Post Budget 2023: PM Modi outlines three pillars of India's ‘green growth’ initiative

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (File image)

The Union Budget 2023 will establish India as a leading player in the global green energy market, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on February 23 during a post-Budget webinar on green growth hosted by the power ministry.

Modi announced the outline of the “green growth” initiative that was announced by Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech on February 1. “We have formulated three pillars for green growth. First, increasing the production of renewable energy; second, reducing the use of fossil fuel in the economy; and finally, rapidly moving towards a gas-based economy in the country. This strategy has underlined the announcements of measures like ethanol blending, PM KUSUM Yojana, incentives for solar manufacturing, rooftop solar scheme, coal gasification and battery storage in the Budgets of the past few years,” the Prime Minister said.

Underlining the significant announcements in previous years’ Budgets, the Prime Minister highlighted schemes such as green credit for industries, PM Pranam Yojna for farmers, Gobardhan Yojna for villages, vehicle scrapping policy for cities and green hydrogen and wetland conservation in the next fiscal’s Budget. “These announcements lay the foundation stone and pave the way for future generations,” he said.

The Prime Minister said India’s commanding position in the renewable energy space will ensure a commensurate change in the world. “This Budget will play a key role in establishing India as a leading player in the global green energy market. That is why, today, I invite every stakeholder of the energy world to invest in India”, he said.

Referring to the global efforts for diversification of the energy supply chain, Modi said this Budget has given a great opportunity to every green energy investor to invest in India, which will also be very useful for the start-ups in the sector.

Green targets

“India has been the fastest when it comes to renewable energy capacity addition among major economies since 2014. India’s track record shows its capability to achieve the objectives before the time when it comes to renewable energy resources,” he said. The Prime Minister reminded that India achieved the target of 40 percent contribution from non-fossil fuels in the installed electricity capacity nine years ahead of the target. He also mentioned that India achieved the target of 10 percent ethanol blending in petrol five months before time and emphasised that the nation strives to achieve 20 percent ethanol blending in petrol by 2025-26 instead of 2030.

“The potential of solar, wind and biogas in India is no less than any gold mine or oil field for our private sector… India is moving with a target of production of five million metric tonne (MMT) of green hydrogen every year. An allocation of Rs 19,000 crore has been made to incentivise the private sector in this field. The opportunities in electrolyser manufacturing, green steel manufacturing and long-haul fuel cells are immense,” the PM said.

He said India has to increase its battery storage capacity to 125-gigawatt hours in the next 6-7 years. To move toward this target, the government has come out with a viability gap funding scheme in the 2023 Budget to support battery developers in this capital-intensive sector.

Power ministry webinar

The webinar held by the Union Ministry of Power will have six breakout sessions covering both energy and non-energy components of green growth. Besides ministers and secretaries of concerned central government ministries, a host of stakeholders drawn from state governments, industry, academia, research institutions and the public sector would attend these webinars and contribute through suggestions for better implementation of budgetary announcements.

Green growth is one of the seven top priorities of the Union Budget 2023-24 for ushering green industrial and economic transition, environmentally friendly agriculture and sustainable energy in the country. It will also generate a large number of green jobs, as per the government. The Union Budget has envisaged several projects and initiatives spread across various sectors and ministries. Some of these include Green Hydrogen Mission, energy transition, energy storage projects, renewable energy evacuation, green credit program, PM-Pranam, Gobardhan scheme, Bhartiya Prakritik Kheti Bio-Input Resource Centres, MISHTI, Amrit Dharohar, coastal shipping and vehicle replacement.