India is actually a red-hot investment opportunity for its clean energy transition, top US official John Kerry said on Thursday as he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his commitment to addressing the challenge posed by climate change which the Biden Administration believes poses an existential threat to humanity.

Kerry, the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said he intends to work "very, very closely with" with Indian leadership including Prime Minister Modi and External Minister S Jaishankar.

"We believe India can be one of the most critical transitional countries in this entire endeavour. I am confident that just as we have worked very closely on any number of issues in these last years, our two nations -- the world's two biggest democracies -- have a great deal to gain from joining hands in our global leadership and confronting the climate crisis to meet this moment," he said.

"India is actually a red-hot investment opportunity for its clean energy transition," Kerry, the first official on climate to be inside the US National Security Council, said in his address to the World Sustainable Development Summit 2021.

Looking forward to visiting India soon, Kerry said that the prime minister has made a very important contribution to this dialogue. Needless to say, India is deeply committed to this challenge and it has been for a considerable number of years, he said.

You are indisputably a world leader in the deployment of renewable energy and your leadership of the International Solar Alliance, which Minister Jaishankar referred to, is absolutely critical for not just India, but for other dynamic, growing economies in the world, Kerry said.

Prime Minister Modi's announcement of a target of 450 gigawatts of renewables by 2030 is a strong, terrific example of how to power a growing economy with clean energy, and it's going to be one of the most important contributions because India today is already the third largest emitter in the world behind the United States and China, he said.

Referring to a latest report of the International Energy Agency, he said India's down payment on the clean energy transition puts it on pace to become the global market leader in solar and storage by 2040. "And thanks to your rapid scale-up, it's already cheaper to build solar in India than anywhere else in the world. That kind of urgency is exactly what we need in order to confront the crisis that we confront today," he said.

After coming to power, the Biden Administration has quickly established contacts with the Indian leadership. The leadership of the two countries at the top level have known each other for long and have put the relationship on fast-track. In a recent interview, India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, had identified climate change as one of the key pillars of collaboration between the two countries.

It was one of the topics of discussion between Prime Minister Modi and President Joe Biden earlier this week and also when they spoke in November soon after the US election results were announced.

In his speech, Kerry made it clear that India is a key partner of the US under the Biden Administration and would take it over from where the relationship was left by the previous Trump Administration.

On climate change, Kerry said that he knows that Prime Minister Modi is committed to this and seized by it, and so are Indian businesses."I was also very heartened to see the recent government budget focussed heavily on clean energy and propose a very specific hydrogen energy mission, he said.

By 2030, the International Energy Agency forecasts that if India drives even more aggressively towards this clean energy transition, it will create half a million additional jobs than business as usual would create. Indian industry is obviously already stepping up and showing leadership. I was very pleased to hear that dozens of India's biggest companies recently signed a declaration on climate change, pledging to go carbon neutral," Kerry said.

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At a time when the global energy market is facing a drop in demand due to COVID-19 pandemic, turning immune to the situation, the renewable sector has seen a growth. An India Energy Outlook report for 2021 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlights that going by the current momentum, the electricity sector in India is on the cusp of a solar revolution. 

In an exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, Fatih Birol, IEA’s Executive Director expressed hope that solar energy will overtake coal within the next ten years. He also batted for the usage of hydrogen, carbon capture storage and clean natural gas to reduce the dependency on coal.

Edited excerpts: 

Q. India is talking about introducing a hydrogen mission. A lot of focus is there on solar too. How are you seeing this scenario? 

Hydrogen can make the decarbonised system much more cleaner. When it comes to solar, India is set for explosive growth. Today, less than 5 percent of India’s electricity generation is coming from solar and 70 percent from coal. Our numbers show that due to extra-ordinary cost-competitiveness of solar and right policies, renewables, mainly solar can overtake coal within the next ten years. 

It is a huge change and wonderful news for India in terms of its economy and air pollution in the cities. 

