Russia-India economic relations and deals

NEW DELHI, December 11 (Sputnik) – Russia and India have agreed on the construction of at least 12 new nuclear energy blocks within the next 20 years to include two new blocks for the existing Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in India’s southern tip in 2016, Russia’s Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said Thursday.

"This morning a general framework agreement was signed on the construction and equipment delivery for the third and fourth blocks of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant at the present site. Cement foundations [for the new blocks] will be poured in the beginning of 2016," Kiriyenko said.
India and Russia also agreed on a long-term project to build at least 12 more energy blocks over the next two decades.

“Today we will sign a strategic document that foresees the construction of no less than 12 energy blocks over the next 20 years, or in other words this would be no less than two nuclear energy facilities,” Kiriyenko added.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual summit visit to India this year was a brief affair. Putin came looking for assurances that an India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have no truck with Western attempts to isolate Russia and will continue to be a “time tested and reliable” partner, especially at a time of economic difficulties for Russia.

These, he received. India has given the Russians both official as well symbolic reassurance that it does not support Western sanctions. In return, India has got its own set of guarantees at the highest level from the Russians for spares for existing Russian-origin military hardware, with Moscow agreeing to move more quickly on transferring technology for the equipment to Indian firms. Keen to retain its position in the Indian defense sector, Russia has also become the first major arms exporter to come on board with India’s military-aerospace industrial goals under the “Make in India” program, with an initiative to produce and even export Russian origin helicopters from Indian soil being announced during the visit itself. At a time when Russia needs India’s high-end human resources and its market size and India requires more high-value manufacturing elements, the long-standing trust between the two sides seems to be helpful.

While the joint vision document released during the visit explicitly notes that India and Russia oppose economic sanctions that do not have the approval of the United Nations Security Council, it was perhaps the fact that a business delegation led by the Crimean prime minister accompanied Putin on his visit that was more revealing of India’s stance on Ukraine. The Indian government is apparently encouraging Indian businesses to engage more deeply in Crimea, in a clear signal that it stands with Russia irrespective of American positions. In fact India is going even further than China is in making its support for Russia clear.

And that of course is by design, since India does not want Russia to step back from its traditional role of maintaining a power balance in Eurasia. Of course, India will need to offer more than just support on Crimea if it is to prevent Russia from becoming overly dependent on China at a time when Moscow needs to re-orient itself away from Western markets. It is here that Modi’s statement on Russia remaining India’s primary defense partner despite other options for his country becomes important. The Russian embassy in India has been rather voluble of late in denouncing India’s turn towards the United States and France as defense partners, while Russian spares support for existing programs had become rather uneven – leading to calls in India to scale back its military partnership with Russia. That moment has now passed.

Already a private company in India has snagged a contract for maintaining Mig-29s, and more such arrangements are being pushed forward. During talks, Modi is known to have conveyed to Putin the very crucial need to locate spares manufacturing facilities for Russian origin weapons in India. For its part, Russia seems at ease with the overall “Make in India” policy that Modi’s government is emphasizing. In light of India’s liberalized regime for “FDI in Defense,” Russia will tie up with an Indian partner to produce as well export up to 400 Mi-17 medium lift and Ka-226 light utility helicopters (LUH) in India each year. The Ka-226 incidentally was the Russian entry for the Indian military’s global LUH tenders, before that process was cancelled by the Modi government in favor of a home-made initiative where foreign majors could tie-up with Indian partners to build the helicopters in India.

Recognizing that India has adopted an automotive sector-type strategy to boost its aerospace industry at a time when China is spending heavily in this arena, Russia is also looking to locate MS-21 and Sukhoi Superjet 100 production facilities in India, taking advantage of the availability of cheaper but trained manpower locally. Russia has known for a while that it needs greenfield locations for its high-end industries outside its own territory, and India with its immense market size seems the best prospect. Going forward, the output from Russian industrial arrangements in India should also service the domestic market back in Russia, given the need to hold down costs at a time of tighter state budgets. Moreover, with the prospect of Western sanctions lingering for the foreseeable future, Russia may require export partners such as India to circumvent the sanctions. However, as with every such initiative in India, any Russian investment in the aerospace industry will be tied to localization clauses as well as support for India’s own civil airliner development program.

