Renu Kohli: India Must Shift to Investment-Led Growth for 2047 Goal

She emphasised that a mega push in investments, particularly in green energy and resilient infrastructure, is critical for sustaining competitiveness amid the global decarbonization push.

Kohli noted that despite the US exiting several climate frameworks, global investments in renewables, electric vehicles and battery storage have not slowed. "That's very heartening and that's very important for India as well to take note of," she said. "The rest of the world is decarbonising and hasn't retreated, so India stands to lose competitiveness if it doesn't decarbonise or it doesn't invest and move forward on its climate agenda."

She pointed out that India's investment rate has remained subdued for nearly a decade since 2011. "The previous strong investment rates that we saw before 2011 haven't really been seen again and we want to regenerate that," she said.

Kohli argued that green energy investments, along with those in steel, cement and agriculture, are capital-intensive and can help raise the overall investment rate. "It's very useful to have both from the point of view of competitive efficiency of investment and the quantum of investment."

Highlighting the role of the private sector, Kohli said India's renewable capacity push has been largely driven by private capital, marking a shift from the earlier public sector dominance in power generation. She noted that renewable capacity crossed 50% by the end of last year, aided by technology reaching a "tipping point where it becomes viable at scale and therefore the returns become very visible."

A similar shift, she said, is likely in electric two-wheelers and could soon extend to the economy segment of electric cars. "The moment that is reached, we can be assured that the shift from ICE to EVs will happen on its own."

For harder-to-abate sectors like steel, where blast furnace technology still accounts for 84% of production, Kohli said government intervention is essential. She suggested public capex be reoriented toward green and resilient infrastructure, including grid expansion to accommodate rising renewable generation and future EV demand. "The electricity demand is rising, and it can rise exponentially once the transportation shift to EVs happens," she said.

Kohli also called for the government to defray electricity costs to protect household consumption and to use sovereign guarantees and partial risk insurance to de-risk investments in emerging technologies. She identified concessional finance through MDBs and blended finance as additional tools to crowd in private capital.

On the policy front, she said India has so far adopted a mix of subsidy-driven and demand-driven models. "There are a lot of non-price mechanisms that effectively push up costs and make it more expensive, or they deter fossil fuel use," she said, adding that technology facilitation and IP support remain key roles for the government.

- ANI