Assessing Green Industrial Policy

The report evaluates India's 'Green Industrial Policy' as a blend of market-failure corrections and traditional industrial development goals. While the 'green' objectives—energy access, security, and GHG abatement—have seen success, the industrial policy goals of creating a competitive domestic manufacturing base and fostering R&D have fared poorly. The solar sector has struggled against cheap imports, while the wind sector, though more mature, has seen a decline in global competitiveness and a recent drop in installations following the withdrawal of tax incentives.

• India's green industrial policy has successfully improved energy access and security, but the industrial policy elements aimed at manufacturing and R&D have been less effective.
• The cost of supporting green industry in India is relatively low, representing approximately 1% of the total cost of supplying electricity across all utilities in 2011-2012.
• In Tamil Nadu, wind energy has a statistically significant positive impact on energy security by reducing the plant load factors (PLFs) of thermal power stations during peak periods.
• The Indian solar PV manufacturing sector has seen a decline in competitiveness, with imports significantly outstripping domestic demand and many local firms operating at low capacity or closing.
• Domestic content requirements (DCR) in the solar sector were ineffective because they only applied to crystalline silicon, leading developers to import cheaper thin-film technologies.
• The wind sector's growth was heavily driven by Accelerated Depreciation (AD) and Generation-Based Incentives (GBI); the withdrawal of these in 2012 led to a drastic plummet in annual installations.
• India's renewable energy sector has a minimal impact on overall national GHG emissions, reducing the national carbon footprint by only 0.72% based on 2010 data.
• India suffers from a lack of translation of research into commercial products in the solar and wind sectors, evidenced by low patent numbers and a weak intellectual property regime.
• Employment impacts are unclear and vary by sector; while solar installation and maintenance jobs grew with capacity, wind sector employment declined as companies downsized following the rollback of GBI and AD incentives.

APA

Ganesan, K., Choudhury, P., Palakshappa, R., Jain, R., & Raje, S. (2014). Assessing Green Industrial Policy. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/rens_gip_india.pdf

Chicago

Ganesan, Karthik, Poulami Choudhury, Rajeev Palakshappa, Rishabh Jain, and Sanyukta Raje. Assessing Green Industrial Policy. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2014. https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/rens_gip_india.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ganesan |first1=Karthik |last2=Choudhury |first2=Poulami |last3=Palakshappa |first3=Rajeev |last4=Jain |first4=Rishabh |last5=Raje |first5=Sanyukta |title=Assessing Green Industrial Policy |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2014 |url=https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/rens_gip_india.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ganesan2014assessing, author = {Ganesan, Karthik and Choudhury, Poulami and Palakshappa, Rajeev and Jain, Rishabh and Raje, Sanyukta}, title = {{Assessing Green Industrial Policy}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2014}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/rens_gip_india.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }