New Delhi India plans to provide affordable power to all households in the next five years, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today. "The Government of India aims to provide 24x7 electricity to all households in the country and affordable access to electricity in the next 5 years," he said inaugurating an International Seminar on Energy Access organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and CII here. Singh also said the government was taking steps to offer cooking gas to all rural households. At present, around 12 per cent of around 190 million rural households today use LPG to meet their cooking energy needs. "Giving all the 240 million households in the country an entitlement of six LPG cylinders per year will require only around 25 million tonnes of LPG," Singh said. "This should be manageable for our country. But, extending distribution network to all villages may take time," he said. The Prime Minister said the government was working on a mechanism to provide subsidy to targeted individuals so that they can afford to have electricity and LPG. Singh said that the government is looking to put in place a mechanism where subsidy would be directly transferred to bank accounts of the beneficiary. He said in one pilot scheme in Mysore district of Karnataka, 27,000 deliveries of subsidised cylinders have been made after successful biometric authentication of any family member present at home. "In the next phase it is planned to transfer the subsidy amount directly to the bank accounts of bona fide beneficiaries," he said. Highlighting plans for alternate sources of energy, the Prime Minister said India aimed to light up 20 million rural household by 2022 using solar power. He said at present renewable power represented about 12 per cent of the total installed generating capacity in India. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, launched under the aegis of India's National Action Plan on Climate Change, aims to install 20 Gigawatt of grid connected solar power by 2022. "We hope to light up around 20 million rural households with solar home lighting by 2022," he said, adding that the government looked forward to accelerate the overall deployment of renewable energy in India to achieve around 55 Gigawatt of renewable power by the year 2017. He said both the government and the industry need to engage in international cooperation on a large scale in the area of energy access. Additionally, Singh said fuel wood plantations could also be set up within a kilometer of all inhabitations to reduce the burden on women who have to walk long distances to collect fire wood for household use. Making a strong pitch for universalising access to energy, Singh said favoured innovative institutions, national and local enabling mechanisms, and targeted policies, including appropriate subsidies and financing arrangements. "The necessary technologies to mitigate the problem are fortunately available. These technologies need to be viewed as global public goods," he said. Singh said Intellectual Property Regimes applied to energy access technologies should balance rewards for innovators with the need to promote the common good of humankind. Reforms initiatives very promising, says US Treasury Secy (PTI) Describing India's recent reforms initiatives as "very promising", US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner today said it would have positive outcomes for the country's economy. "The reforms outlined by the government of India offer a very promising path to improving growth outcomes for the Indian economy," he said at a joint news conference with Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Geithner said this while replying to a question on India's recent decision to open multi-brand retail to foreign investment. The other recent reforms initiative of the government include the decision to raise FDI cap in insurance from 26 to 49 per cent and allowing foreign investment in pension. The reforms, Geithner said, would lay the foundation for improving investments in the economy and ensure that "gains of those growth and investments are shared more broadly by the citizen of India". Geithner and US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke are on a two-day visit to participate in the 3rd Cabinet Level Meeting of Indo-US Economic and Financial Partnership. Among others, the meeting was also attended by RBI Governor D Subbarao. Referring to the joint meetings, Chidambaram said: "This forum has given us a much better opportunity to be able to talk to each other and understand each other. In today's meetings we discussed the global economic and financial developments". Geithner and Bernanke are scheduled to address business leaders here and visit Mumbai tomorrow before leaving for Tokyo to attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings.