The National Clean Energy Fund of India: A Framework for Promoting Effective Utilization

The National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), announced in the Government of India’s Budget 2010-11, is seen as a major step in India's quest for energy security and reducing the carbon intensity of energy. Funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies, and harnessing renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels constitute the objectives of the NCEF. The NCEF’s utilization of funds is considered to be rather low and disbursements poorly aligned with the fund’s stated objectives, thus posing a potential risk of diluting the focus of NCEF with adverse implications for the much-needed research and innovation in the clean energy sector in India.
The book provides a detailed framework for promoting effective utilization and administration of NCEF. To this effect, it identifies the most promising avenues for utilization of NCEF resources for catalytic opportunities and deployment of new technologies. It also identifies and prioritizes the specific energy sub-sectors towards which the NCEF resources are directed. It also makes suggestions for designing a smart monitoring and evaluation framework for the NCEF.
This work provides significant information for the government so that appropriate mid-course corrections may be made in a timely manner. This will also be useful in honing the strategic thinking on a suitable energy-technology policy and an assessment of technology needs and other barriers to the clean energy sector in India.

Rita Pandey is a Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi. She obtained her Ph.D. in economics from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and was a visiting fellow at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, University of Yale, USA, in 2001. She has been a member of the Steering Committee to implement the Montreal Protocol, appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India; and a member of the Indo-German Expert Group on Green and Inclusive Economy. Dr. Pandey’s research interests span integrating environmental, and natural resource concerns into policy analysis focusing on energy, industry, climate change and urban transport through the use of environmental economics, and tools and measures of public finance. She has undertaken a broad range of studies examining the different links between environment and resources and the economy and has worked extensively on economic instruments and environmental fiscal reforms for environmental management and resource conservation. She has published widely in national and international journals and has four books to her credit.

Sanjay Bali is currently an independent consultant, with interests in many areas of research, including innovation, deployment and dissemination of new energy and clean technologies. He has been involved in projects covering technological and policy aspects of new energy and clean technologies. In the past 18 years. Mr. Bali has been associated, in various capacities, with organizations such as The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi; InsPIRE Network for Environment, New Delhi; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), New Delhi; The Department of International Development, UK (DfiD), New Delhi; Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology, New Delhi and National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi. He has a Masters in chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Nandita Mongia is a freelance consultant in the field of energy and climate change mitigation. With a background in academia and extensive international development experiences, she holds a Ph.D in optimal technology choice and production planning in coal Industry. She is a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow and been a visiting staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, USA. She has been a resource person for the US Country Studies Program on Energy – Technology Choice Options model for CO₂ emission reduction, to the Science Technology and Environment Program in Princeton, East-West Centre, Hawaii, United Nations University-Tokyo-Japan, Energy Research Institute, Beijing, China. Dr. Mongia has been interviewed by international print and visual media on issues of clean energy, energy access, climate change, constraints in sustainable development etc. She has several publications to her credit.