Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

India and US Announce Program to Tackle Climate, Clean Energy Challenges

December 18, 2021
clean energy

A programme, Technology-based Energy Solutions: Innovations for Net Zero, to support India-US science and technology-based entrepreneurial initiatives to tackle climate and clean energy challenges was announced recently. The programme also involves energy storage, and carbon sequestration (the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide), according to official sources.

The programme calls for Ignition Grants – designed to stimulate commercialisation of research discoveries by providing very early stage grants by the United States-India Science & Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF). It will identify and support ‘technology showstoppers’ or promising joint India-US S&T-based entrepreneurial initiatives in this area.

“The launch of the US-India Climate and Clean Energy Agenda 2030 partnership in April 2021 reiterated the commitment of both nations to work together to achieve their ambitious climate and clean energy targets and to strengthen bilateral collaborations,” it said, adding that the new programme aligns with the goals of the US-India Strategic Clean Energy Partnership and will be administered by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), a bilateral organisation under India’s Department of Science and Technology, and the US Department of State.

Highlighting the need for collaborative entrepreneurship, Sanjeev Varshney, Adviser & Head, International Bilateral Cooperation, Department of Science & Technology said, “The role of collaboration in science and technology to deliver innovative solutions to address a global challenge is appreciable. A good demonstrable technology innovation to address a specific challenge in the focus areas having commercial viability is expected under the partnership of IUSSTF with Social Alpha.”