ASSESSMENTS

Will India Find Its Place in the Sun With Solar Power?

Aug 22, 2018 | 18:35 GMT

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shake hands at the first conference of the International Solar Alliance, a cooperative effort their countries launched in 2015. India hopes to use its role in the organization to enhance its soft power in developing countries.

(LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

India's solar policy expertise, and governmental focus on the International Solar Alliance (ISA), which it launched jointly with France in 2015, will help advance the initiative to scale up solar capacity in developing countries.
India will use its role in the ISA to try to enhance its influence in the alliance's member states, including several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The ISA will probably achieve its goals to boost solar power in target countries and provide opportunities to the Indian private sector, but it will fall short of the political gains abroad that India is hoping for.

Since gaining independence in 1947, India has aspired to be a leader in the developing world. Its strategy for achieving that goal has traditionally relied on what political scientist Joseph Nye calls "soft power": exerting influence through attraction rather than coercion. India used the legacy of its nonviolent freedom movement to increase its influence abroad -- particularly among newly independent colonies in Africa and Asia -- during the first decades following its independence. And after shifting its focus to trade liberalization and integration with advanced economies over the past quarter-century, India today is once again trying to make inroads with developing countries, this time using solar power....

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