The country might already have a Green Revolution under its belt, but that is hardly enough, if participants at the Green Jobs Fair are to be believed. Time, they believe, is now ripe for a Green Economic Revolution.

Billed as a first of its kind event, the fair is underway at the India Habitat Centre. Employers range from property developers looking for an energy efficiency expert to NGOs working on environmental policy.

Many participants, while not offering jobs, wanted to raise awareness about the opportunities available in the sector. Chitra Vishwanath, managing director of Biome — an Indian ecological architecture firm — said, “We are here to try and project an alternative future that young people may want to choose.”

While Vishwanath says a green version entails smaller pay packages and bigger struggle, the numbers tell a different story. The UK department of Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) has identified India as the third largest market in low-carbon and green goods and services, with a 6 per cent share in the US$ 5 trillion global market. According to HSBC, green technologies and industries in India will attract Rs 7,60,000 crore between 2008-2017. This in turn is likely to lead to a rapid requirement of skilled professionals in the green business.

“We believe green jobs will be the next IT revolution in India. The investment pumped in to restructure our economy in order to make it more sustainable will completely dwarf the IT revolution. Large IT companies employ less than a million people. That is a number we can employ in biogas production alone,” said Gaurav Gupta, director of The Climate Project India, which organised fair along with The Sierra club and SEWA.