Q. What is your take on India’s steps towards making energy accessible to the common man? 

When people ask me whether or not India will be able to steer its economy and energy sector in a successful way, I say absolutely yes. I have two reasons to say this. First, when I released our first India Energy Outlook in 2015, I said India is moving to the Centre stage of world energy. Today, without hesitation I can say that India has arrived at the centre stage of the world energy. The second reason is that India added 900 million electricity connections since 2000, it has never been the case in the history of any country. In my view, it is a history written in the world energy sector. 

Implementation of LED is a big step towards energy efficiency improvement and an example for many countries and the Ujjwala program that brought clean fuel for millions of people are the reasons why I believe that India can have a much brighter, affordable and cleaner energy future. 

Q. India is targeting to become a gas-based economy. Is it a strategy in the right direction? 

Today, the share of gas in India’s energy mix is 6 percent. It is one of the lowest in the world. There are ambitions of the government to increase this. We expect growth, mainly in industry and city gas distribution, for cooking and transport sector. This can definitely improve the air quality and displace coal, which is good news. 

It is very important that this gas comes from the countries where we have control over methane emissions. I believe the share of gas in India will increase significantly. When we talk about coal, we talk about the electricity sector. But a lot of coal is used in iron and steel, cement and others, we have to decarbonise them and make them environment friendly. Gas can play an important role here. 

Q. How can India bring down the share of coal in its energy basket? 

Coal has a huge share of 70 per cent of electricity generation in India. For electricity generation, continuous support for renewables, especially solar, coupled with battery storage is needed to decarbonise the power sector. We use a lot of coal in India also for iron and steel and cement, here we can use, hydrogen, carbon capture storage and clean natural gas to reduce the dependency on coal. 

If India goes in this direction, it will not only be god for the Indian economy and energy sector, but the country can be a pioneer by setting a new model of clean growth. 

Q. With vaccines in place, do you see the global energy demand recovering?  

If we can bring the pandemic under control, we can see recovery in the global energy sector. I believe coal is very difficult to recover because of lesser emphasis on coal. The oil will recover in a few years, but renewables proved to be Covid immune in 2020. Although global energy declined by 5 per cent in 2020, renewable energy saw an increase. In 2021, it will increase significantly. 

Q. How do you rate India’s steps towards ensuring energy security? 

India is making good steps in the right direction. For example, I can remember that during the low oil prices, India was one of the countries that put a lot of oil in their stocks. Our numbers show that the reliance on imported oil in India will go up substantially as a result of road transport, especially trucks, which is a major contributor to oil imports in India. Trucks in many countries, we use for freight. I think it may be a very good idea to transfer a big chunk of it to railways, which can run by electricity. It will be good for energy security, reducing pollution and will be good for the Indian economy. 

I am following the developments in the Indian Railways sector, I can say it is an outstanding success in terms of logistical transformation to what kind of energy it is using and the way it is modernised. It can be a model for many countries. 

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The government will soon bring a bill on crypto currencies as existing laws are inadequate to deal with issues concerning them, Minister of State For Finance Anurag Thakur told Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

Replying to a question in the Upper House, Thakur said regulatory bodies like RBI and SEBI do not have any legal framework to directly regulate crypto currencies as they are not currencies, assets, securities or commodities issued by identifiable users.

"The existing laws are inadequate to deal with the subject,” he said.

The government had formed an Inter-Ministerial Committee which has given its report on issues related to virtual currencies.

There was also a meeting of the Empowered Technology Group.The Committee of Secretaries chaired by the Cabinet Secretary has also given its report.

"A bill (on crypto currencies) is being finalised and it will soon be send to the Cabinet. We will soon be bringing a bill,” Thakur said.

In view of the risks associated with Virtual Currencies (VCs), including Bitcoins, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) through a circular in April 2018, had advised all the entities regulated by it not to deal in VCs or provide services for facilitating any person or entity in dealing with or settling VCs.However, Supreme Court, vide judgement dated March 4, 2020, had set aside the RBI’s circular.To another question regarding Chinese companies in the country, the minister said as of now, there are around 92 companies registered in the country.

