The idea of such a bank is gaining traction, with many countries facing difficulty in raising finances on their own, given their poor sovereign ratings. Mint earlier reported about a World Solar Bank (WSB), which may be based in India, with the country as its lead member with a 30% stake through a $600 million equity commitment. Such a bank would be the first multilateral development bank (MDB) headquartered in India, with China taking the lead in creating the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank. On the need to move faster towards renewable energy, the European Commission president said along with thwarting climate change, Europe also is looking at curbing imports from Russia and becoming self-dependent. Von der Leyen is on a two-day visit for discussions around key issues, including the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the Ukraine war.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February attracted condemnation from the West, including the US and the EU. Russia caters to most Europe’s energy requirements, and after the ban on Russian oil and gas by the US and the announcement of a gradual phase-out of imports by the UK, there is anticipation that the EU also is looking at banning energy imports from Moscow. Energy import-dependent countries such as India have been working to move towards hydrogen as a new-age and emission-free fuel. Singh said that to move towards a hydrogen-based economy, the efficiency of fuel cells is critical. This comes at a time when New Delhi plans to introduce a production-linked incentive scheme to encourage the manufacturing of electrolyzes used to extract hydrogen from water.