Shri S. K. Sarangi, Secretary MNRE gave the Keynote Address at the Industry Day event, “Empowering India’s Solar Future,” organized by NCPRE at IIT Bombay on November 8, 2025. In his address, Shri Sarangi described the remarkable achievements made by India in Solar Energy in the last decade, and also touched upon the ambitious plans for the coming years, including 1800 GW of renewable energy by 2047. The Secretary also requested the industry leaders to collaborate and interact with the R&D personnel in the area of solar energy at IIT Bombay. Dr. Sangita Kasture, R&D Advisor at MNRE, mentioned the state-of-the-art facilities set up by MNRE at NCPRE. The Director of IIT Bombay, Prof. Shireesh Kedare, welcomed the Secretary and Dr. Kasture to the campus, and said that IITB has been working in solar energy for many years. He exhorted industry to take advantage of the expertise present. Prof. B. G. Fernandes, PI of NCPRE, gave an overview of the activities and developments at NCPRE, including the launch of 3 spin-off companies. The Secretary then officially launched the newest of these companies, ART-PV India, in the presence of its founder Prof. Dinesh Kabra. He also inaugurated the latest generation module simulator, the Passan Model HighLIGHT SMT Lab 4.8. The Secretary also took the opportunity to visit several of the NCPRE laboratories.
The Industry Day event had 3 themed panel discussions, “Solar Deployment and Manufacturing” moderated by Prof. Narendra Shiradkar, “Next-Gen PV: Breakthroughs in Materials and Efficiency” moderated by Prof. Dinesh Kabra, and “Integrating Solar into Grids: Challenges and Solutions” moderated by Prof. Kishore Chatterjee. During the afternoon session, mechanisms for collaboration between industry and IIT Bombay were discussed in detail, led by the Dean (R&D), Prof. Sachin Patwardhan. Over 100 participants from many solar companies were present at the event. Among the participants at the event were Shri Subrahmanyam Pulipaka, CEO of the National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI). Solar companies whose leaders were present included Waaree Energies, First Solar, ReNewsys, Grew Energy, NTPC Green Energy, Tata Power, Grid India, Anvia Technologies, RSOLEC, Holtec Asia, Reliance Industries, Selec Controls and India Energy Storage Alliance.