Painting a rosy picture of the economy, the finance ministry's monthly report on Tuesday said growth and inflation outlook for 2021-22 portends more than full recovery, and that the country has become the COVID-19 vaccine hub of the world.

"The structural reforms and the policy push under the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Mission along with the slew of measures announced in the Union Budget 2021-22 towards achieving broad-based inclusive growth will strengthen the fundamentals of the economy and bring it back on to a strong and sustainable growth path in the year ahead," the ministry's Monthly Economic Report said.

Growth and inflation outlook in 2021-22, "portends more than full recovery", it added. Indian economy is estimated to contract 7.7 percent in the current financial year, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest Economic Survey projected growth rate to rebound to 11 percent during 2012-22 while the Budget estimated real GDP to be between 10-10.5 percent. "FY 2021-22 will be the year to rebuild with the IMF projecting growth of output at 11.5 percent, Economic Survey at 11 percent and the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee at 10.5 percent.

"With the IMF keeping India's growth projections elevated at 6.8 percent in FY 2022-23, India is back as the fastest growing major economy in the world," it said. The Survey pitched for growth through counter cyclical fiscal policy emphasising that growth alone is the answer to sustaining the public debt burden of the country, the report said.

The Survey was presented in Parliament on January 29 and the Budget on February 1. The Budget implemented the counter cyclical fiscal policy by raising the target of fiscal deficit to 6.8 percent of GDP, more than double the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) target, the report said.

With the expanded borrowing programme mostly meant for funding the enhanced capital outlay, the Budget has set in place the multiplier impact on growth to support the prescribed fiscal deficit target of 4.5 percent of GDP in 2026 under the fiscal glide path. The report noted that various measures taken by the government since March 2020 against the pandemic ensured minimum loss of life.

"Early lockdown, health-infra ramp up, gradual unlocking, blanket testing, social distancing, calibrated fiscal stimulus to minimise supply side disruptions and revive demand and structural reforms pursued diligently by government since March, 2020 have now come to fruition to limit the fatality rate to globally one of the lowest at 1.2 percent," it said.According to the report, with each day ending with positive COVID-19 cases falling to new lows and economic activity levels attaining new peaks, India has worked its way around the pandemic through the will of the brave people and astute policy interventions by the government.

"The fact that complacency is far from settling in is demonstrated by India administering close to four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine within a span of two weeks since 16th January, 2021 to become the fifth largest inoculated country in the world. "India has not only become the vaccine hub of the world but has also extended assistance to more than 90 nations requesting doses for stocking up," it noted

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Emkay Wealth Management's head of research  Joseph Thomas says the Reserve Bank of India's plan to hike the cash reserve ratio (CRR) will have an impact on the cost of borrowing for corporates as well as other borrowers.

In its final bi-monthly monetary policy review, the Reserve Bank of India left repo rates unchanged at 4 percent and kept the stance “accommodative” on February 5. The reverse repo rate was also kept steady at 3.35 percent and so were marginal standing facility and bank rate at 4.25 percent.

The central bank, however, announced a two-phase plan to restore CRR to 4 percent, a move expected to have an impact on the cost of credit.

"The extended marginal standing facility (MSF) relaxation is good for liquidity and nothing prevents the RBI from injecting liquidity into the system whenever it is required, in its assessment. So, that remains at the core of the accommodative policy," Thomas says in an interview to Moneycontrol's Sunil Shankar Matkar. Edited Excerpts:

Q: What is your reading of RBI policy, especially after Budget 2021? What does the accommodative stance indicate now?

The monetary policy complements the Budget in many ways, in terms of its tone, intent, and the underlying message and actions. The base rate, that is the repo rate, is kept unchanged, and the framework for the provision of liquidity remains the same. In short, the policy remains accommodative. RBI is generally expected to follow the accommodative stance of the policy till sustainable economic growth emerges. The only factor that can bring about changes in this policy is a sustained rise in the price level, the probability of which is very small at this juncture.

