New Delhi: India and Argentina have agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of renewable energy. In a meeting with a delegation led by Dr. Antonio Bonfatti, Governor of Santa Fe. Rosario Province, Argentina Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy conveyed the willingness of the Government of India to enhance bilateral ties and economic cooperation with Argentina especially in the field of renewable energy. Collaboration in sectors of bio-diesel and possibilities of future commerce and business in bio-fuel were also discussed. Dr. Antonio Bonfatti agreed that the two countries should use their full potential to enhance cooperation and bilateral ties.
Hon’ble Minister informed the visiting dignitaries about the National Policy on Bio-fuels which was announced in December, 2009 and endeavors to bring about development and utilization of indigenous feedstock for production of biofuels. He highlighted the Indian approach to biofuels which is based solely on non-food feedstock to be raised on degraded or wastelands that are not suited to agriculture, or through use of wastes and residues, thus avoiding a possible conflict of fuel and food security. Dr. Abdullah also informed the visiting delegation that the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme is currently being implemented by the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) with the overall aim of achieving on EBP of 5%.
On this occasion Dr. Abdullah also spoke about the energy situation in India and the rapid growth of the renewable energy sector in India. He spoke of India’s plans to add over 30 GW of renewable energy to its energy mix in the next 5 years. He dwelt on the success of the wind programme as well as the significant cost reductions in solar energy through the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). He also highlighted India’s conducive and investor friendly policy framework for promoting renewable energy in a big way. He offered all possible assistance from India to the development of the renewable energy capacity of Argentinian officials and regulators.
Success in my Habit
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Aegis to hire 9,000 next fiscal
Of this, about 4,500 employees would be added to its operations in India, Mumbai: while the remaining would be deployed at Aegis’ centres globally, Sandip Sen, Global CEO of Aegis, told Business Line . Currently, the company has centres in 13 countries.
“The demand pipeline is looking good across geographies. Thanks to our size, we have a seat at the table when it comes to most outsourcing conversations,” Sen said on the sidelines of the Nasscom summit.
Emerging destination
The company would also be hiring in the Philippines and Malaysia. Sen sees Malaysia as an emerging alternative to Philippines, a country which has become a strong destination for voice-based business process outsourcing and management.
Most of the hiring at Aegis would be for new business and not to make up for attrition, Sen said.
The backfilling of positions is a continuous process at the 55,000 employee-strong BPO company, thanks to the over 40 per cent attrition rate. Sen says that attrition need not be a negative factor.
“Most BPO contracts are for three years and we generally do not get price escalations every year. However, my people costs keep going up with annual salary hikes. So we do not mind if some experience hands have to be replaced with entry level staffers as we are confident of our internal training abilities,” he said.
Amway to invest Rs. 150 cr more in TN plant
According to Anshu Budhraja, Chief Operating Officer, the company will invest Rs. 150 crore over and above the originally proposed Rs. 400 crore in the manufacturing facility that is coming up at Nilakottai near Madurai. It is expected to start commercial production by the end of 2014, and scale up to full capacity by October next year.
The company was allotted a 50-acre plot by the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu, and it initially submitted a proposal to set up nine production lines for nutrition, cosmetic and oral-care products. It now proposes to add three more lines. With the proposed addition, the plant will produce 34 nutrition and 77 beauty products with an annual installed capacity for over 2 billion tablets and soft-gel capsules; 7 million canisters of drink mixes, 25 million tubes, jars and bottles of personal care products, and 60 million tubes of Glister toothpaste.
Foreign facility
The facility, constructed by Shapoorji Pallonji Construction, will be Amway’s first owned facility in the country and second outside the US, the first being in China. The Rs. 2,200-crore FMCG player has more than 140 stock keeping units under five product categories — personal care, home care, nutrition and wellness, cosmetics and ‘great value’ products. It currently sources all of them from seven contract manufacturers.
Product sourcing
The new facility is meant only to cater to the domestic market and to get better control over manufacturing of healthcare products. “Amway will continue to source products from the existing contract manufacturers too,” said Budhraja.
OVL inks agreements to raise $2.5 bn
The first facility for a five year term amounting to $1.775 billion was signed with consortium of international banks, including ANZ, Bank of Nova Scotia, BTMU, DBS, Mizuho, RBS, Societe Generale, SBI and SMBC.