Although the visit did not bring any announcement on ambitious co-development programs, such as the fifth generation fighter aircraft project or the medium transport aircraft initiative, Modi’s statement on Russia’s status as the most important defense partner for India means that there will be new impetus in sorting out the workshare issues holding back a final agreement on these two initiatives. Of course, Russia will have to be far more amenable to Indian demands on technology development if these projects are to proceed, given the spends involved.

Continuing negotiations also meant that hydrocarbons did not become a centerpiece of the visit, in contrast to initial expectations. The visit did see an agreement signed between India’s Essar and Rosneft on the long-term supply of some 10 million tons of crude annually at a discount that will see the former drawing down imports from Iran. However, no agreement was reached on Indian state-owned ONGC purchasing a stake in Rosneft’s East Siberian oil and gas fields, including the prized Vankor estate, which will feed assured markets in China via the ESPO pipeline, since the Indians want a 25 percent stake while Rosneft is offering only 10 percent. The haggling may reflect the fact that Indian hydrocarbon majors want equity stakes in lucrative fields and tax breaks for existing assets in Russia where production has tapered off, while the Russians want India to make up-front off-take commitments for risky offshore fields in the Arctic as well as for LNG export projects. Putin even commented just prior to the visit that LNG is likely to prove cheaper than a gas pipeline from Russia to India, and this too is going to be explored. Given India and Russia’s needs in the current oil-to-gas transition, much bigger deals can be expected in the future, current negotiations notwithstanding.

In any case, delays on the hydrocarbon front are not getting in the way of building more Russian-origin nuclear reactors in India. Neither is India’s nuclear liability law, with the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) agreeing with Rosatom to build a further 12 reactors of Russian design in India by 2035 in addition to the two existing facilities at Kudankulam. To accommodate more Russian design reactors, another reactor site will be identified soon along India’s eastern coast. The first of this new wave of reactors will be Kudankulam units 3 & 4, with construction commencing in 2016. Again, the Russians will have to localize most of the components for the VVER-1200 reactors that will be built under these arrangements. The visit has also seen forward movement on settling a dispute between Indian Rare Earth’s Limited, a DAE undertaking, and Russia for recoveries from a titanium plant in India.

The minerals outlook does seem to be brightening, with Indian investment in Russian potash mines set to grow and Indian companies inking a 2.1 billion dollar pact to source diamonds directly from Russia’s world-leading diamond consortium Alrosa. The diamond industry in India is a significant employer and the world’s largest manufacturing center for cut and polished diamonds. It can now reduce its dependence on diamond trading centers in the West and Dubai. Interestingly, this move is similar to the Chinese decision to locate production facilities in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, the center for India’s diamond industry, since it directly increases the power of a business constituency entrenched in Modi’s region of origin. Clearly, Modi looms large as a personality to be courted now in the Indian political spectrum by major foreign countries.

With both sides looking to grow trade in strategic sectors and minerals, the working group on India’s participation in the Eurasian customs union now looks more significant. More so because Russia’s food security in the future will also depend on cheap Indian exports of processed dairy and meat products as well as commodities such as rice, given that Moscow has embargoed Western suppliers. At the same time, Russia is instituting “import substitution” policies at home and free trade arrangements with India will allow two-way trade to grow regardless. In fact, it would also be a source of encouragement for Indian industries to use Russia’s own water resources to produce certain categories of goods.

To do that, Indian and Russian business will have to talk more efficiently and directly with each other. There is solid ground for that now, with Russia rather keen to enter the Indian market with a view to finding innovative partners that can overcome traditional weaknesses in bringing inventions to market. The vision document calls for the creation of a “direct investment fund of $2 billion between Rosnano and suitable Indian investment partners for implementation of high-tech projects.” Besides this, the Skolkovo foundation is now scouring India for startups in the high-tech spectrum to fund as an angel investor. Russia and India will also ease visa rules for businesses and students to facilitate the movement of financial and human capital. Overall, given the urgent need to boost trade (which languishes at a mere $10 billion) and private investment, both sides are moving forward on rupee-ruble trade with their central banks working out the modalities and export-import banks discussing new credit guarantees that would facilitate loans in local currencies for Indian and Russian companies seeking to participate in each other’s economies. This is of course in sync with BRICS efforts to trade in bilateral currencies in a bid to reduce the influence of the dollar. Of course, it will ultimately also depend on how quickly bilateral economic activity grows between the two sides.

