About the Forum Convening
Vasudha Foundation with support from SED Fund launched the Deep Electrification Forum to deliberate and develop the policy discourse on deep electrification for the Indian economy. The forum convening was held on 20th January 2023 at India Habitat Centre (IHC), New Delhi.
The Forum provided an opportunity for delegates from government, industry, funders, academia, media and civil society organizations to synergistically understand deep electrification aspects and challenges related to sustainably implementing it.
During the convening, a brief sectoral outlook was presented for the transport, cooking and industry sectors, followed by a sectoral breakout session to discuss low-hanging issues, policy levers, and major policy implementation challenges for each sector. Along with identifying the contours of deep electrification, the session also considered the next steps for proceeding with sector-level deep dives.
A briefing about the Manthan Platform (manthan.gov.in) was also provided by Rahul Kulshreshtha, Strategic Alliances, Invest India. It is a digital platform that facilitates research and innovation through collaboration, and some of its key features were shared along with its relevance with Deep Electrification.
The desired outcome of the first forum convening was to apprise the participants of the need for deep electrification and initiatives being undertaken across the globe and in India. The goal was to identify the Forum’s aspirations and crucial stakeholders that will help in further deliberations on deep electrification policy discourse.
Summing up and the Way Forward
The discussion during the national convening helped the organisers and the participants to identify the right questions, low-hanging areas and issues that need to be addressed overall and sector-wise. Based on the inputs gathered, regional convenings would be held to deep dive specifically into the transport and cooking sectors.
The next convening will focus on developing deep electrification strategies for the transport sector. This would be held in Chennai and is tentatively planned to be convened in March 2023.