Author’s Note
by Vineet Mittal | 13 April, 2020
A social entrepreneur, pioneer and evangelist of sustainable development Vineet has been a vanguard of the clean energy transition in emerging economies across Asia and Africa. His passion for sustainability originates from the ancient Indian Vedic philosophy of ‘Mata bhoomi putro aham prithiwaya” - The Earth is to be protected like a mother and nurtured for future generations.
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Vineet Mittal is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple large-scale businesses. After creating successful unicorns in the BPO and IT space, he floated Welspun Energy in 2010, becoming India’s largest renewable energy company with an installed base of 1.2 GW. In 2016, the platform was monetized successfully with the sale to Tata Power at a US $ 1.4 bn valuations. The Thermal power business of the group was also sold successfully to Adani Group.
He strongly believes that energy is inversely proportional to poverty. With increased energy access, India can overcome its poverty problems and provide its citizens with a better quality of life. Driven by his passion for sustainability and clean energy transition, in 2017, he floated the second platform and named it ‘Avaada’. Avaada means the Promise of a sustainable future and comes from two words, ‘Ayurveda’ and ‘Vaada’, which means the science of life and Promise, respectively.
Mr Mittal is a strong proponent of advancing sustainability through robust business models. He has been actively advocating the concepts of Community Development Certificates (CDC) and Grow Forest Certificate (GFC) with the governments he developed. Both the instruments target creating a marketplace for achieving sustainability objectives of increasing forest cover, developing social infrastructure in terms of healthcare access, education, and so on through a strong incentive mechanism.
Mr Mittal is a regular speaker on clean energy transition at important national and international events. A leading and influential industry voice, he is a regular invitee in all policy consultations by bodies like Niti Aayog, Ministries and Govt. departments, etc.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Mr Mittal currently holds the position of Chairman of the CII sub-committee on Hydrogen usage and standards, Chair of the CII National Council on climate change and Chair of the ‘Make in India’ Task Force. In 2012 and 2014, Vineet was conferred with the “Solar Man of the Year” title. He is an active member speaker at World Economic Forum. He is on B20’s task force for financing growth and infrastructure and Energy, Resource Efficiency & Sustainability. He is also the former India Chair of the World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD) ‘s Renewables Low Carbon Technology platform program.
Kishor Nair heads the Renewable Energy Business at Avaada Power as its Chief Operating Officer and Director on the Board and carries a rich leadership experience in Business Development, Project Management, and Strategic Business Planning in the Energy Sector for both domestic and international projects.
He had been instrumental in developing Avaada as the market leader in Solar Projects in the country with about 1 GW Solar operational portfolio, first time in the country, in a very short span of over three years. During the last 12 years, he has been closely working with Industry Associations and Chambers for policy advocacy and to raise industry concerns with various State Govt. and Central Govt. for the Renewable Energy sector. He was part of many international business delegations and spoke at many domestic and international events. Currently, he is the co-chair of the Renewable energy council of Assocham.
He has a global experience of over 36 years of leadership positions in Business Development, Project Management and execution of large infrastructure projects with companies such as NTPC, Bechtel, and Reliance& Welspun / Avaada, all leaders in their sectors.
He has provided strong Leadership to the EPC division of Reliance Power in Bagging and executing various Mega power projects, including UMPPs, on a Turnkey basis. These projects created new benchmarks in the Power Industry for cost leadership and fast-track execution.
Through his tenure in Bechtel, he has significant international experience in Project Management in various business lines such as Power, Mining and Metals, and Petrochemicals. He started his career with NTPC in the year 1984 and was involved in project management of coal and gas-based thermal power projects and of EHV and HVDC transmission lines.
He is widely recognized in the power industry. He has diverse experience in developing and executing many complex projects, ranging from supercritical to mega and Ultra mega projects within the most dynamic situations of time constraints and environmental challenges.
Sindoor Mittal is the Vice Chairperson of Avaada Group, India’s largest clean energy company. An alumnus of Stanford Graduate School & ISB- Hyderabad, Sindoor has led the organization to become a key player in India’s renewable energy space.
Sindoor started her career with a $500 million private equity fund. Her urge to become an entrepreneur soon found its way into quitting the job and starting her first business at 24. She spearheaded Equity fundraising by bringing marquee investors like PTT – Thailand, ADB, DEG, FMO & Proparco to India through Avaada. She successfully handled the transaction of the organization’s ~1140 MW renewable portfolio to Tata Power. For her achievements in the area of entrepreneurship, Sindoor has been conferred with the “AsiaOne Young Asian Entrepreneurs 2019-20” & “Women Leader of the Year- 2018” awards.
Sindoor is considered an industry leader and a Keynote speaker in leading forums. She has been a speaker at events like RE-INVEST, Economic Times’ Global Business Summit, and IFC’s Climate Business Forum. She is an active participant at the World Economic Forum, Davos. At the ‘Madhya Pradesh Investor Summit’ she shared the dais with the Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sindoor focuses on strategy, leadership development, fundraising, and commissioning of solar energy capacities. In her pursuit, Sindoor has built a high-performing team and partnerships with global technology companies and system integrators from the energy sector. She believes combining a cohesive team with a strong focus on execution is the key to creating a successful energy company.
Today she relentlessly pursues her belief that India can accelerate its growth by encouraging women’s greater economic participation. Sindoor is keenly involved in the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility endeavour, which focuses on providing girls education, a clean environment and health to the communities in which they work.