FICCI launches Legislators-Business Forum on low carbon local area development

The capital witnessed the launch of the Legislators-Business Forum jointly organized by FICCI and the Climate Parliament India.

The "Legislators-Business Forum on Low Carbon Local Area Development" is aimed at creating an interface between legislators and corporates, where they can discover common interests for executing local area low carbon initiatives .

The forum was jointly inaugurated by Hon'ble Minister of State(IC), Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, and Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon'ble Minister(IC) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines. They expressed that this platform will open up opportunities to explore the avenues for collaboration between legislators and corporate implementing low carbon projects at the grassroots. Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Past President FICCI and Chair of the FICCI Council on Sustainability, Energy and Water joined the Ministers for the launch of the Forum.

The launch was attended by eminent parliamentarians across different party lines, CEOs and CSR heads of companies, who are implementing low-carbon solutions. They provided insights on how industry can collaborate with legislators to execute low carbon projects on the ground in the various geographies encompassing the legislative constituencies.

"The Forum is being launched at a crucial time when India needs to balance its economic growth imperatives with environmental sustainability. Decentralized low-carbon solutions targeted at rural, remote and marginalized populations are key catalysts for India's inclusive growth, keeping our development deficit in mind", Dr. A Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI.

"The need of the hour is to build on successful service and entrepreneurship models towards the private provisioning of public goods in areas of clean energy, water, waste management and sanitation, where this Forum could help push local entrepreneurship by legislators and in turn help in creating jobs and wealth for huge chunk of the population" Ms Naina Lal Kidwai, Past President FICCI and Chairman Max Financial Services.

"I believe, this endeavor can escalate the potential to scale up low carbon growth exponentially, this Business Forum will not only showcase our collective resolve in climate change, but also promote ' bottom up' low carbon growth", said Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State (IC), Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

"India is leading from the front in terms of carrying out the most massive renewable energy expansion program in the world. The share of LED lighting has moved from 0.2% to 16% in India. Going forward, this forum should expand its engagement to press, public, businesses, policy makers, and state legislators to encourage others. Moreover, there is a need to change the mindset of India that everything needs to rest on the laurels of subsidies, but instead could be made into economically viable projects. I am very happy that FICCI and Climate Parliament have taken up this unique initiative between members of parliament and the corporate sector", added Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines.