The International Solar Alliance (ISA) has become a juridical personality following the signing of a Host Country Agreement with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The agreement gives ISA the power to contract, acquire, and dispose of movable and immovable properties, as well as the ability to institute and defend legal proceedings.

A statement issued by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) said that under this agreement, ISA will enjoy privileges, applicable tax concessions, and immunities that will enable it to independently perform its function and carry out its programs.

The privileges being given to ISA are derived from Article 10 of the Framework Agreement that came into force on December 6, 2017. That agreement made ISA the first international intergovernmental treaty-based organization to be headquartered in India.

The Host Country Agreement was signed by General V.K. Singh, Minister of State of the Ministry of External Affairs, and Upendra Tripathy, the interim director general of ISA. Union Minister of Power R.K. Singh was also present at the signing event.

At the event, Singh said ISA has the potential to change the global developmental paradigm by making energy available to less developed tropical countries at affordable rates in an easily deployable manner.

The minister also mentioned that many countries have shown interest in learning from India’s experience in renewable energy. He emphasized the need for India’s industry to set up infrastructure in these countries.

The inaugural conference of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) was held  earlier this month in New Delhi. At the conference, the Indian government pledged $1.4 billion to fund the development of solar projects in 15 African and South Asian countries that are part of the ISA consortium. The conference was attended by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The ISA is an Indian initiative that was jointly launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of France on November 30, 2015, in Paris, on the sidelines of COP-21, the UN Climate Conference. The ISA seeks to address the obstacles to deploying solar energy at scale through the improved harmonization and aggregation of demand from solar-rich countries between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Image credit: ISA