The World Energy Council at its 16th Congress at Tokyo in September 1995 identified major challenges as providing the energy supply options to the poor people in the countries where energy even in small quantity is not available; and the second challenge was to provide the energy supply for sustainable development of the masses. South Asia appears prominently and has faced with both the challenges. Its vast population survives on small quantities of energy, but on the other hand the region is also striving hard to attain higher level of economic development. The complexity of situation has, therefore, gained serious dimension for which all kinds of intellectual support utilising experiences from other parts of the world is necessary. The funding of such programmes does not come free or easy and therefore, pooling of the intellectual capital is considered equally important. Asia Energy Vision 2020 was organised by the Indian Member Committee of the World Energy Council during November 15-17, 1996 to focus on issues that have a bearing on finding solutions to meet these challenges. The Conference served as an important event for various multinational companies and the multilateral funding agencies to look into issues of interest where the countries of the region are equal beneficiaries. The total Proceedings of the Conference are presented in two Volumes Volume 1 mainly deals with the Technical Papers received in advance; and Volume 2 deals with various Ceremonial Addresses, Overview Presentations and the New Delhi Declaration giving the Conclusions and the Recommendations, leading to future actions for sustainable energy supply in the South Asia region.
