Entropy Law, Sustainability, and Third Industrial Revolution

About this book

In mankind's relentless quest for prosperity, nature has suffered great damage. It has been treated as an inexhaustible reserve of resources. The indefinite scale of global expansion is still continuing and now the earth's very survival is under threat. But against this exploitation of nature, there is the concept of entropy that places a finite limit on the extent to which resources can be used in any closed system, such as our planet. Considering the impact of entropy, Entropy Law, Sustainability, and Third Industrial Revolution examines the key issues of sustainability – social, economic, and environmental. It discusses the social dimension of sustainability, showing how it is impacted by issues of economic inequality, poverty, and other socio-economic and infrastructural factors in the Indian context. It also highlights how Indian households suffer from clean energy poverty and points to the inequality in distribution of different fuels and of fuel cost among households. It assesses India's power sector and its potential to be a significant player in bringing the third industrial revolution in India by replacing fossil fuels to new renewables. It concludes by projecting power sector scenarios till 2041-42 achievable through alternative, realizable policy with respect to energy conservation and fuel substitution, and thus paving the way for green power.

Contents

List of Tables
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction

Part I Entropy Law and Revisiting Sustainable Development
1. Entropy Law, Social Sustainability, and Development Policy
2. Indicators of Social Sustainability: Poverty, Inequality, and Social Tension
3. Crime, Inequality, and Poverty
4. Human Development, Environmental Sustainability, and Index of Overall Development
5. Interdependence among Stages of Economic Development, Human Development, and the Natural Environment

Part II Third Industrial Revolution and Sustainable Development of India's Power Sector
6. Energy, Sustainability, and Third Industrial Revolution
7. The Electrical Energy Scenario in India
8. Transition from Fossil Fuel-Based Power to Renewable Energy

Epilogue
References
Index
About the Author

Customer Reviews

Biography

Ramprasad Sengupta is an emeritus professor of economics at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi.