Davos: In an exclusive interview with ET Now Swadesh at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Shri Pradip Kumar Das, the Chairman and Managing Director of IREDA, highlighted India’s clean energy framework as a global benchmark.
He noted that the robust ecosystem built over the last decade has positioned the country as a primary destination for international investors, driven by a compound annual growth rate of 22.5% in renewable capacity over the past five years.
Speaking on the theme of scaling solar energy, CMD IREDA Shri Das emphasized the transformative role of decentralized power, specifically through the Rooftop Solar and PM-KUSUM schemes.
He explained that as consumers transition into producers, the reliance on government subsidies and technical losses decreases, ultimately making electricity more affordable. IREDA supports this shift by financing between 70% and 80% of project costs in aggregator modes to accelerate clean energy access across rural India.
The CMD IREDA also addressed the financial health of the sector, pointing out that Navratna CPSU has maintained high asset quality despite the perceived risks of emerging technologies like green hydrogen and battery storage.
He cited the company’s exceptionally low cumulative write-off of only 149 crore over nearly four decades of operation as evidence of a mature risk-management framework. To meet the national goal of 500 gigawatts of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030, Das estimated a total funding requirement of approximately 350 billion US dollars by 2028.
Concluding his remarks, CMD IREDA Shri Das expressed confidence in India’s trajectory, noting that 80% of renewable energy developers in the country are now private entities. He characterized this shift as a historic transition toward a self-reliant and sustainable energy model that serves as a valuable case study for the Global South.