Government of India’s National LED programme – Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All (UJALA) was launched today in Madhya Pradesh by Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Union Minister for State (IC) for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal, at a function held in Bhopal. The scheme is being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power.

• The UJALA scheme has played a significant role in creating awareness about energy efficient lighting.
• In 2014-15, the total number of LED bulbs that were distributed was mere 30 lakhs.
• The number of LED bulbs distributed in 2015-16 has crossed 15 crore, where 9 crore LED bulbs were distributed under UJALA and the remaining were contributed by the industry.
• For this year, the Government of India is confident of distributing an additional 20 crore LED bulbs.
• Sustained efforts under UJALA, coupled with industry support, will help the government achieve its objective of replacing 77 crore inefficient bulbs by March 2019.
• Efficient domestic lighting is one of the largest contributors to energy savings globally and the distribution of 10 crore LED bulbs in India has led to savings of over 1,298 crore kWh annually.
• This number has also helped the country avoid capacity of about 2,600 MW. Most importantly, the country has benefitted from reduction of CO2 emission by over 1 crore tonnes annually.

LED bulbs consume half the energy as that of CFLs and one tenth as that of incandescent bulbs. UJALA is the largest non-subsidised LED programme in the world. The programme has led to significant savings to the consumers who are using these bulbs.