India decided to be independent from China!
The Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on Friday said India needs to end its dependence on imports of all equipment, including solar panels.
Inaugurating the 750 megawatt (MW) solar project at Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Modi said India won’t be able to fully use its solar power potential if the country doesn’t develop better solar panels, batteries and storage manufacturing capacity.
So far, the demand for solar components is largely met through imports from China that are cheaper than those produced in India or imported from other countries. India imported $2.16 billion worth of solar photovoltaic cells, panels, and modules in 2018-19.
India is accelerating plans to cut its reliance on China for power equipment amid simmering border tensions that had escalated to a deadly clash last month, claiming the lives of 20 Indian soldiers. Modi also expects the move to create more jobs as India recovers from the covid-related lockdown.
Modi said several steps are being taken to increase domestic manufacturing, and it has been decided that government’s departments and institutions will only buy locally manufactured solar cells and modules.
As part of the plan to cut imports from China, the government is planning to enforce a list of approved manufacturers for government-supported schemes in the clean energy sector, including projects from where electricity distribution companies procure electricity for supply to their consumers, and wants states to follow suit.
The surge in imports led the Modi administration in its previous term to impose a safeguard duty from 30 July 2018 on solar cells and modules imported from China and Malaysia that ended in July. Post that, a basic customs duty (BCD) on all imported solar cells, modules and inverters was imposed to discourage cheap imports from China flooding the market.
India plans to impose more tariff and non-tariff barriers to check imports from China as part of its economic strategy amid tensions along the India-China border.
Modi said that for an Atma Nirbhar Bharat, self-reliance on electricity is very important.
India is evolving a strategy of not using Chinese equipment and technology in the power sector, and subsidizing finance for promoting local power equipment usage and ent usage and prior-permission requirements for imports from countries with which it has a conflict. The plan also involves procuring equipment and material locally and increase domestic capacity. India is among the top five countries in terms of solar power generation, Modi said and added that solar power is “sure, pure and secure”. India has become one of the top renewable energy producers globally, with an ambitious capacity expansion plan to achieve 175GW by 2022 and 500GW by 2030, as part of its climate commitments. More about this story in livemint.com.
new-economy.gr