India, ISA sign Host Country Agreement

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : The International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), signed the Host Country Agreement here on March 26, 2018. The Agreement will give ISA a juridical personality and gives it power to contract, to acquire and dispose off movable and immovable properties, to institute and defend legal proceedings.

Under this agreement, ISA shall enjoy such privileges, applicable tax concessions and immunities as are necessary for ISA’s Headquarters to independently discharge its function and programmes. ISA shall be deriving its status, privileges and immunities as per Article 10 of Framework Agreement.

The agreement was signed by General (Dr) V K Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs, and Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General, ISA, in the presence of R K Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy.

Congratulating the signatories, R K Singh said that ISA has potential to change developmental paradigm in the world. He said that energy will now be available to less developed tropical countries at affordable rates and in an easily deployable manner. The Minister also mentioned that many countries have shown interest to learn from India’s experience in renewable energy.

General (Dr) V K Singh also congratulated ISA and stated that ISA has an onerous task at hand to mobilise over US $ 1000 billion of investment into the Solar Sector and deploying over 1000 GW of Solar capacity. He also stated that ISA needs to firm up financial partnership deals with more multilateral and bilateral donor agencies to meet its stated objectives, according to a PIB release. Upendra Tripathy called the signing of Host Country Agreement an important milestone and thanked the Government of India for its wholehearted support.

The International Solar Alliance is an initiative jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India and President of France on November 30, 2015, at Paris, in the presence of the Secretary General of the UN, on the side lines of COP21 UN Climate Change Conference. The main objective of ISA is to undertake joint efforts required to reduce the cost of finance and the cost of technology, mobilize more than US $ 1000 billion of investments needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy.

ISA has presently four ongoing programmes: Scaling Solar Applications for Agricultural Use, Affordable Finance at Scale, Scaling Solar Mini Grids and Scaling Solar Rooftop catering to the needs of solar energy in specific areas.