SMBC took the leadership role in this facility with commitment of $ 700 million and acting as Facility and Escrow Agent. This is the single largest offshore 5-year loan facility arranged by an Indian company during the last three years.
The second facility is in the nature of a bridge finance of $ 725 million for a one year term with consortium of international banks including ANZ, BNP Paribas, BTMU, Citi, DBS, RBS and SBI. In this facility, Citi took the leadership with Facility and Escrow Agency roles.
Interim Railway Budget: High-speed corridor accelerates
New Delhi: High-speed trains in India could be a reality soon, with Indian Railways (IR) focusing on bringing new technology for modernisation of trains.
The first high-speed rail (300-350 km/hour) will likely connect Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the two financial hubs in western India. It is expected to cut travel time between the two cities from the current eight hours to two hours.
The railways is also focusing on achieving speeds of 160-200 km/hour on existing tracks.
A joint feasibility study for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor, which started in December 2013, is set to be completed in 18 months, minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in his speech on Wednesday. The study is being financed by Indian Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency. An agreement for the partnership was finalised between the two sides in May 2013.
Another business development study for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, undertaken by the French railways, will be completed by April 2014. After a report on the study is presented, IR will decide on the next course of action, as well as the modalities for implementation of the project, Kharge said.
The railways is also exploring low-cost options to increase the speed of trains on select existing routes such as Delhi-Agra and Delhi-Chandigarh, to 160-200 km/hour.
Earlier, the railways had said a High-Speed Rail Corporation (HSRC), a subsidiary of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, was being set up to increase the speed of passenger trains up to 200 km/hour. The High-Speed Rail Authority will be set up soon. While the authority will frame policies, it will be up to HSRC to implement these. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Amritsar routes are two of the seven corridors HSRC plans to take up on a priority basis.
For speeds of more than 200 km/hour, dedicated tracks and fencing are needed.
Kharge said implementation of the eastern and western dedicated freight corridor projects was recording good progress, with about 1,100 km of civil construction contracts being awarded. In 2014-15, an additional 1,000 km of civil construction contracts are expected to be awarded, besides the those for systems contracts.
The first high-speed rail (300-350 km/hour) will likely connect Mumbai and Ahmedabad, the two financial hubs in western India. It is expected to cut travel time between the two cities from the current eight hours to two hours.
The railways is also focusing on achieving speeds of 160-200 km/hour on existing tracks.
A joint feasibility study for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed corridor, which started in December 2013, is set to be completed in 18 months, minister Mallikarjun Kharge said in his speech on Wednesday. The study is being financed by Indian Railways and Japan International Cooperation Agency. An agreement for the partnership was finalised between the two sides in May 2013.
Another business development study for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, undertaken by the French railways, will be completed by April 2014. After a report on the study is presented, IR will decide on the next course of action, as well as the modalities for implementation of the project, Kharge said.
The railways is also exploring low-cost options to increase the speed of trains on select existing routes such as Delhi-Agra and Delhi-Chandigarh, to 160-200 km/hour.
Earlier, the railways had said a High-Speed Rail Corporation (HSRC), a subsidiary of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, was being set up to increase the speed of passenger trains up to 200 km/hour. The High-Speed Rail Authority will be set up soon. While the authority will frame policies, it will be up to HSRC to implement these. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad and Delhi-Amritsar routes are two of the seven corridors HSRC plans to take up on a priority basis.
For speeds of more than 200 km/hour, dedicated tracks and fencing are needed.
Kharge said implementation of the eastern and western dedicated freight corridor projects was recording good progress, with about 1,100 km of civil construction contracts being awarded. In 2014-15, an additional 1,000 km of civil construction contracts are expected to be awarded, besides the those for systems contracts.
Isro's Mars orbiter Mangalyaan completes 100 days in space
This is the first Indian-made object sent into deep space from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on November 5 last year.
Since then, the spacecraft is continuously monitored by the ground station of Isro's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), located at Byalalu, near Bangalore.
"The health parameters of all the payloads are normal. Except for a 40-minute break in the Telemetry data received from the spacecraft to the ground station, data has been continuously available till today," said a release from Isro.
