Girish Sant

On the domestic front, while welcoming the investment in renewable energy (RE), Girish suggested measures to improve effectiveness and equity in RE expansion. He was instrumental in making a case for setting up a National Wind Energy Mission, which is scheduled to begin in 2014.

During his stay at IIT, particularly during his Masters study, Girish started thinking about full-time work in a field of direct social relevance along with friends – Ajit Gaunekar and Aniruddha Ketkar. He started interacting with Subodh Wagle, then research fellow at Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, with whom he explored appropriate technologies, rural society and related developmental paradigms.

Search for innovative solutions to vexed problems was another characteristic of Girish. This search led to a unique and novel concept for improving efficiency of commonly used domestic appliances. Though Girish and several other researchers had pointed out that energy efficiency of commonly used domestic appliances is very poor and using most efficient appliances instead of these inefficient appliances will lead to savings of thousands of MWs, a workable large scale solution to achieve this transformation was elusive. Girish, along with colleagues at Prayas, developed a concept called 'Super-Efficient Equipment Program – SEEP' under which nominal incentives are provided to appliance manufacturers to bring super-efficient equipment into the market. He successfully convinced Government of India and Planning Commission officials of the benefits of implementing such a program. Under this program, which will be launched in 2014 as part of the 12th Five Year Plan, it is expected that over five million 'super-efficient' fans, which consume half the electricity of normal fans, will be sold in the market. This approach is also being adopted at the global level under the auspices of the Clean Energy Ministerial.

Girish died on 2 February 2012 in New Delhi due to cardiac arrest.

Girish was also part of several official committees, such as Planning Commission's working groups for 11th and 12th five-year plans, Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Energy, the Supreme Court appointed Committee on Solid Waste Disposal, and Planning Commission's Expert Group on Low Carbon Strategies for Inclusive Growth.

Since 2006, Girish focused more on macro issues of resource availability, utilisation, and growing importance of global climate debate on India's energy policy. In 2009, he co-authored a report, 'An Overview of India's Energy Trends', highlighting important differences in energy production and consumption trends of India, US, European Union and China. Based on this work, he was invited to make presentations at high level meetings at COP15 at Copenhagen and at The Center for Clean Air Policy, Washington, D.C. He was India's representative at a UN workshop on non-Annex 1 NAMAs.

Girish was keen that analysis is followed by actual interventions aimed at pro-people changes. Accordingly, PEG actively engaged with several state as well as central regulatory commissions, with the aim of making regulatory process more transparent, accountable, participatory and helped serve the public interest more effectively. Subsequent to enactment of Electricity Act 2003, PEG was actively involved in giving inputs to national policies such as National Electricity Policy, Tariff Policy and Competitive Bidding Guidelines. This analysis of the Indian power sector and its role in the regulatory process was acknowledged by many in the sector.

In 1994, his work in the energy sector evolved into the formation of Prayas, Initiatives in Health, Energy, Learning and Parenthood along with Sanjeevani and Vinay Kulkarni.

Girish Sant was a noted energy analyst held in high esteem as an energy policy commentator from India. He co-founded the non-governmental organisation Prayas in Pune, India. His analytical inputs helped shape India's energy policy over the decades of the 1990s and 2000s. He was considered an effective team builder and mentored several energy researchers and activists.

The wave of independent power producers in the 1990s was followed by State Electricity Board (SEB) reforms supported by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, starting from Orissa in 1996. Under these reforms unbundling the SEB into generation, transmission and distribution companies, setting up a regulatory commission and gradually privatising the distribution was presented as the solution to all problems in power sector. PEG was the first to prepare a public interest critique of the Orissa model of reforms in 1998 and the role of Multi-lateral Development Banks, arguing that democratising governance is the key to addressing the power sector crisis, rather than focusing only on infusing capital or changing ownership.

By 1988, when Girish completed Masters in energy systems, he developed a clear idea that he wanted to work for the betterment of society and not for personal prosperity, using his professional skills on issues related to energy. He relocated to Pune and initially worked as a lecturer in an engineering college, undertook sporadic energy audit and industrial consultancy projects and then worked at Systems Research Institute. This was a period of exploration along with other like-minded friends – Shripad Dharmadhikary, Sanjeevani and Vinay Kulkarni – that brought him closer to people's movements, particularly the NBA.

Girish's years in IIT Mumbai brought out his leadership, team building and mountaineering skills. He was an accomplished mountaineer and rock climber, and made important rock climbing ascents with fellow mountaineers including the first ever climb of the Konkan Kada. He was an active member of the IIT Mountaineering Club and also the Institute Mountaineering Secretary during 1985–86.

Girish spent his childhood in Thane, and joined IIT Mumbai in 1982 for BTech in Chemical engineering. After completing BTech in 1986, he also completed Masters in Energy Systems in 1988 from IIT.