Innovations created in India are transferable to other countries, says Shukla
India can play a pivotal role in not only driving its full journey to net zero through its innovations and green energy such as hydrogen but also help other countries reach such targets and goals https://www.iea.org/ , according to experts at the inaugural Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) Clean Economy Investor Forum, held here June 5-6.
“We are very focused on taking Indian innovations globally as there is a huge potential while India has all the building blocks to be a global innovation hub of the world,” says Ruchira Shukla, co-founder and managing director of Synapses https://www.synapses.vc/ , a Delhi-based venture capital fund.
The India-created innovations by its IT talent are also transferable to other markets as the Climate Tech problems and issues are common across all countries, said Shukla, a former South Asian representative of the International Finance Corp (IFC) https://www.ifc.org/en/home .
Shukla, finance industry stalwart who heads a US$125 million fund focused on Science, Technology, Engineering innovations in Climate Tech and Health Tech, appreciated the strong support given by the Indian government across the innovation-technology spectrum and the green energy ecosystem http://sbi.co.in .
She sees India becoming a hardware and software supplier as well as R&D centre for the world just as it is now respected as a global leader in supplying software systems to international markets https://www.nseindia.com/ .
“We are working with six countries on technology transfer into and out of India,” Shukla disclosed, pointing to ongoing collaborations and work with institutions in Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Israel and the UK https://www.bseindia.com/ .
On the green energy front, a growing number of Indian companies are setting pilot projects for producing green hydrogen https://pnwh2.com/ .
“There are multiple companies setting up pilot projects to produce green hydrogen but work on a large-scale green hydrogen plant is yet to begin, according to Ashish Bokaria, or General Manager for Finance at the Mumbai-based Avaada Energy http://avaada.com .
Bokaria noted the growing potential of green energy exports, saying his company is setting up a green hydrogen pilot plant in Odisha while solar panel module manufacturing facilities http://isolaralliance.org in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. These are for the Indian market and exports, he added.
But according to Bokaria, the bigger debate is to replace grey hydrogen with green hydrogen which has to be on a large scale with all out efforts to bring down production costs.
“The cost has to be brought down for which we need government intervention in the form of some grant or subsidy or mandate to the user industry to have a certain amount of green hydrogen,” he elaborated.
Among other participants Ashok Alagarraj, Deputy Director for international business at SEA6 Energy http://sea6energy.com , gave an insight how his Bangalore-based company is making progress on Blue Ocean Economy to help India reduce dependency on fossil fuels and continue working on its net zero journey.
SEA6 is cultivating tropical red sea weeds which are converted as a carbon negative fuel for large scale application such as fertilizer in agriculture and yet to be commercialised products for food ingredients as well as bio-energy and bio-plastics.
SEA6 has started growing globally in the last four to five years, exporting its products to 25 countries.
The weeds are cultivated in India and Indonesia.
“As we drive down cost by scaling and mechanising, we will be able to create economically viable chemicals and biofuels,” he said.
Pointing out the global industry for such products is growing at a CAGR of 12%, he said SEA6 Bangalore team of 300+ is growing to cope with global demand for green energy.
Elsewhere, Jiten Apte, CEO and co-founder of igrenEnergi https://igrenenergi.com/ , underscored the need to keep exploring opportunities in international markets for green products such as his company’s battery intelligence and management systems which enhance the performance of EV batteries.
Apte explained that the igrenEnergi electronic system is placed in EV batteries for more range and safety out of a battery. “It monitors the battery performance.”
Apte established a first export order for the EV battery system. The company is working with Max Tech Battery of California from this year.
“In India, our big customer is Tata for placing the electronic device in EV batteries,” he said.
The manufacturing arrangement with Tata is not an exclusive license, keeping his option open for other EV battery manufacturers.
He estimates the global market potential of EV batteries at US$300 billion over the next five years, up from the current US$100 million. Fiinews.com