Presently, the spacecraft is at a radio distance of 16 million kilometres causing a one-way communication delay of approximately 55 seconds.
After travelling the remaining distance of about 490 million kilometres over the next 210 days, the spacecraft would be finally inserted into the Martian Orbit on September 24. To reach there, the spacecraft has to still travel 680 million km. As of now it has travelled 190 million kilometres.
Subsequent to six orbit raising manoeuvres around the Earth following the launch, the Trans Mars Injection (TMI) manoeuvre was done on December 1 giving necessary thrust to the spacecraft to escape from Earth and to initiate the journey towards Mars, in a helio-centric Orbit.
On December 11, the First Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) was also conducted and the trajectory of the spacecraft, till today, is moving as expected. Three more TCM operations have been planned in April, August and September. On February 6, all the five payloads on Mars Orbiter spacecraft were switched on to check their health.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
BSE launches institutional trading platform for SMEs
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange launched an institutional trading platform for small and medium enterprises today.
Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Managing Director & CEO, BSE, said that the new platform will help SMEs raise capital without going through the extensive IPO process and also enable easy exit options for angel investors and venture capitalists. BSE officials said that the listing process in the new platform will be done within one month as against the couple of months that a regular IPO route would take. Costs would be just a tenth of the IPO process, they said.
Rajeev Kumar Agarwal, Wholetime Member, SEBI, speaking at the launch said that SEBI had taken upon itself a role to enable the SME segment to raise cheap funds. Acknowledging that the Initial public offer process was a big burden involving regulatory costs, Agarwal said that SEBI wanted to ringfence the small investors while also ensuring that there is visibility for SMEs with no compromise on corporate governance and disclosures. He hoped that the new platform would serve as a training ground for the SME sector to come to the main platform after some time.
Chandrakant Salunkhe, President of the SME development chamber of India, assured the BSE that at least 50 companies would join the new platform within the next three months.
Ashish Kumar Chauhan, Managing Director & CEO, BSE, said that the new platform will help SMEs raise capital without going through the extensive IPO process and also enable easy exit options for angel investors and venture capitalists. BSE officials said that the listing process in the new platform will be done within one month as against the couple of months that a regular IPO route would take. Costs would be just a tenth of the IPO process, they said.
Rajeev Kumar Agarwal, Wholetime Member, SEBI, speaking at the launch said that SEBI had taken upon itself a role to enable the SME segment to raise cheap funds. Acknowledging that the Initial public offer process was a big burden involving regulatory costs, Agarwal said that SEBI wanted to ringfence the small investors while also ensuring that there is visibility for SMEs with no compromise on corporate governance and disclosures. He hoped that the new platform would serve as a training ground for the SME sector to come to the main platform after some time.
Chandrakant Salunkhe, President of the SME development chamber of India, assured the BSE that at least 50 companies would join the new platform within the next three months.
15 deals worth over Rs 12k cr in 40 days: Inbound M&As take wing in 2014
Mumbai: The year 2014 has started with a bang for inbound mergers & acquisitions, with India Inc seeing 15 such deals in 40 days. Besides the mounting interest from buyers in the Indian consumer growth story, other sectors such as health care, metals, real estate and telecom have led the way in asset sales this year.
The last of the deals happened just two days ago, with the US-based Sophos buying Cyberoam Technologies. US-based private equity major Carlyle was a common factor in both the first and so far the last M&A deals this year – the first was the largest ever inbound buyout in the Indian dairy space where the PE major sold its 20 per cent stake in Tirumala to Lactalis. In the other deal, Carlyle sold its 87 per cent stake to global strategic buyers.
Deals had dried up in recent times mainly because of valuation issues even as highly leveraged companies have been looking for buyers. Mahesh Singhi, managing director, Singhi Advisors, said companies had been facing growth bottlenecks and needed capital flows. Many of the recent sellouts had been to reduce debt and were prompted by lenders and investors.
Highly leveraged companies such as DLF, Lanco, GMR, etc, have thus been monetising some of their assets in the last couple of months. Early this month, mining and construction company Lanco Infratech, which has a total debt of Rs 7,700 crore, sold its 70-Mw hydel plant in Himachal Pradesh to Greenko for about 77 million euros (Rs 650 crore). It is also in talks for the sale of its 1,200-Mw Udupi Power Corp. The overall deal size of the 15 transactions works out to about Rs 12,151 crore (roughly $2 billion). According to a Grant Thornton report, India Inc had seen inbound deals worth $8.6 billion in 2013.
