India needs to have security of energy supply to reach its potential: UK Secretary of State Grant Shapps

UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Grant Shapps on Friday said India needs to have security of energy supply in order to reach its potential.

“I think everyone knows that for India to reach its potential, it has to have security of supply of energy. And we also know simultaneously that increasingly we have to transition as a world to being zero carbon,” the UK Secretary of State said while speaking on India, Britain joint projects.

Shapps said: “If we don’t make sure the world has better access to secure energy, then we’ll never really have true security in the future.”

“I think everyone knows that for India to reach its potential, it has to have security of supply of energy,” he said on the sidelines of the G20 14th Clean Energy ministerial meeting and 8th Mission Innovation meeting in Goa.

Shapps further said: “Earlier this week on Wednesday, I welcomed Tata in 4-billion-pound investment into a Gigafactory which is going in the UK. It’s a massive investment. I’m staying in a Tata hotel here in Goa.”

He further said: “Yesterday, I was with JCB, you’ll know them for their diggers. They tell me about half the diggers in India building the country are JCB diggers. They’re built here. It’s an entirely Indian supply chain. But it’s a fantastic example the other way around of how both countries investing very, very deeply in each other’s economies right now.”

UK Secretary of State for Energy Security said India, and Britain “learn from each other and I think that’s a great advantage. India has the advantage of scale, both geologically and with a number of people. And it means that new markets and new ideas can be tested at a really vast scale. The UK has the advantage with energy, and particularly the transition of, for example, having built the world’s largest offshore wind farms.”

“We have the largest wind farm offshore off the North Sea. And I know that that’s really created a lot of interest. I know that, for example, India wants to have 30 gigawatts of offshore wind, I think, by 2030. So there’s a lot we can learn from each other in every direction,” he said.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal recently visited the UK to hold meetings with ministers from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member countries to discuss the progress of the Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA).

Piyush Goyal held a meeting with Standard Chartered Group Chief Executive, Bill Winters, and discussed how India’s economic growth presents an array of opportunities for the group to expand its footprint in the country. 

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Goyal stated, “Met Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive, Standard Chartered. Discussed how India’s stellar economic growth presents a vast array of opportunities for the group to collaborate & expand its footprint in the country.” 

Piyush Goyal also interacted with members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) UK Chapter. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants every Indian mindset to be that of a developed nation’s mind. 

Goyal said that India is now the fifth largest economy and recalled the time when India was considered a fragile economy. Goyal called Environmental, social and governance (ESG) “important” and said that India is committed to it. He stated that people are now looking at investments coming from India. (ANI)