In the multilateral sphere, India wants the 2015 Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Ufa to be the moment it finally becomes a member of that organization. With China having supported India’s membership and Russia presiding over SCO at the moment, this will be a key test of India-Russia ties. No wonder Putin’s special representative remarked recently that Moscow will do whatever it can to secure India’s membership.

Just as India does not want to push Russia into China’s grip, Russia doesn’t want to see China become too dominant. With this in mind, Russia’s partnership with India in strategic deterrence programs will grow in strength, already evident in their nuclear agreement and the fact that Russia has made available military GLONASS signals to India for ballistic missile targeting.

Follow Saurav Jha on twitter @SJha1618.

The economic burden of Western sanctions has pushed Russia to the east in search of business opportunities. Judging by the outcome of President Putin’s visit to India - 20 high-profile deals struck – Moscow’s ‘pivot to Asia’ is getting a warm welcome.

Russian President Vladimir Putin achieved this during his visit to India spanning 23 hours and 15 minutes and at a summit meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that lasted barely a few hours.

By the time the two leaders finished their business in New Delhi’s Hyderabad House, 20 pacts were signed in the presence of Putin and Modi on 11 December and the two sides ended with US$100 billion commercial contracts.

Rich pickings by both sides included deals worth $40 billion in nuclear energy, $50 billion in crude oil and gas and $10 billion in a host of other sectors, including defense, fertilizers, space, and diamonds.

All these deals are long-term in nature. For example, India and Russia agreed that Russia would be constructing 12 new nuclear reactors for India and India would soon be identifying a second site to host these plants, apart from Kudankulam in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Each of the new nuclear reactors will cost $3 billion apiece, triple the amount India spent on the two Kudankulam plant units which each cost just a billion dollars. The sharp hike in the costs is because of tough nuclear liability laws that the Indian parliament enacted four years ago.


No foreign power has invested even a single dollar since the new Indian nuclear liability laws came into force. However with Russia wading into the vast Indian nuclear market despite its liability laws means that nations like the US, the UK, France and Canada will be in line.

Indians will have to thank the Russians for that. But then Russia too has got the advantage of being the early mover in this regard.

The $40 billion expenditure for construction of 12 new nuclear plants in India will be spaced out over two decades.

Even then this is big money, and more so for Russia at this point of time when Russia is hemmed in by the West and isolated because of sanctions enforced by the West against Russia. An Asian country like Japan, the world’s third biggest economy, too has joined the West in implementing sanctions on Russia.

The Western sanctions left little room for Russia and practically forced it to divert its direction of trade and business to Asia which offers far bigger and untapped markets.

The two sides have also decided to revive their good old defense partnership, albeit in a new avatar. Not too long ago Russia used to command an over 80 per cent share of India’s defense arsenal. Today it has fallen to just about 60 per cent. The US has already taken over as India’s number one defense supplier, nudging Russia to the second position.

The new Indo-Russian initiative involves Russia producing state-of-the-art multi-role helicopters in Indian factories to cut down on costs and time overruns. This deal, for which the two principals gave their approval on Thursday, will be worth $3 billion once formally signed.

This will be the first major defense project under Prime Minister Modi’s pet scheme ‘Make-in-India’. What sweetens the deal further for India is that India will be at liberty to export these helicopters to third countries. The Indian Prime Minister assured that his government will follow up on the helicopter project quickly.

Austin wrote:The largest defence for US was for specific year. Russia still is top most.

US no JV yet but POTUS is visiting India in Jan lets see what comes up.

No FGFA and MTA deal yet we got to wait and see.

The Crimean administration has been conducting negotiations with the Indian investors on the construction of a pharmaceutical plant in Crimea, Head of the Crimean administration Sergey Aksyonov told a news conference on Tuesday which summed up the results achieved in the outgoing year.

"We have reached an agreement with the Indian side that we will jointly build a pharmaceutical plant. After a memorandum on the project was signed a delegation from India decided to visit Crimea," Aksyonov said. "We insist that we should produce medicines ourselves, rather than import them from elsewhere," he said.