Besides debt-ridden companies, even some of the largest Indian conglomerates have concluded sales of their loss-making or non-core businesses in the last few weeks.
On January 31, Tata Power announced the sale of its stake in Indonesian coal asset, Arutmin, to the local Bakrie family for $500 million as part of cutting down its debt. The Aditya Birla Group sold its Canada-based business and technology outsourcing firm Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide Ltd to a group of investors for $260 million, as part of its exit from the information technology business.
According to reports, Tata Communications is planning to sell its South African firm Neotel to a Vodafone arm.
Pramod Kumar, MD, Barclays Capital India, said, “Unrelated diversification or aggressive expansion undertaken by Indian companies in an environment where the growth outlook was much more robust that what has turned out to be in reality raised the question whether they should be in the business and own the asset or not.”
A lack of interest from investors such as private equity players has also cast a shadow over a few core industries in India, leaving the promoters with no option but to sell out or partner with global players, who can access cheap capital as well as advanced technologies and global markets.
“With the current slowdown, not only have profit margins come down, the working capital cycle has also increased substantially in many industries, bringing the overall return on capital employed much below their borrowing costs. Companies in infrastructure, metals, pharma API, build-operate-transfer projects, power equipment, etc have fallen off radar of financial investors,” Singhi added.
Most of the PE investments made five to six years ago are ripe for exits, causing strategic sellouts to foreign companies eager for a strong footprint in the Indian market.
Vikram Hosangady, national leader, private equity, KPMG India, said the exits in most situations were driven by the fact that the PE investor had spent three-five years and the portfolio company was ripe for exit. “It’s heartening to note there remains significant strategic interest among global companies in Indian assets. We’ll continue to see increased strategic interest but largely in defensive sectors such as consumer, pharma and health care.”
The last of the deals happened just two days ago, with the US-based Sophos buying Cyberoam Technologies. US-based private equity major Carlyle was a common factor in both the first and so far the last M&A deals this year – the first was the largest ever inbound buyout in the Indian dairy space where the PE major sold its 20 per cent stake in Tirumala to Lactalis. In the other deal, Carlyle sold its 87 per cent stake to global strategic buyers.
Deals had dried up in recent times mainly because of valuation issues even as highly leveraged companies have been looking for buyers. Mahesh Singhi, managing director, Singhi Advisors, said companies had been facing growth bottlenecks and needed capital flows. Many of the recent sellouts had been to reduce debt and were prompted by lenders and investors.
Highly leveraged companies such as DLF, Lanco, GMR, etc, have thus been monetising some of their assets in the last couple of months. Early this month, mining and construction company Lanco Infratech, which has a total debt of Rs 7,700 crore, sold its 70-Mw hydel plant in Himachal Pradesh to Greenko for about 77 million euros (Rs 650 crore). It is also in talks for the sale of its 1,200-Mw Udupi Power Corp. The overall deal size of the 15 transactions works out to about Rs 12,151 crore (roughly $2 billion). According to a Grant Thornton report, India Inc had seen inbound deals worth $8.6 billion in 2013.
Besides debt-ridden companies, even some of the largest Indian conglomerates have concluded sales of their loss-making or non-core businesses in the last few weeks.
On January 31, Tata Power announced the sale of its stake in Indonesian coal asset, Arutmin, to the local Bakrie family for $500 million as part of cutting down its debt. The Aditya Birla Group sold its Canada-based business and technology outsourcing firm Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide Ltd to a group of investors for $260 million, as part of its exit from the information technology business.
According to reports, Tata Communications is planning to sell its South African firm Neotel to a Vodafone arm.
Pramod Kumar, MD, Barclays Capital India, said, “Unrelated diversification or aggressive expansion undertaken by Indian companies in an environment where the growth outlook was much more robust that what has turned out to be in reality raised the question whether they should be in the business and own the asset or not.”
A lack of interest from investors such as private equity players has also cast a shadow over a few core industries in India, leaving the promoters with no option but to sell out or partner with global players, who can access cheap capital as well as advanced technologies and global markets.
