Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has mooted the idea of introducing lessons in fuel conservation in textbooks on the lines of environment studies to instill the habit of saving the scarce resource.
"I have written to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to make oil conservation part of syllabus in primary and secondary education," he said at signing of an agreement between ONGC and seven IITs for collaboration between academia and industry.
The suggestion is on lines of a chapter on environment that now forms part of curriculum. Pradhan wants HRD Ministry and the state governments to introduce lessons on conservation, especially its scientific and economic values.
He said the nation is dependent on as much as 80 per cent on imports on its oil needs. "We are in midst of a Conservation Fortnight that begun January 16 and will last till January 31 to promote saving all forms of energy."
The fortnight is observed annually by his ministry's arm, Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) where school children are administered an oath to conserve fuel.
Besides students, the target audience of fortnight are drivers of public transport ranging from auto rickshaws to buses and trucks as well as cooking gas consuming group such as housewives.
The memorandum of collaboration (MOC) signed between Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and seven IITs of Kharagpur, Kanpur, Delhi, Madras, Mumbai, Roorkee and Guwahati for academia-industry interaction.
While students will work on live projects, ONGC executives will be sent to IITs to refresh their knowledge.
Under this, 10-15 projects have been identified where IIT students will directly work in ONGC field to develop indigenous technology solutions.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani said the MoC will help bridge the gap between academia and industry.
