In a special session organised by KPMG in India and CNBC-TV18 called “Aspiring to Ascend”, moderated by Gautam Srinivasan, a panel of experts comprising Nitin Bakshi – Head Supply Chain operations for international region comprising of India, Middle East and Africa, South America and Pacific, Schneider Electric; Sujoy Ghosh, CEO, First Solar India and Abhishek Jain, Partner and National Head - Indirect Tax, KPMG in India; decoded this for us.
India's transformation in the past few years has been striving to achieve the transformational objectives for 2047. According to you, what should be the key enablers when we look at the opportunity? A clean energy transition opportunity could cost India around $300 to $400 billion when you look at low carbon footprint manufacturing, which is also a key driver.
Bakshi: To achieve India's vision of 2047, we have to really look for urbanisation. In the last few years, we have developed an urbanisation standard, but we should have 50% urbanisation in the country and primarily towards economic growth.
It should have a basic infrastructure available, which means good housing quality available to the people, reliable power, and that's what energy transition is all about. Good connectivity of the people, connectivity of the goods products, and also, at the same time, the data, is super important right now.
It would be more about technology, social, economic, and environmental transitions, which is super important to envisage India's vision of 2047, which, to me, is urbanisation.
What are the key transformation enablers for India to achieve its goal when it comes to the 2047 target?
Ghosh: From an enabling standpoint, demand should be for long-term visibility for solar and wind. All of the technologies that come into the clean energy space. There are underlying policies and regulations given that we, as a sector, are pretty highly regulated. Let's say 2020-2021 onwards, when India first connected its energy decarbonisation efforts to Industrial manufacturing policy for the first time.
I think we will wait, and what we will see happening in the next four to five years is the building of the local supply chain for, you know, solar and wind and green hydrogen - the three pillars of the underway decarbonisation initiatives.
It's that value chain that is going to be key in terms of the resilience that India would like to present itself when it comes to that manufacturing story.
Jain: India's current stand is very clear. It is to “Make in India” and also, “Make for the world.” Currently, I think there some key enablers that should work in India to achieve this objective. Pillar number one are all the fiscal incentives, which are the production-linked incentive schemes rolled out by the government for specific sectors, the incentives offered by the state governments under the state industrial policy, and the lower income tax rate for manufacturing setups.
Pillar number two is the regulatory changes and licensing requirement for certain product categories to be imported into India, also quality standards that India wants for certain categories of imports and higher import tariffs. This basically aims at reduction of imports.
Pillar number three is the need for skilled workforce and infrastructure development for having a good manufacturing base.
Pillar number four refers to automatic tailwind which relates to supply chain diversification. These four pillars will help India to have a faster manufacturing growth.
The experts went on to discuss the 2047 vision further. To watch the full episode, click below:
First Published: Oct 31, 2023 3:23 PM IST
