ReNew Power Centre of Excellence and IIT Delhi felicitate winners of the 2nd Annual Sustainability Leadership Award
ReNew Power Centre of Excellence for Energy and Environment felicitated the winners of the 2nd Annual Sustainability Leadership Award at a ceremony held in IIT Delhi, today.
The awards, instituted jointly by the ReNew Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Energy and Environment and the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) recognises demonstrated action and exemplary leadership by students of IIT Delhi with respect to climate change/ sustainability and environment with a view to enhance awareness and interest among students.
To mark this occasion, ReNew Power and IIT Delhi organized a Sustainability Leadership Dialogue where Dr. Madhukar Gupta, Additional Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises gave away the awards to winners.
The winning candidates, Dr Shelaka Gupta, Aali Pant and Smarthveer Sidana, all students of IIT, were selected post evaluation of 19 entries by the selection committee comprising of senior professors from IIT Delhi and senior members of ReNew Power.
Dr. Shelaka was awarded for her work on catalytic conversion of biomass-derived platform molecules, Ms Aali Pant for her work in demonstrating suitability of coal ash as an economical, environmentally sustainable fill material behind reinforced soil structures and Mr. Smarthveer Sidana for his work within IIT on increasing awareness about sustainability. Each of the three winners were felicitated with a cash prize of ₹ 25,000.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Madhukar Gupta, Additional Secretary, Department of Public Enterprises said, “Sustainability as a stream needs to be a part of our consciousness. It offers a better route to development and the current generation of students have a wonderful opportunity to work at the intersection of technology, business and reality to find solutions that can have an impact on generations.”
Prof. V Ramgopal Rao, Director IITD, commenting on the award said “There is very often a gap between what industry is working on and where academia is moving. It is therefore critical that industry and academia come together and find solutions that have a lasting impact. I commend ReNew Power for instituting these awards and hope that they will serve as encouragement to young researchers to pursue sustainable solutions that improve quality of life around us.”
Congratulating the winners, Sumant Sinha, Chairman and MD, ReNew Power explained “ReNew Power Centre of Excellence for Energy & Environment at IIT Delhi is now almost three years old and the purpose for us to institute the award was to foster collaboration and encourage students to find newer ways to address climate emergency that we are all set to face in the coming decades. One can’t stress enough the importance of sustainability for not only businesses but also for our next generation. I congratulate the award winners for finding new solutions and hope that they will continue to work in this area for the benefit of society.”
The award ceremony was followed by a special lecture by Prof. Navroz Dubhash from Centre for Policy Research on ‘Sustainable development in the warming world; India’s climate and energy trajectory’.
The session concluded with an engaging panel discussion on the theme, ‘Clean energy finance gap – funding the battle against climate change’ moderated by Urmi Goswami from the Economic Times. The panellists included Ankur Saboo from L&T Financial Services, Naveen Thayyil from IIT Delhi and D Muthukumaran from ReNew Power.
About ReNew Power
ReNew Power Private Limited is India’s largest renewable energy IPP (Independent Power Producer) in terms of total energy generation capacity. As of December 2019, ReNew had a total capacity exceeding 8 GW of wind and solar power assets across the country, including commissioned and under development projects. It develops, builds, owns and operates utility scale wind and solar energy projects as well as distributed solar energy projects that generate energy for commercial and industrial customers. ReNew has a strong track record of organic and inorganic growth having nearly doubled its operational capacity in each of the last three Fiscal Years. ReNew’s broad base of equity investors include Goldman Sachs, JERA, ADIA, CPPIB, and GEF SACEF India.
