Dr. A. R. Shukla, President of the Indian Biogas Association
Amidst the pandemic situation, which has deeply affected the economy word-wide, it is heartening to learn of India gearing up for the paradigm shift towards being self-dependent through the “Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan”. With reference to this context, on 6th June, Indian Biogas Association (IBA) organised a webinar on “Decoding the nuances of Financing in biogas/ Bio-CNG industry”. As reported by Mr. Gaurav Kedia, Chairman, IBA, the webinar was attended by over 550 subscribed participants, and it enabled industry stakeholders to understand the method of financing from the lens of Financial Institutions.
The two-hour webinar was in furtherance to the webinar series being organized by IBA on the basis of “Coordination, Communication and Solution”, the former was conducted in April on “understanding the challenges of the industry”. The organized webinar was lined-up with eminent speakers spanning diverse domain in the field of Capital Sourcing, featuring Mr. Dinesh Jagdale, JS, MNRE, Mr. Chintan Shah, Director, IREDA, Mr. Anil Misra, National Project Manager,UNIDO, Mr. Vivek Jain, Director-Corporate, India Ratings and Research, Mr. Manav Bansal, CIO, SBI Capital Markets, and Mr. Gaurav Kapoor, Head Inclusive Growth and Investments, DFID.
Shri. Jagdale ji commenced the webinar proceeding by emphasising on the fact that Financing is one of the vital elements towards building a conducive ecosystem for the industry. He further added that, “At this juncture, it’s extremely critical that appropriate capacity building exercises are conducted on a regular basis to ensure adequate understanding within industry stakeholders from the lens of Financial institutions and vice-versa. This webinar is just the stepping stone towards that process.” There definitely lies a need to rake up the confidence of the Lending institutions and Investors, which is possible with adequate and frequent capacity building exercises. The other eminent speakers talked in concrete manner to ensure the closing of the financial loop in the Bio-CNG sector in order to achieve GoI target of getting 5000 large scale plants in coming five years. This inclusive awareness creation process actually builds the much-needed trust, transparency, and desired velocity for effective capital infusion in the biogas/ bio-CNG industry.
