India Surpasses China in Clean Tech Funding Amid Green Push

In recent months, India has surpassed China as a source of clean technology funding as part of initiatives to increase local green manufacturing. According to Raj Pai, founding partner of GEF Capital Partners, a climate-focused private equity fund, the initiative is being propelled by India's efforts to develop domestic renewable energy capacity in order to reduce dependency on China, as well as the potential for exporting the technologies.

This year, more than a dozen companies involved in renewable energy and electric vehicles went public, such as Ola Electric Mobility Ltd., which makes scooters, and Waaree Energies Ltd., which makes solar panels. Since trading started last month, shares of clean power company NTPC Green Energy Ltd. have increased by more than 30%.

"The most popular topic for venture capital in India at the moment is climate," stated Abhinav Sinha, head of technology and telecoms at British International Investment Plc, the development-finance arm of the UK government. With more investments in India than any other nation, BII has pledged to invest at least $1 billion in climate-related projects by 2026.

Eversource Capital CEO Dhanpal Jhaveri stated, "We are not even in a pond, we are in a puddle where we need an ocean of capital." Eversource Capital closed India's largest climate impact fund in 2022 and is now spending over $125 million in energy demand services.