This article identifies the key role of the sugar industry in the rural development of developing countries. The Indian sugar industry, already second largest among the country＇s processing industries shows even greater potential, according to the Plan Documents (shown in Table I). The potential of waste heat in sugar processing plants which produce white crystal sugar using the double sulphitation clarification process, is estimated at 5757.9 KJ/kg of sugar Efficient waste heat recovery (WHR) systems could help arrest the trend of increasing production costs. This would help the sugar industry not only in India, but in many other countries as well. The innovative methods suggested and discussed briefly in this article include dehydration of prepared cane, bagasse drying, and juice heating using waste heat. These methods can reduce the cost of energy in sugar production by at least 10% and improve efficiency and productivity.