On September 22, ORF America, in partnership with the International Solar Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, hosted a fireside chat and a closed-door roundtable on the sidelines of New York Climate Week. 

Over the past decade, India has emerged as one of the world's largest and fastest-growing clean energy markets, with solar at the center of this transformation. As India enters the next phase of its energy transition, the challenge is shifting from rapid capacity addition toward building a more integrated, resilient, and increasingly electrified energy system. India's experience also offers important lessons for accelerating affordable and investable renewable energy deployment across the Global South. 

Agenda

Welcome Remarks

• Manish Bapna, President & CEO, Natural Resources Defense Council

Special Address

• JVN Subramanyam, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India

Fireside Chat

• Ashish Khanna, Director General, International Solar Alliance

• Sumant Sinha, Chairman and CEO, ReNew

• Moderator: Dhruva Jaishankar, Executive Director, ORF America

Closed-Door Roundtable: From Ambition to Investable Implementation

• Avinash Persaud, Special Advisor on Climate Change to the President of Inter-American Development Bank

• Vikas Mehta, Executive Director, Sustainability, Equity and Diversity Fund

• Dipa Singh Bagai, Country Head, NRDC India

• Karan Mangotra, Chief of Strategy and New Initiatives, International Solar Alliance

• Moderator: Piyush Verma, Senior Fellow, ORF America, and Vyoma Jha, India Clean Energy Senior Advocate, Natural Resources Defense Council