International Solar Alliance

Why is in news? India becomes power surplus nation with electricity capacity of over four lakh Mega Watt

Keeping in mind the sustainable development goals, India's power generation mix is rapidly shifting towards a more significant share of renewable energy.

India is the world's third largest producer of renewable energy, with 40 per cent of its installed electricity capacity coming from non-fossil fuel sources.

Solar energy-based applications have benefited millions of Indians by meeting their cooking, lighting, and other energy needs in an environment-friendly manner.

The country’s vision is to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2070, in addition to attaining the short-term targets including increasing renewables capacity to 500 Giga Watt by 2030 and meeting 50 per cent of energy requirements from renewables.

Having achieved large-scale success in solar energy solutions, India has spearheaded the International Solar Alliance, ISA which is an action-oriented, member-driven, collaborative platform for increased deployment of solar energy technologies.

The membership of the ISA is open to all member-states of the United Nations, and 107 countries are signatories to the ISA Framework Agreement and most being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

The Alliance aims to efficiently utilise solar energy to reduce fossil fuel dependence, thereby creating a greener planet.

The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Africa Summit, and a meeting of member countries ahead of the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.

Headquarter: Gurgram, Haryana, India.