Q: The RBI expects FY22 GDP growth at 10.5 percent. It has a strong conviction that in FY22, India will undo the damage of COVID. Do you feel the growth expectations can be achieved or surpass in FY22?

The estimates of GDP growth for FY22, from all major agencies, both domestic and international, have been in the range of 10 to 11 percent. While this growth may not be surpassed, it is almost certain that it may not be substantially lower than that too, given the pick-up in general economic activity, and the rebound in manufacturing and industrial activity.

There are possible disruptors like a second or third wave of the pandemic engulfing our country as also other major countries, escalation of the border issues with China, a steep rise in interest rates, etc. But conviction abounds, in our ability to have better control of things, and thereby, grow much faster.

Q: The RBI has revised its CPI inflation projection to 5-5.2 percent for the first half of FY22 against 4.6-5.2 percent earlier, while the CPI inflation projection has been revised downwards to 5.2 percent for Q4FY21 from 5.8 percent earlier. What is your view? 

The RBI projection of inflation is based on RBI's assessment of the economic conditions, and they also hold surveys on various aspects of the economy, including expected inflation. In the latest survey, the responses summed up to expectations of slightly moderate inflation in the immediate term and more or less the same level of inflation over the next one year or so. RBI estimates are based majorly on this.

On food inflation, we may see lower prices in the coming months due to a better supply of fruits and vegetables after a good winter crop and a better kharif harvesting season but the prices of pulses may remain high. In the non-food category, one thing that may potentially cause some trouble is fuel prices. Brent is already close to $60 a barrel. This may not be good for the general price level as fuel prices have a cascading effect on all major items of consumption. Therefore, the inflation projections, overall, look quite conservative but close to realistic.

Q: The RBI said CRR normalisation opened up space for more options to inject liquidity and announced a two-phase normalisation for CRR. It will gradually restore the CRR to 3.5 percent in March and 4 percent in May. It extended MSF relaxation for another six months. What is your view?

There are shades of rationalising the liquidity management in the RBI policy. The CRR will be hiked by 1 percent-from 3 percent to 4 percent, to the pre-pandemic level-in two phases. This is happening between March and May, so not very far this day. We should note that any CRR measure will have an impact on the credit multiplier. This is a measure which will have an impact on the cost of credit. Lending by banks and also their borrowings will become more expensive over a period of time. It also has implications for the quantum of liquidity because to the extent of the hike in CRR, an equivalent amount of money, by way of a certain percentage of the net time and demand liabilities of the banks, will go into the RBI as part of CRR with the central bank. To that extent, liquidity will get curtailed.

To state this more directly, this measure will have an impact on the cost of borrowing for the corporates as well as other borrowers. The extended marginal standing facility relaxation is good for liquidity, and nothing prevents the RBI from injecting liquidity into the system whenever it is required, in its assessment. So, that remains at the core of the accommodative policy.

Q: The RBI decided to include NBFCs in TLTRO on-tap scheme and will provide funds from banks to NBFCs under on-tap TLTRO. It will incentivise new MSME loans by banks. Will it help NBFCs?

The very objective of Targeted Long Term Repo Operations (TLTRO) is targeted funds, or credit delivery, by banks, making investments into different types of borrowing instruments of specific sectors, which require liquidity support. NBFCs are an integral part of the larger banking and financial services domain and they satisfy a need that is important to our economic growth. The RBI statement is very clear on this, "Given that NBFCs are well recognised conduits for reaching out last-mile credit and act as a force multiplier in expanding credit to various sectors, it is now proposed to provide funds from banks under the TLTRO on Tap scheme to NBFCs for incremental lending to these sectors."

Coming to the MSME financing, the RBI has given the benefit to banks by way of a deduction of the amount advanced from the NTDL for the purpose of CRR maintenance and this would help the banks to offer more credit at a better rate to MSMEs but the success of this programme will depend on the initiative and action of the banks.

