Insufficient Policy Support for Clean Energy Startups and SMEs in India: WWF Report

While India’s move towards clean energy transition has led to the emergence of various startups and Small and Medoum Enterprises (SMEs), there are only a few of policies that help accelerate the growth of these companies to meet India’s clean energy demands, as per a new report by World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) India.

"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, published in association with cKinetics, said.

It maps the clean energy ecosystem, attempts at an analysis of the sector to identify individual constraints and offers policy recommendations to propel the growth of cleantech SMEs in the country.

The "Clean energy policy landscape in the SME sector" report delves into six segments including solar rooftop, electric mobility, energy efficiency, smart energy, waste-to-energy and energy access, that are expected to have a considerable impact across key sectors such as industries, buildings, and transportation.

"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," WWF India said in a statement announcing the launch of the report.

The report suggests practical steps to be taken including credit guarantee and risk-mitigation mechanisms under public financing and augmenting funding under the public sector, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and other avenues that would enable incubators to provide early-stage risk capital to start-ups.