“With the current slowdown, not only have profit margins come down, the working capital cycle has also increased substantially in many industries, bringing the overall return on capital employed much below their borrowing costs. Companies in infrastructure, metals, pharma API, build-operate-transfer projects, power equipment, etc have fallen off radar of financial investors,” Singhi added.
Most of the PE investments made five to six years ago are ripe for exits, causing strategic sellouts to foreign companies eager for a strong footprint in the Indian market.
Vikram Hosangady, national leader, private equity, KPMG India, said the exits in most situations were driven by the fact that the PE investor had spent three-five years and the portfolio company was ripe for exit. “It’s heartening to note there remains significant strategic interest among global companies in Indian assets. We’ll continue to see increased strategic interest but largely in defensive sectors such as consumer, pharma and health care.”
India remains one of the top destinations for foreign direct investment: Anand Sharma
New Delhi: The Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Shri Anand Sharma has asserted that India remains one of the top destinations for Foreign Direct Investment, despite the economic slowdown. Speaking at a Students’ Interactive Session at Sophia College in Mumbai today, Shri Sharma said India’s Foreign Direct Investment policy has been progressively liberalized to make the regime more investor friendly. He said in a recent review of the policy the government has amended the sectoral caps in some key areas to stimulate FDI inflow. Between 2009-13, India attracted FDI worth US $ 172.82 billion, despite growing competition from emerging economies like Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam etc.
Responding to a student’s question about India’s poor ranking on the ‘ease of doing business’ parameter, Shri Sharma admitted that red tape continued to be a cause of concern, but added that sincere efforts were being made to create a conducive business environment. He said, his Ministry has recently launched the e-Biz portal, which allows potential entrepreneurs to complete most of the formalities online, like submitting forms, making payments, among others. They can also track the status of their requests through the portal. Shri Sharma said that two of the key organizations crucial for clearance of projects – Ministry of Environment & Forests and Central Board of Customs & Excise are yet to come on board, but expressed confidence that he would convince them to join in soon.
The Minister also said the National Manufacturing Policy seeks to address the menace of red tape by introducing accountability to ensure timely clearance of proposals. Shri Sharma said India’s current economic growth is not commensurate with its potential and the country has capacity to grow faster. He said that India is looking to create as many as 100 million skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector by raising its share of GDP to 25 per cent from 16 per cent. “We have to create jobs through industrialization and boosting manufacturing. The dedicated Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Chennai-Bangalore – Mumbai industrial corridor will create specialized manufacturing centres, with single window service to expand our industrial base,” he added.
The Commerce & Industry Minister also defended the FDI in retail policy of the government, stating that its benefits can be reaped by farmers as well as small and medium enterprises. “If a retail chain sources its farm products from hinterland or creates cold storage facility, it will be the farmer in the villages who will benefit directly” he added. He reiterated that entry of organized retailer will not put the corner grocery stores out of business.
Shri Sharma also said that India’s young population is an important asset. “By 2035, when the developed world will be saddled with ageing population, India, and not China, would be the country that would provide skilled manpower to the world” he added. Shri Sharma called upon the young students to cultivate a positive mindset and notice the developments that have taken place in India.
The Minister in his address also touched upon various global and domestic issues including the emergence of a multi-polar world, importance of preserving democratic tradition, protecting cultural unity of India and above all the importance of education in building a strong nation.
Noted industrialist Adi Godrej in his remarks called for early introduction of GST to rationalize tax regime and boost productivity.
More than 150 students of Sofia College for Women participated in the Minister’s Interactive Session, “Emerging India in a Globalized World: The Imperatives of Change”, organized by CII.
Responding to a student’s question about India’s poor ranking on the ‘ease of doing business’ parameter, Shri Sharma admitted that red tape continued to be a cause of concern, but added that sincere efforts were being made to create a conducive business environment. He said, his Ministry has recently launched the e-Biz portal, which allows potential entrepreneurs to complete most of the formalities online, like submitting forms, making payments, among others. They can also track the status of their requests through the portal. Shri Sharma said that two of the key organizations crucial for clearance of projects – Ministry of Environment & Forests and Central Board of Customs & Excise are yet to come on board, but expressed confidence that he would convince them to join in soon.
