through to the new institute is central government leadership in convening state and central government leaders and experts on advancing clean energy development – including key objectives to increase energy access and energy security through a robust energy efficient buildings market.

To advance energy efficiency in buildings earlier this year, the central government convened a high-level roundtable held by the Planning Commission, Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency and key state leaders as well as international experts from China and the United States. The discussion highlighted on the codified statewide Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC).

Jha is of the firm opinion that we need to ensure energy efficiency in existing buildings if we want to achieve efficiency in the full sense. "One of the main things that need to be done is to tackle existing commercial buildings, which means reduce the energy input to a certain extent, as per the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) benchmark or the GRIHA benchmark.

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