The Nobel Prize in Physics of 2014 was jointly awarded to Akasaki, Amano and Nakamura for the invention of Blue LEDs in 1990s. How has this invention impacted the everyday life of human beings?

Nobel Prize awards an invention of greatest benefit to mankind. Although LED had been around for more than 50 years but only red and green color LED were available, the blue color LED was not invented which restricted the making of white LEDs.

By using blue LEDs, white light can be created in a new way and this has great impact on humanity:

• Electricity accessibility: due to low power requirements LEDs can be powered by cheap local solar power.
• Rural development: Reduced peak load and supply of LED would not help in rural electrification but also for rural development.
• Energy conservation: LEDs have longer life (50,000 hours) and increased efficiency due to photo sensitive semiconductor technology.
• Mitigate climate change: It helps in mitigating the climate change by reducing the CO₂ emission.
• Environment friendly: They have no mercury, they have near zero negative environmental impact.
• Reduces power load: It reduces peak load demand.
• Energy security: There availability at low prices and their usage is also economical to the nation as it reduces energy import bill.
• Economic development: It gives a boost to Make in India, start up and stand up India it would give thrust to LED manufacturing, especially for the MSMEs. It would also promote employment.
• Technological development: LEDs find applications in various fields, including optical communication, alarm and security systems, remote-controlled operations, robotics, etc. The recent development in LED is o-LED or organic-LED which offers flexibility in shaping the screens.

Use of LED is being encouraged by several schemes like UJJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All) and Street Light National Programme.