India, USA signed MoU on cooperation to establish PACESetter Fund

India and the USA on 30 June 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation to establish the PACESetter Fund in New Delhi.

The agreement was signed by Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) and Richard Verma, United States Ambassador to India.

The PACESetter Fund is meant to support the Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the USA-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE).

It was established with a corpus of about 50 crore rupees with both the countries contributing equally.

To oversee the fund, a steering Committee comprising the Secretary of the MNRE and the United States Ambassador to India, and three representatives from each side has been constituted.

Features of USA-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE)

• It is a flagship initiative on clean energy that combines the resources of several U.S. agencies and GOI Ministries.
• It is aimed accelerating the commercialization of off-grid clean energy through early-stage grant funding grants to develop and test innovative products, systems and business models.

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