Diplomacy of Suryaputra nations at peak! India, ISA sign the Host Country Agreement
New Delhi, March 27: This agreement gave a new height to the Suryaputra Nations as the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), signed the Host Country Agreement on Monday. The Agreement will give ISA a juridical personality and gives it the power to contract, to acquire and dispose of movable and immovable properties, to institute and defend legal proceedings. Under this agreement, ISA shall enjoy such privileges, applicable tax concessions and immunities as are necessary for ISA’s Headquarter to independently discharge its function and programmes. ISA shall be deriving its status, privileges, and immunities as per Article 10 of Framework Agreement.
The agreement was signed by MoS of External Affairs General (Dr.) V.K. Singh, and Upendra Tripathy, Interim Director General, ISA in the gracious presence of R K Singh, MoS Power, and New & Renewable Energy.
Congratulating the signatories, R.K. Singh said that ISA has potential to change the developmental paradigm in the world. He said that energy will now be available to less developed tropical countries at affordable rates and in an easily deployable manner. The Minister also mentioned that many countries have shown interest to learn from India’s experience in renewable energy. He emphasized the need for our industry to go and set up infrastructure in these countries and talked about doing necessary de-risking in this regard.
General Singh also congratulated ISA and stated that ISA has an onerous task at hand to mobilize over the US $ 1000 billion of investment into the Solar Sector and deploying over 1000 GW of Solar capacity. He also stated that ISA needs to firm up financial partnership deals with more multilateral and bilateral donor agencies in order to meet its stated objectives.
Upendra Tripathy called the signing of Host Country Agreement an important milestone and thanked the Government of India for its wholehearted support.
Background:
The International Solar Alliance is an initiative jointly launched by the Prime Minister of India and President of France on 30th November 2015 at Paris, in the presence of the Secretary-General of the UN, on the sidelines of COP21 UN Climate Change Conference. The main objective of ISA is to undertake joint efforts required to reduce the cost of finance and the cost of technology, mobilize more than the US $ 1000 billion of investments needed by 2030 for massive deployment of solar energy, and pave the way for future technologies adapted to the needs of 121 countries lying fully or partially between the Tropics.
ISA has presently four ongoing programmes: Scaling Solar Applications for Agricultural Use, Affordable Finance at Scale, Scaling Solar Mini Grids and Scaling Solar Rooftop catering to the needs of solar energy in specific areas.
The Framework Agreement coming into force on 6th December 2017, the ISA became the first international intergovernmental treaty-based organization to be headquartered in India. ISA celebrated its founding day on 11th March 2018.