A preliminary agreement on the construction of a pharmaceutical plant in Crimea was reached during a recent visit of a Crimean delegation to India. "The negotiations will be continued during a visit of the Indian delegation to Crimea due soon," Aksyonov said.

"A Memorandum of understanding with the organization of Indian-Crimean Partnership was signed during a recent visit by the head of the Crimean administration to India; during the visit an agreement was reached that a group of Indian businessmen and journalists would visit Crimea in the near future," Russia's presidential envoy to Crimea Georgy Mamedov told TASS earlier. "Crimea as a member of the Russian Federation has been looking for partners for the realization of investment projects on its territory, exchange of opinions and creation of a convenient business environment," the presidential envoy said then.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin was in New Delhi in the second week of December to participate in the India-Russia summit. The summit, held alternatively in the Indian and Russian capitals, has become an annual event since 2000. President Putin and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee signed the historic Declaration on Strategic Partnership that year. Though Putin was in the Indian capital for only a day, the 2014 summit has yielded a raft of substantive agreements. The Russian Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, said Russia-India summits need not be preceded by protocol or long discussions as their friendship was tried and tested. He particularly welcomed India’s support for “multipolarity” in international affairs.

The summit was held against the background of rising tensions between Moscow and Washington over Ukraine and the imposition of tough sanctions on Russia by the United States and some of its Western allies. At the G20 summit in November, there was an orchestrated attempt by the West to isolate Russia. Some European leaders talked openly about the possibility of a new war with Russia. After the events in Ukraine, a new nuclear arms race seems to be on the verge of being started. Both Russia and the U.S. have increased their testing of new missiles.

In view of the open hostility exhibited by the West, Moscow has pivoted its attention to the East. In recent months, Russia has signed huge energy deals with countries such as China and Turkey. The energy deals worth around $800 billion with China will see 30 billion cubic metres of Russian gas being sold annually to that country.

During a visit to Turkey in the first week of December, Putin announced the cancellation of the “South Stream” gas pipeline project that would have supplied Russian gas to southern Europe. Instead, Russia has signed a groundbreaking deal with Turkey under which Russian gas will now be routed through Turkey to the European and Asian markets, sidestepping the European Union (E.U.). Important E.U. nations such as Germany and Italy are dependent on gas from Russia to keep their economies ticking.

“We will reroute the flow of our energy resources to other regions in the world, including through the promotion and accelerated implementation of projects for liquefied natural gas,” Putin said in a recent speech to the Russian Parliament. Turkey, like India, has rejected American and European sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine issue.

Energy sales by Russia to China and Turkey will be much below the current market prices. Southern Europe, on the other hand, will have to pay 30 per cent more to source its gas from other sources after the surprise announcement of the cancellation of the South Stream project. Turkey’s coming on board also means that the Turkish government has now started looking East for political and economic succour. Turkey is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and has been waiting in line for decades to become a full-fledged E.U. member.

‘Reliable partner’

Putin, from all available indications, seems to have got an assurance from the new Indian government that it will not side with the West on the Ukraine issue and its policy of imposing unilateral sanctions on countries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the Russian President in New Delhi that India would continue to be a “time tested and reliable partner” of Russia. He recalled the “steadfast support of the Russian people” during the “difficult moments” of the country’s history. He reiterated India’s commitment to stand by Russia “through its own challenges”.

The joint vision document released during the Putin visit stated that both countries did not recognise the unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Russia by some countries without the approval of the United Nations. New Delhi did not object to the presence of the Crimean Prime Minister, Sergey Aksyonov, in the Russian President’s delegation. Putin has thanked the Indian government for supporting Russia’s “legitimate” claim to the Crimean peninsula.

Defence deals

To further gladden Russian hearts, Modi pledged that Russia would continue to remain the country’s most important defence partner even if “India’s options have increased”. Russia was not too happy with the huge defence orders India had placed in recent years with the U.S., France and Israel. Russian officials feel that they were not given a level playing field. America is fast closing the gap with Russia in the supply of military hardware to India. Israel and France also bagged big defence deals during the 10-year rule of the United Progressive Alliance.

