IREDA Plans Office in Gujarat’s GIFT City for Foreign Currency Funding of Renewables

The Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) is planning to establish an office in Gujarat’s GIFT City to finance renewable energy projects in foreign currency. The office at GIFT City, Gandhinagar, will be classified as an overseas office, allowing the IREDA to avoid foreign exchange hedging cost.

Pradip Kumar Das, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), IREDA, informed this while speaking in a panel discussion on ‘Scaling up Clean Energy Investment in Emerging Economies’ under the aegis of G20 events at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

The Union MNRE Ministry informed that IREDA CMD stressed the significance of the Green Taxonomy to raise approximately Rs. 25 lakh crores fund for green energy projects by 2030. He suggested that Insurance and Superannuation funds can be mandated to invest 2% of their assets under management in Green Bonds to finance green energy projects.

Speaking of the phenomenal growth of IREDA over the past three years, Das remarked that the organisation has concentrated on providing handholding approach to our stakeholders with every possible support in compliance with best Corporate Governance Standards. As a result of IREDA’s proactive approach of proper review and monitoring, the company has been able to lower its Net NPAs from 7.18% to 2.03% during the past three years.

He emphasized that IREDA has been working to ensure highest standards of Corporate Governance by implementing the 3Cs principles of Conviction, Commitment, and Clarity. He also called IREDA a trend-setter that introduced unique financial products as per market requirements.

Das also highlighted that all the major multilateral and bilateral agencies such as World Bank, KfW, JICA and ADB, etc. preferred to channel their funds through IREDA for RE projects, demonstrating that IREDA is the top choice for RE funding. He requested these agencies to review their appraisal process in order to speed up financial support by reducing processing time and other bottlenecks.

Dinesh Jagdale, Joint Secretary, MNRE and Tim Gould, Chief Energy Economist of IEA and other senior officials from ADB, NTPC, SECI and CEEW also participated in the panel discussion.