In a recent address to the Indian Institutes of Technology, Hillary Clinton proposed a novel solution to the problems facing today's environment: the creation of a new research think-tank, sort of like DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). Part of a proposed $50 billion strategic energy fund, the new agency would create a slew of "green-collar" jobs, Clinton suggested, and the collective brainpower of these scientists and researchers could come up with some novel solutions to our energy crisis. The end goal: transforming the way we do business, and growing the economy, while simultaneously aiding our move to renewable energies.

The IIT's 2007 Global Alumni Conference also featured keynotes by Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric Corp., Arun Sarin, the CEO of Vodafone, and Rajat Gupta of McKinsey & Company. According to Clinton, DARPA "put a bunch of researchers, engineers, and scientists together, and said 'think big.' The result: stealth technology, the Internet, the computer mouse. We need a DARPA for energy, to ask our leading minds to think outside the box, outside the gas tank. Let's be innovative again."

Post by Jeremy A. Kaplan