Michael Kugelman, who specialises on South Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in the U.S., told The Washington Post that Modi was expected to indulge in “pro-Russian rhetoric” during the Putin visit. He, however, predicted that with President Barack Obama’s visit to New Delhi due in January, the rhetoric “will give him cover to quietly intensify relations with Washington”.

Speaking to the media just ahead of Putin’s visit, the Russian Ambassador said that Russia was the first country to implement a “make in India” policy in the field of defence production. He said that today even the SU-30s, the backbone of the Indian Air Force, were “made in India”. The Russian side has agreed to produce Mi-17 medium lift and Ka-226 light utility helicopters in India in partnership with an Indian firm.

Russia has indicated that it would like to locate other aerospace projects too in India. Russia has offered to produce civilian passenger planes. The two sides have agreed to move ahead on the long-delayed projects to jointly develop a fifth-generation fighter jet and a multi-role transport aircraft. Russian officials said that India’s “Act East” policy would open newer vistas for cooperation between the two countries. Russia considers itself a Eurasian country. Much of its land mass is in Asia.

Before Putin’s visit, the Indian side had signalled its displeasure on the Russian government’s willingness to sell military hardware to Pakistan. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was in Islamabad in November. This was the first-ever visit by a Russian Defence Minister to the country to sign a military cooperation agreement. The Russian Ambassador to India has claimed that no firm deal has been struck with Pakistan for the sale of military helicopters.

Until recently, Russia, in deference to the wishes of its close strategic ally India, had abstained from selling arms to Pakistan. But with India sidelining Russia and going in for multibillion dollar deals with the West and Israel, there evidently has been a rethink in Moscow. The U.S. is the biggest supplier of military aid and weaponry to Pakistan, but New Delhi has no problems doing military deals with Washington. “What is wrong in selling helicopters to Pakistan which India does not want to buy?” Kadakin said. He was speaking a day before the arrival of the Russian President. The Russian Ambassador said that his country would never do anything “detrimental” to the security interests of India. “Improving relations with Pakistan is a separate issue,” he said.

Russia evidently feels that Pakistan will be playing a key role in Afghanistan in the coming years. “We have a stake in Afghanistan,” Kadakin said, indirectly emphasising the role Pakistan was likely to play in the fast-changing political and military scenario in Afghanistan. The joint statement released in Islamabad during the Russian Defence Minister’s visit stated that it had “come at a very crucial juncture when U.S.-NATO forces are drawing down from Afghanistan by the end of 2014”. The statement said that apart from “promoting bilateral defence relations, the visit will enable both countries to join hands and bring peace and stability to the region”.

From the Indian point of view, the most important takeaway from the Putin visit was the announcement that Russia would be constructing an additional 12 new nuclear reactors in the country by 2035. Russia will start by building two more nuclear reactors in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, by 2016. This is in addition to the two reactors that are expected to go on stream very soon.

The Russian side, in fact, was ready to build up to 24 nuclear reactors in India, but the Indian side wants to keep the lucrative contracts for nuclear reactors to be shared by some of its other “strategic partners” like the U.S., France and Japan. But unlike these three countries, Russia has not made much of a fuss about India’s “nuclear liability law” though the Russians too would like the law to be either scrapped or diluted. The Bharatiya Janata Party government seems to have sent some strong signals to nuclear-supplier countries that such a move is in the offing.

Another key agreement inked during Putin’s visit was the $2.1 billion deal to directly source raw diamonds from Russia. India is the biggest manufacturer of cut and polished diamonds. Gujarat is the centre of India’s diamond industry and the businessmen in the State will be the major gainers from the deal.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his visit to India, also chose Gujarat for favourable treatment. Many Chinese industries have announced that they would set up shop in the Prime Minister’s home State. India currently sources most of the diamonds from Dubai and the West.

There were no hydrocarbon deals on the scale which Russia has signed with China and Turkey during Putin’s visit. Geographical distance is, of course, a factor, though the Russians are looking at the feasibility of extending one of their gas pipelines in China to India. Before his India visit, Putin had observed that shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia would be cheaper than constructing a pipeline to carry gas to India.

