The ZENERGY Podcast: Energy Leadership, Finance, and Technology

Amit Jain is a senior energy specialist at the World Bank India team and former Fulbright scholar with NREL. Mr. Jain worked on the India's first solar project in Gujarat, and also recently led two of the World Bank’s largest solar financing schemes—worth a total of $1.5 billion. In this conversation, we will explore the World Bank’s role in the Indian renewable energy space and how the organizati...

Gaurav Gupta is the Global Head of Dalberg’s Energy practice, which is one of the world's top impact consulting firms. As the founder of Dalberg's Asia practice, Mr. Gupta has been a key contributor for Dalberg's growth and primarily focuses his efforts in the areas of energy access, sustainability, access to education, and poverty alleviation. In this conversations, Mr. Gupta breakdowns decentral...

KVS Baba is the chairman and managing director of the Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), which is the Indian government organization responsible for ensuring the integrated operation of the Grid in a reliable, efficient and secure manner. In this conversation, Mr. Baba provides his perspective on the system level challenges associated with the integration of renewable energy sources. &nb...

Dan Croft is a founding member of the IFC scaling solar program and was instrumental in  developing and implementing IFC's so-called ‘Upstream’ strategy. He has been involved in the renewable sector since the beginning of his  career, and has extensive experience advising governments and other  authorities on how to form public-private partnerships in the energy sector. In this inte...

Pramod Deo is India’s longest serving electricity regulator and former chair of the central electricity regulatory commission.  As India’s longest serving regulator, Dr. Deo has been a pioneer in enacting policies that help improve the integration of renewable energy into the Indian energy mix.  In this conversation, I ask Dr. Deo about how the Indian electricity system is structured and...

Baldev Singh Sran is the recent Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, which is Punjab’s state-run and only distribution company.  In his 2-year eventful stint, Mr. Sran brought down the transmission and distribution losses and worked to use resources of private thermal plants for banking of power in winters, for the state to draw in summers. In this intervi...

In this episode I will be speaking with Arunabha Ghosh, the founder and CEO of the Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW), which has been anointed as South Asia’s leading energy and environment think-tank. Dr. Ghosh was also instrumental in the formulation of the International Solar Alliance and Clean Energy Access network, and in this episode, Dr. Ghosh discusses his beliefs on how the US...

C. P. Poonacha, is the Head of Commercal Operations at DLF Group and the Managing Director of DLF Power and Services Limited. The DLF Group is India's largest real estate company and in this conversation, Mr. Poonacha discusses DLF’s real estate expansion plans and how renewable energy will be integrated. Further, Mr. Poonacha shows what variables need to be considered, in order for customers to m...

Piyush Mathur ​ Piyush Mathur is the recent CEO and long-running CFO of Simpa Energy. Mr. Mathur has been attributed to helping Simpa scale and expand to 22 more districts in 3 states, employing 700 full-time staff and 3000 village level  entrepreneurs. Simpa is well-known for its unique usage of technology, which we will explore in this conversation with Mr. Mathur. In this  episod...

Anjali Garg is the manager of the IFC’s Lighting Asia India Program.  The IFC Lighting Asia India initiative, through helping portfolio companies scale their operations, has been a key catalyzer of the rural energy access ecosystem in India. Ms. Garg has helped spearhead these efforts and in this interview, we will explore the development of the rural energy market over the past decade, and t...

Kamal Lath is the managing director and former CFO of D.Light, which just recently reached the 100 million rural product milestone. Mr. Lath was instrumental in helping D.Light raise 100 million dollars in funding during a difficult time, providing thus an important inflection for D.Light in its mission. In this episode Mr. Lath discusses the company's journey and many challenges they had to overc...

Tushar Devidayal is the founder of Devidayal Solar, which provides innovative cooling solutions to the last mile. Mr. Devidayal was the former CEO of Devidayal Chemicals which was one of the top ten pesticide and chemical processing companies in India. In this episode, we will explore Mr. Devidayal's journey, and his motivations behind wanting to launch a solar company, after having such a success...

Hemant Sahai, the founding partner of HSA Advocates, which is one of India’s leading and most active law firms in the renewable energy space. In this conversation, Mr. Sahai provides insight into how the energy landscape is evolving from a legal standpoint, and how the courts have responded to instances where discoms have renegaded from contract commitments.  Hope you enjoy my conversation wi...

Sidharath Kapur is the recent CEO of Acme Solar, which is India’s largest utility scale solar development company. In this conversation Mr. Kapur discusses renewable energy financing in India — beginning with an assessment of how much investment is required to achieve India's renewable energy targets. In this conversation Mr. Kapur breaks down a key challenge in the India solar market, which is th...

One quick note - we had some wifi connectivity issues for the first ten minutes or so - please bear with us, as the insights shared by Mr. Khanna are too good to miss. I highly recommend you listen to this audio with headphones - and then everything should smoothen out after the ten minute mark or so. Thank you and hope you enjoy! Ashish Khanna is the President of Tata Power - Renewables, which is...

In this episode we will be speaking with Mr. Saurabh Agarwal, Managing Director of Infrastructure in the South Asia Practice at CDPQ. In this role, Mr. Agarwal directs CDPQ’s infrastructure investment efforts in South Asia, and leads business development in the region. We discuss CDPQ’s decision to acquire a majority ownership stake in Azure Power and how the investment climate is involving in the...

Taranjit Singh Sandhu is the current Ambassador of India to the US and former High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka. In this conversation, Ambassador Sandhu provides a historical overview of the relationship between India and the US, and talks about how the relationship has evolved over time. Ambassador Sandhu discusses the strengths of the Indian renewable energy market and what steps the gover...