KOLKATA: President Pranab Mukherjee spent time on Friday spreading an "alternative" message among the masses. While in the morning he spoke about the relevance of homoeopathy, in the afternoon he stressed the importance of switching to alternative ways of producing electricity as the only sustainable way of reducing India's carbon footprint.While the first programme was organized to felicitate star students of homoeopathy colleges across the country and two from Bangladesh, the second was organized by the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur."At least 300 million people in the country are starved of electricity even as I speak. While the demand is high, one has to remember that we cannot increase our carbon emission any further. So, alternative energy is our only hope" Mukherjee said.Mukherjee also congratulated IIEST, which has been running a first-of-its-kind project in the country —generating electricity from three alternative sources (solar, wind and bio gas) and flowing it into a microgrid to enable round-the-clock electrification of at least 100 rural households.He encouraged IIEST to focus on solving the problem of clean drinking water for mass consumption. "While India houses at least a sixth of the world's population, we don't even have one-sixteenth of the world's water resources. Even after 70 years of Independence, a large percentage of our population is denied clean drinking water," he said.Mukherjee added that while he was proud that India is launching satellites, deficiencies in areas such as drinking water bothered him and he would want an attitudinal change among researchers to change certain realities.Earlier, while speaking to homoeopathy students, Mukherjee visited some chapters in history. He spoke of Calcutta Homeopathic College, set up in 1878. "It was the country's first," Mukherjee said as he referred to John Martin Honigberger, who lived in Kolkata in the 19th century and was called the "cholera doctor" because he cured himself of the disease by taking "ipecac" every half an hour. He said reminded the audience that it was Kolkata had played a vital role in popularizing homoeopathy thanks to the likes of Mahendra Lal Sircar, Rajendralal Dutta, Babu Rahen Dutta (who had cured Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar of asthma) and Satish Chandra Samanta, the MP from Bengal who piloted a move in the Constituent Assembly to establish the Central Council of Homeopathy . "As an alternative system of medicine, systems like ayurveda, unani, homoeopathy and siddha are playing a key role in the country's healthcare service. Homoeopathy has the great advantage of cost compared to allopathy. It doesn't have any side-effects unlike allopathy, where treating one ailment prepares the ground for other ailments," Mukherjee said. He added that a homoeopathy centre-cum-clinic had been opened at Rashtrapati Bhavan to popularize this form of treatment. He also presented the Malati Allen Noble Award to 18 toppers from 196 homoeopathic medical colleges across the country and two from colleges in Bangladesh.The project has been brought to life by the Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems (CEGESS), which was established in the institute about seven years ago for advanced research in alternative energy. The green centre has been able to achieve a daily production of about 15 KV energy from solar, four from wind and 15 KV. This model can be replicated at a larger scale, the institute promised.Kolkata : On Friday, President Pranab Mukherjee, spent time spreading an "alternative" message among the masses. While in the morning he spoke about the relevance of homoeopathy, in the afternoon he stressed on the importance of switching on to alternative ways of producing electricity, as the only sustainable way of reducing India's carbon footprint. While the first programme was organized to felicitate star students of homoeopathy colleges across the country and two from Bangladesh as well, the second was organized by the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur.The institute has been running a first of its kind project in the country, to generate electricity from three alternative sources - solar, wind and bio gas - and flow it into a microgrid to enable round the clock electrification of at least 100 households in a village. The project has been brought to life by the Centre of Excellence for Green Energy and Sensor Systems (CEGESS), which was established in the institute about seven years ago for advanced research in alternative energy. The green centre has been able to achieve a daily production of about 15 KV energy from solar, four from wind and 15 KV. This model can be replicated at a larger scale, the institute promised."At least 300 million people of the country are starved of electricity even as I speak. While the demand is so high, one has to remember that we cannot increase our carbon emission any further. So alternative energy is our only hope..." President Pranab Mukherjee said, congratulating the institute in its unique effort. He encouraged the institute to focus on solving the problem of clean drinking water for mass usage also. "While India houses at least one sixth of the world's population, we don't even have one sixteenth of the world's water resources. So even after 70 years of independence a large percentage of our population is denied of clean drinking water," he urged, saying that he's definitely proud that India is successfully launching satellites but such deficiencies keep bothering him and he would want a complete attitudinal change among researchers to change certain realities.The President chose to visit some chapters in history while speaking to the homoeopathy students. He spoke of Calcutta Homeopathic College, set up in 1878. "It was the country's first," Mukherjee proudly said, as he referred to Jogn Martin Honigberger, who lived in Calcutta in the 19th century and was called the "cholera doctor" because he managed to cure himself of the disease by taking "ipecac" every half an hour.He reminded the audience that it was Kolkata that played a vital role in popularizing homeopathy thanks to the likes of Mahendra Lal Sircar, Rajendralal Dutta or Babu Rahen Dutta, who had cured Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar of asthma, and to Satish Chandra Samanta, the MP from Bengal who piloted a move in the constituent assembly to establish the Central Council of Homeopathy."As an alternate system of medicine, systems like Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and Siddha are playing a key role in the health care service of our country. Homeopathy has great advantage of cost compared to allopathy, which is very costly. Apart from low-cost of treatment, it doesn't have any side-effect, unlike allopathy where treating one ailment prepares ground for other ailments," Mukherjee said.But he pointed out that considering the demand of this form of medicine, there was a huge shortage in qualified practitioners. He added that a homeopathy centre cum clinic has been opened at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to popularize this form of treatment.The president presented the Malati Allen Noble Award to 18 toppers from 196 homeopathic medical colleges across the country and two from colleges in Bangladesh.

Stay updated with all the Kolkata Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.