The Minister also said the National Manufacturing Policy seeks to address the menace of red tape by introducing accountability to ensure timely clearance of proposals. Shri Sharma said India’s current economic growth is not commensurate with its potential and the country has capacity to grow faster. He said that India is looking to create as many as 100 million skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector by raising its share of GDP to 25 per cent from 16 per cent. “We have to create jobs through industrialization and boosting manufacturing. The dedicated Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor and the Chennai-Bangalore – Mumbai industrial corridor will create specialized manufacturing centres, with single window service to expand our industrial base,” he added.
The Commerce & Industry Minister also defended the FDI in retail policy of the government, stating that its benefits can be reaped by farmers as well as small and medium enterprises. “If a retail chain sources its farm products from hinterland or creates cold storage facility, it will be the farmer in the villages who will benefit directly” he added. He reiterated that entry of organized retailer will not put the corner grocery stores out of business.
Shri Sharma also said that India’s young population is an important asset. “By 2035, when the developed world will be saddled with ageing population, India, and not China, would be the country that would provide skilled manpower to the world” he added. Shri Sharma called upon the young students to cultivate a positive mindset and notice the developments that have taken place in India.
The Minister in his address also touched upon various global and domestic issues including the emergence of a multi-polar world, importance of preserving democratic tradition, protecting cultural unity of India and above all the importance of education in building a strong nation.
Noted industrialist Adi Godrej in his remarks called for early introduction of GST to rationalize tax regime and boost productivity.
More than 150 students of Sofia College for Women participated in the Minister’s Interactive Session, “Emerging India in a Globalized World: The Imperatives of Change”, organized by CII.
India and Netherlands sign MoU, agree to enhance cooperation in renewable energy
New Delhi: The Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, today gave the green light to intensifying cooperation between India and the Netherlands on renewable energy. The Minister presided over a ceremony where the Dutch Ambassador Alphonsus Stoelinga and the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Satish Balram Agnihotri, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). Under this agreement, an Indo Dutch Joint Working Group will be set up and the exchange of technical and institutional knowledge on clean energy will be facilitated.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Abdullah welcomed the decision of both the governments to enhance their cooperation in the Renewable Energy sector and hoped that the signing of the Memorandum would be a just the beginning of a symbiotic and mutually beneficial wave of cooperation in the clean energy sector. The Dutch Ambassador emphasized that both their countries have similar ambitions and face similar challenges in realizing clean energy options in the respective countries. He hoped that the MoU would encourage cooperation not only at the official and governmental levels but also between leading Indian and Dutch private companies and research institutions. A number of private companies including DSM, Thermax India and PwC were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Abdullah also spoke about the energy situation in India and the rapid growth of the renewable energy sector in India. He spoke of India’s plans to add over 30 GW of renewable energy to its energy mix in the next 5 years. He dwelt on the success of the wind programme as well as the significant cost reductions in solar energy through the JawaharlalNehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). He also highlighted India’s conducive and investor friendly policy framework for promoting renewable energy in a big way. Dr. Abdullah suggested that India and Netherlands had great potential for enhancing cooperation in promoting renewable energy and offered to provide all possible assistance for the purpose.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Abdullah welcomed the decision of both the governments to enhance their cooperation in the Renewable Energy sector and hoped that the signing of the Memorandum would be a just the beginning of a symbiotic and mutually beneficial wave of cooperation in the clean energy sector. The Dutch Ambassador emphasized that both their countries have similar ambitions and face similar challenges in realizing clean energy options in the respective countries. He hoped that the MoU would encourage cooperation not only at the official and governmental levels but also between leading Indian and Dutch private companies and research institutions. A number of private companies including DSM, Thermax India and PwC were also present on the occasion.
Dr. Abdullah also spoke about the energy situation in India and the rapid growth of the renewable energy sector in India. He spoke of India’s plans to add over 30 GW of renewable energy to its energy mix in the next 5 years. He dwelt on the success of the wind programme as well as the significant cost reductions in solar energy through the JawaharlalNehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). He also highlighted India’s conducive and investor friendly policy framework for promoting renewable energy in a big way. Dr. Abdullah suggested that India and Netherlands had great potential for enhancing cooperation in promoting renewable energy and offered to provide all possible assistance for the purpose.
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