Cleantech Group in India… Finally!

A year ago when I first contemplated the idea of a cleantech blog focused on India, there was precious little to report or write about.

In February 2007, at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, while investors and media alike feted China’s emergence as a cleantech leader, I wondered whether India was on anyone’s radar. “India” was conspicuous by its absence but for an occasional appearance in a sentence that began “China and India…” Even Vinod Khosla himself responded he didn’t have enough time when asked if he was doing anything with biofuels in India yet.

Well, what a difference a year makes! At the recently concluded Cleantech Forum XVI, the Cleantech Group finally announced its expansion to India. Mr. Khosla himself will serve as Chair, while Jaswinder Kaur (executive director of IVCA) will head the effort as Country Director. A handful of Indian VC/PE firms including SUN Group, Sequoia, IDFC and Nexus have already signed up as members.

All very exciting, no doubt, but does this really mean anything? Are we going to see a significant up-tick in number of cleantech entrepreneurs in India? How about cleantech R&D? Will the VC’s have enough deal flow to present significant funding opportunities? Or will they confine their activity to project finance type deals?

Any one’s guess, of course, but I think understanding the context for cleantech in India and contrasting that with the US and China will present us some pointers as to what to expect. That’s precisely what I will attempt in future posts here. Stay tuned!