New Delhi: The union minister for science and technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan who led an Indian delegation to the Mission innovation Ministerial at San Francisco, has announced that India plans to double the investments in clean energy research to $145 million from the current $72 million. At the forum, various ministers from all Mission Innovation partner countries released their respective governments’ plans.
The minister also made formal announcement on new joint collaborations with Mission Innovation countries at the Mission Innovation (MI) Ministerial. The minister announced about expanding India’s collaboration with UK through setting up a Joint virtual Clean Energy Centre to address the challenges to intermitting solar energy and launching a new Research Track on Smart Energy Grids and Energy Storage under Indo-US PACE-R (Partnership to Advance Clean Energy- Research).
Dr Harsh Vardhan, also emphasized India’s commitment to pursue a green path to growth through research led innovations. India has launched a number of collaborative R&D efforts to pursue research in solar energy, energy efficiency, advanced biofuels, electrical transmission and storage with US, UK, Australia, Norway, South Korean and many other countries.
MI was announced on November 30, 2015 by the leaders of 20 countries that have a shared desire to accelerate global clean energy innovation during COP 21in Paris in the presence of Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi. The ‘Mission Innovation’ (MI) is an effort to accelerate public and private global clean energy innovation, expecting the participating countries doubling their respective clean energy research and development investment.
All the participating ministers also welcomed the European Commission on behalf of the European Union as the 21st partner.
India is a founding Member of the Steering Committee and also a Member of the two sub-groups: Joint research & Capacity Building and Private Sector Engagement. Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology is coordinating the national efforts towards Mission Innovation.
