India to raise over $350 million in bonds to fund clean energy programs

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to raise over $350 million from a bond sale to fund its renewable energy development schemes in a bid to achieve its ambitious clean energy goals.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set a target of raising India's renewable energy generating capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022, requiring about $100 billion in investments, as part of the fight against climate change by the world's third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter and to supply power to all of the country's 1.3 billion people.

India's cabinet, chaired by Modi, has approved raising 23.6 billion Indian rupees ($365 million) in bonds through the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) for developing additional capacity in the renewable energy sector.

The move is a part of the government's 2016-17 financial budget proposal in which it allocated 40 billion rupees ($617.81 million) to IREDA to issue government-serviced bonds.

IREDA, a government-run financial institution which provides assistance for projects relating to renewable energy, has already raised 16.4 billion rupees of the allocated sum through bond issues.

($1 = 64.7450 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Greg Mahlich)