A more modest agreement between India’s Essar and Russia’s Rosneft was signed for the long-term supply of 10 million tonnes of crude oil at a concessional rate. Negotiations are on for oil and gas exploration projects by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the Arctic region and East Siberia. More than 60 per cent of India’s oil imports are sourced from West Asia. The quantity imported from Russia is less than 1 per cent. There is a need for India to diversify its sources as the demand for energy rises domestically.

Both sides agreed on the urgency to boost bilateral trade, which languishes at a paltry $10 billion annually. To boost trade and investment, the Russian side has liberalised visa rules for Indian businessmen and professionals. To facilitate investment growth, the two countries are working out modalities for rupee-rouble trade. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries have agreed in principle to bypass the U.S. dollar and trade mainly in their own currencies.

The next important visitor to New Delhi will be the U.S. President. The Indian Prime Minister’s rhetoric will be under intense scrutiny as he tries a diplomatic balancing act between Washington and Moscow. India may be having a “special and privileged partnership” with Russia, but it also has a “broad strategic and global partnership” with the U.S. The U.S. is also “a principal partner in the realisation of India’s rise”.

“Representatives from Rosneft have met the Indian government officials. They want to set up a capacity ranging between 10,000MW (megawatts) to 20,000MW,” said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity. At an investment of around Rs.6 crore per MW, a 10,000MW capacity will entail an investment of around Rs.60,000 crore.

Russian energy companies are looking at new investment avenues in the aftermath of the collapse of international crude prices and also to work around the economic sanctions imposed on the country by the US and the European Union. At the same time, India is seeking to expand its energy mix by encouraging more investment in green power.

Rosneft’s interest also stems from India’s plans to install 100,000MW of solar power capacity by 2022. India needs as much as $200 billion to meet its target and the government aims to provide green power at less than Rs.4.50 a unit.

This initiative comes in the backdrop of news that the Essar Group plans to sell as much as 49% of Essar Oil Ltd to Russia’s OAO Rosneft, in which the largest shareholder (with a 69.5% stake) is the Russian government.

Rosneft’s businesses include hydrocarbon exploration and production, upstream offshore projects, refining, and crude oil, gas and product marketing in Russia and abroad.India on its part has been trying to secure energy resources in Russia by leveraging its historical association with the country. Indian investments in Russia, mainly in the hydrocarbon sector, total around $4.25 billion.

Queries emailed to a Rosneft spokesperson remained unanswered till press time; an Essar Group spokesperson said in an email that the group is “not privy to any such plans of Rosneft”.

Rosneft’s move also reflects happenings in the oil and gas market, a former bureaucrat said.

“A petrogas giant coming to India in the renewable energy sector could well point to a certain nervousness in the petroleum sector in respect of price stability. Investment in India at this point of time also indicates that other international markets are not very attractive investment destinations,” said Anil Razdan, India’s former power secretary.

Crude oil prices in the Indian energy basket averaged at $61.75 per barrel in June, as against $84.16, $105.52, $107.97 and $111.89 in 2014-15, 2013-14, 2012-13 and 2011-12, respectively.

Razdan also warned about the poor finance health of India’s state electricity boards that buy power from generators and which could derail any investment in green power generation.

“For sustaining this kind of investment in the renewable energy sector, the Indian power sector will have to ensure that the distress in the distribution segment is eliminated at the earliest,” he said.

State electricity boards are laden with debt of Rs.3.04 trillion and losses of Rs.2.52 trillion.

There has been a growing interest from overseas investors in the Indian renewable energy space. SoftBank Corp., along with Bharti Enterprises Ltd and Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology, in June proposed to invest at least $20 billion in solar energy projects in India through a joint venture, SBG Cleantech Ltd. US-based First Solar Inc. and China’s Trina Solar are among firms that are considering plans to set up manufacturing facilities in India.

US-based SunEdison Inc. had also said it plans to establish a joint venture with Adani Enterprises Ltd to build a solar photovoltaic manufacturing facility in India with an investment of around $4 billion.

The Narendra Modi-led government has pushed renewable energy to the top of its energy security agenda, seeking to minimize India’s dependence on coal-fuelled electricity. Renewable energy accounts for only 35,777MW of India’s total power generation capacity of 272,503MW.