Clean energy investments helped India soften West Asia crisis impact: PM Modi

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The impact of the West Asia crisis on India would have been more severe than the rest of the world had the country not made investments in renewable energy over the last decade, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the inauguration of the Bharat Renewable Energy Summit & Expo (2026) in New Delhi Monday (November 2, 2026).

“Had India not made the investments it did in clean energy and building the requisite mechanisms [and infrastructure], the impact of the crisis would have been far more severe than in the rest of the world,” Mr. Modi said in his address. He also said that India’s economy continued to grow despite the crisis.

The Prime Minister put forth that the West Asia crisis exemplified how energy security was directly tied to economic security, adding that the future of energy security rested in clean energy.

He warned that excess dependence on fossil fuels could risk increased exposure to global disruptions.

Mr. Modi also said that India’s renewable energy sector would have investment opportunities of about $220 billion by the end of the decade.

In his pitch to potential investors, Mr. Modi held that it would be difficult to find the scale, scope and demand that India has in any other part of the world, alongside political and policy stability.

Mr. Modi emphasised that the next phase of solar revolution would rest on innovation.

He pointed to opportunities in the realm of indigenous manufacturing of essential hardware and battery storage systems, as well as in enhancing capacities.

Explaining his vision, the Prime Minister said, “We must carve out a dynamic where the country’s middle class has the option of an electric vehicle, and where they would be able to charge their scooty, bike, or car with solar-based energy. This would help save them a lot of money.”

He said the country would also require solutions that would help spur solar adoption in the dairy sector, animal husbandry, and farming.

Mr. Modi observed that India’s solar module manufacturing has grown from 2 gigawatts (GW) to 200 GW in a decade with the capacity to manufacture solar cells having grown to about 40 GW.

“Now we are working on enhancing [indigenous] manufacturing of other components as well,” he said.

Mr. Modi said India is striving a achieve a great deal in a very short span of time.

“We must not stop here; we must connect every government building, school, college, hospital, and the entire street lighting network to solar energy and at a rapid pace,” he said.

The Prime Minister further suggested that there must exist healthy competition among States and local bodies about their performance in the field of renewable energy adoption, thus creating an incentive for top performers and encouraging others to follow.

He said that about 44,000 government buildings in India are currently powered by solar energy, which has resulted in annual saving of a total of about ₹700 crore.

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