In his address to the nation on its 63rd Independence Day on Saturday, Dr Singh also suggested "save water" as a national slogan.

On the climate change issue, Dr Singh said climate change has become an issue of global concern in the recent years and India wished to tackle it in partnership with other countries.

Declaring that the government is committed to deal with the challenge of climate change, Dr Singh said country’s national action plan against climate change has comprehensively taken into consideration issues that can bring down effects of climate change.

He said as part of the national action plan, eight missions, including that of solar energy would be set up.

"To increase the use of solar energy and to make it affordable, we will launch the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission on November 14 this year," Dr Singh said.

The Prime Minister’s council on climate change recently approved multi-crore plan under which it aims to generate 20,000 MW solar energy by 2020.

"If we do not take necessary steps in time, our glaciers will melt and our rivers will go dry. The problems of drought and flood will grow in seriousness," the Prime Minister said from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort.

He also stressed on the need to prevent air pollution.

Dr Singh said, "We need a new culture of energy conservation. We also need to prevent the misuse of water. We will pay more attention to programmes for water collection and storage."

The Prime Minister also said that the government has constituted the National Ganga Authority to keep the "sacred" river clean and sought people’s cooperation in this regard.

"We have constituted the National Ganga Authority in which the Central and state governments will jointly work towards this end. The cooperation of the public is also needed in this effort," Dr Singh said.