Over the last couple of months I've invested a healthy amount of time in engaging with US representatives working at the intersection of academia,industry and policy. Earlier in May the US Dept of commerce organised a “Select USA campaign” that was meant to position the USA as the leading destination for investment and I had an opportunity to connect with several Foreign service officers in Delhi promoting USA to Indian entrepreneurs. Before that, last year in December, I met online with researchers at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to understand how they are using AI to accelerate fusion research. My engagement continued with several non profit organisations like American society of Metals , Society for automotive engineers and American institute of physics —plasma division and it enabled me to get the big picture view of the US research landscape. Which is why I was really excited to attend the inaugural genesis mission summit held last week to see what ann...
It was a great honor for me to observe the United Nations General Assembly informal interactive dialogue on Accelerating the global energy transition. President Annalena Baerbock led the discussion emphasizing that while the transition to renewable energy is happening at an unprecedented speed it is important to ensure that this transition is fair [1]. Her statement was backed by numbers. Renewable energy deployment has been rapid but it has also been concentrated in few prosperous countries. Nearly 80 % of new RE capacity was built in China,EU & the USA while Africa accounted for a meager 1.6%. Amid the optimism surrounding RE we often tend to forget that what truly enables RE at scale is massive industrial capacity. This is clear if we trace the supply chain of solar panels,wind turbines ,magnets and EV. Meanwhile people who need energy the most have no access to either renewable or fossil based power. Nearly 565 Million people in subsaharan Africa la...