India, US planning strong supply chain for clean energy: Union minister Piyush Goyal
Piyush Goyal said American investors and officials are more confident about India as an investment destination.
India and the US plan to establish a robust supply chain for a clean energy ecosystem, commerce minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday, adding that the economic relations between the two nations are set to achieve new heights in the coming years irrespective of the outcome of the American presidential election.
“The Modi government has worked cordially with all the three regimes – the Obama administration, the Trump administration and the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration. Hence, the bilateral economic relations are bound to grow further and faster,” Goyal said after interacting with American officials and business honchos during his recent US visit.
He said India and the United States have agreed to secure a strong supply chain of critical minerals by leveraging each other’s strengths and may jointly explore a third country for the same. “This will be operationalised by the ministry of mines,” he said.
Goyal embarked on a four-day visit to the US on September 30. This particular decision was taken during the 6th ministerial level meeting in Washington DC on October 3 where commerce secretary Gina Raimondo represented the US.
The decision was also based on the recommendations of CEOs, he said. “They said the US and India need to work together for critical mineral supplies across the value chain, not only for technologies, for extraction, but also for processing, for product development, and for prospecting. Exploration of critical measures in both their geographies and even in third countries,” he said.
Before the ministerial level meeting, Goyal held one-on-one interactions with top investors such as Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, KKR co-founder & co-executive chairman Henry R Kravis and Warburg Pincus president Timothy F Geithner in New York. He also addressed the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISP Forum) besides chairing a roundtable discussion with young CEOs and entrepreneurs of Indian origin in New York.
According to an official accompanying Goyal on his US visit, the two countries are “planning big in the clean energy domain where India will contribute in producing and exporting green hydrogen and green ammonia”; besides, it could set up “modular nuclear plants” with safer fusion technology. The official did not wish to be named.
Goyal said American investors and officials are more confident about India as an investment destination. Sharing his experience about Indian democracy, he said: “They were amazed that any government in today’s age can come back for a third term. This was told to me, I think, in every meeting.”
The minister said American investors are also keen on India’s pharmaceutical, defence and telecom sectors besides having interests in the country’s fast expanding digital public infrastructure (DPI). “Another area that was huge in our discussion was clean energy, green ammonia, clean hydrogen… that whole ecosystem. After having achieved 200 gigawatt (GW) of clean energy, the respect for India has suddenly changed. Now, they don’t feel doubtful about a 500 gigawatt target,” he said.
India’s total renewable energy capacity crossed the 200GW mark on October 10 to 201.45GW, accounting for 46.3% of the country’s total installed capacity, according to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data. The government has set an ambitious target of achieving 500GW of installed electric capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030.