Indian solar industry can attract $70-80 bn investment: Modi
New Delhi, Oct 2 : India wants to create a robust ecosystem for the manufacture of solar panels in the country to give a filip to the sector which can provide opportunities for investments worth $70-80 billion, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.
Inaugurating a joint assembly here of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Renewable Energy Ministerial and Global RE-Invest 2018, Modi said in the last four years, India has emerged as the most favourable destination for renewable energy investment and has attracted $22 billion of investment in the sector.
He said the government's target is to generate 40 per cent of India's total energy requirements in 2030 by non-fossil fuel based sources.
"Solar power generation costs in India have gone down hugely, while the country has become the most favourable destination for renewable energy. In the last 4 years, the sector has attracted investments worth $22 billion," he said.
"We want to set up a strong ecosystem for manufacture of solar panels in the country. This area has immense opportunity available, for investment worth $70-80 billion."
Elaborating on India's strides in clean energy development during the tenure of the NDA government, Modi said that 72 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy capacity had been added in this period, while solar capacity had gone up nine-fold from earlier.
"Power storage is equally important and a National Energy Storage Mission is being drawn up from the perspectives of demand creation, manufacture, innovation and augmenting storage capacity," the Prime Minister said.
He said that towards achieving the government's target of achieving 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022, it is planned to install 28 lakh solar pumps across the country in the next four years which would add capacity of 10 GW.
Giving the call of "One World, One Sun, One Grid", Modi said that the "ISA will assume tomorrow the role that the OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is playing today."
"We are moving to a future where oil wells will be replaced by the rays of the sun in meeting our energy needs," he said.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