Q: Retail investors can now access primary and secondary government bond market. Retail investors can open gilt accounts with the RBI. Is it a surprise? How should retail investors go about with gilt funds?

The objective of the RBI in this is to provide direct access to retail investors. It is not that access has not been there so far. They could access the market through their advisers or brokers and get the government securities purchased and credited to their sub-SGL accounts or demats.

What comes with the new thing is direct access with and through the RBI. This may encourage many investors to open accounts with RBI and start investing. Another useful feature of this action is that it is a reform to the existing system. Under the current set-up, the retail investors accessing markets through brokers or their banks, as the case may be, used to get a retail price for a small lot or an odd lot, which is often much higher than a wholesale price, or a large lot or market lot price. This differentiated pricing for small and odd lots will be eliminated almost completely, which will bring in more efficiency in the market access for small investors.Gilt funds are a good avenue and mode for investing into gilts and they work on NAV, which is common for all investors as of a specific investment date. Gilts funds pickup larger market lots and therefore, they do not have the disadvantage of differentiated pricing. The RBI action is a step in the right direction. But considering the large number of accounts that they may have to open for retail investors, and which need to be maintained and serviced, it would be better if the long-awaited transformation of the debt management function of the RBI into a separate office of debt management of the GOI is realised sooner than later.

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Describing the 2021-22 Budget a "booster rocket" for the economy, BJP leader Jayant Sinha on Friday said it will place India on the path of non-inflationary growth and make this decade "Roaring 20s" for the country.

This Budget has focused on supply-side investment and this is going to ensure that the country has a non-inflationary growth for very long period of time, Sinha, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, said.

"This budget is a booster rocket for the economy. The country is proceeding on a V-shaped recovery path and will immensely benefit from this booster rocket. It will firmly place the country on a non-inflationary growth trajectory, which is going to sustain for a very long period of time," he told PTI.

The impact of this Budget will be that the country will not only see a very strong recovery this fiscal, but also in the following years, India will continue to grow at 7 to 8 percent, said Sinha, who was the minister of state for finance in the first term of the Modi government.

"This budget and the reforms which were carried out by the Narendra Modi-led government in the last six years, will make this decade a decade of Roaring 20s for India," he said.

'Roaring 20s' refers to the decade of the 1920s, which followed after war devastation and the 1918 Spanish Flu. In that decade, the US and several European nations saw prosperity and economic boom.

Talking about fiscal deficit, which is pegged at 9.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Sinha said fiscal deficit numbers this year includes the spending on the Food Corporation of India (FCI), and those were extra budgetary receipts.

The former Union minister said besides looking at fiscal deficit, it is also important to note where those extra resources were used.

Lot of those resources were used for providing relief to the poor and the marginalised during the coronavirus-induced lockdown. These resources were used to help people during the challenging time, he said.

Sinha also asserted that mega reforms were announced in the Budget, including setting up of an asset reconstruction company and an asset management company to clean up non-performing assets in the banking sector. Setting up of textile parks was also announced, he said.

On disinvestment of Air India, Sinha, who also held the civil aviation portfolio in the previous government, said the intent of the Centre is clear and it is to do a strategic sale of the national carrier.There were issues related to non-core assets, core assets and subsidiaries of the airline, now all those have been dealt with, he said underlining that the disinvestment of Air India is a complicated process.

Read Also:- Budget 2021 lays foundations of $5 trillion economy

He also said for disinvestment of the carrier, the government will also take note of market conditions and also of the aviation sector which has been deeply impacted by COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pinching the pockets of common man amid rising fuel prices, oil marketing companies raised the price of non-subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Rs 25 in metros on February 4.

After the current hike, the price of cooking gas in Delhi was seen at Rs 719 per cylinder (14.2 kg), in Kolkata at Rs 745.50, Mumbai at Rs 719 and Rs 735 in Chennai. The country's LPG penetration now stands at 99.5 per cent, reaching out to 28.9 crore consumers. Though there was no hike in prices in the month of January, prices went up by Rs 100 a cylinder in Delhi through two hikes in December.