Source: www.xinhuanet.com

by Neeraja Ganaesh, Wu Qiang

NEW DELHI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- With pledge by multinationals, celebrities, students and other organizations to join Earth Hour, India is all set to switch off lights Saturday, at 08:30 p.m. Indian time (0300 GMT), joining hands in the World Wildlife Fund's(WWF) Earth Hour.

While initiative was earlier thought to be restricted to New Delhi and Mumbai, people and organizations from smaller cities and towns have been pledging support to the cause.

According to Indian website timesofindia.com, if all Indian homes were to do so for just one hour, India could cut down 62,000metric tons of carbon emissions. India was ranked fourth on emissions in the 2007 list prepared by United Nations agencies. From residents of north Indian city Shimla to South India's small organization called the Kerela Sahitya Parishad, support to turn of the lights has been tremendous.

At least 200,000 students from New Delhi and Mumbai alone have pledged their support to the cause, according to a WWF statement.

Even bloggers in towns have been supporting the initiative on the Net.

Blogger Varsha says she would play "Dark Room" with her friends and tell ghost stories to her friends. Another blogger Amjab Baig, says he would present a candle in each home in his society of a 100 residents and rope theme in in the campaign.

Indian groups on networking sites like the Facebook, Orkut, Twitter and Flickr, seem to have received tremendous support from all over.

Among organizations, ICICI Bank, HSBC Bank, HDFC Bank, Wipro Technologies, Ashoka Hotel, Reserve Bank of India building, shopping malls, Infosys, Google and Birlasoft have pledged support to the cause, according to WWF statement.

The Indian website of the WWF quotes the Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as saying, "Climate change is undoubtedly and regrettably, the biggest immediate long-term environmental challenge we face. A failure to come to sound policy outcomes on climate change will not only have a negative environmental impact but also social and economic consequences for all of us."

Other celebrities associated with it include Indian cricket start Sachin Tendulkar.

Over 74 nations and 1,000 cities are expected to participate in the event, which stresses fight against climate change more than saving power, according to WWF website.

This year, India will formally join in the project. The concept was developed in Australia in 2007. An estimated 50 to 100 million people around the world switched off their lights for Earth Hour in 2008, and global landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, Rome's Colosseum, the Coke billboard in Times Square and Jumeirah Hotel in Dubai, darkened for one hour.