Stronger policies needed for cleantech SMEs: report

While India is on track to meet its ambitious clean energy targets, new-age clean technology start-ups and SMEs are expected to play an important role in helping the country achieve its goals. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant lockdown has impacted SMEs and start-ups the most, leaving the sector to seek support from the government through policy reforms in order to bounce back and drive clean energy innovations in the country.

According to the report, ‘Clean energy policy landscape in the SME sector’, published by WWF India in association with cKinetics, while India’s move towards clean energy transition has led to the emergence of various startups and SMEs, there are only a handful of policies that help accelerate the growth of these companies to meet India’s clean energy demands. While almost 140 government interventions focus directly or/and indirectly on clean energy and startups and SMEs, only 38 policies actually target SMEs in the clean energy ecosystem, making it difficult for SMEs to reap the benefits of the provisions. The report also attributes the slow growth of India’s mass transition to clean energy to limited policy support mechanisms for R&D and innovation for clean energy segments.

A few of the recommendations mentioned in the report include: Provision to procure at least 20 per cent of capacity (MW procurement target) from SMEs under the DISCOM-led aggregation model in solar-rooftop segment; ensuring passing on the benefits in implementation of solar rooftops to the residential consumers in terms of 80C benefits; lowering GST slab of energy-efficient appliances and setting targets to procure a percentage of energy efficient goods from SMEs for entities such as EESL; and set up of short-term targets for EV roll-out over a time span that helps in achieving the long-term targets.