Life is unpredictable. In business, it’s twice as bad. It changes our perspective, our focus and our actions. We tend not to look out far and dream. We become much more conservative in our decisions. But in business, the opposite of unpredictable isn’t predictable, it is strategic. So the trick is to strategize and eliminate as much of unpredictability as possible. Then, you can plan for pretty much everything and sidestep the roadblocks. Take a look at the greatest entrepreneurs on the planet and you’ll find this pattern running throughout their work. Over the last few days, the world has turned upside down in pandemic and global economic conditions have dramatically changed. That makes Abhijeet more relevant as he talk about climatic sustainability before economic profitability and has been successful in addressing it strategically for many of projects he was involved into.
He is a ‘Technocrat’ turned ‘Policy Entrepreneur’ with his cross-domain consulting in Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) and conceptualization of energy infrastructure innovations like Annuity Hybrid E-Mobility (AHEM) for National Highway for Electric Vehicle (A prototypical transformative mobility program to convert National Highways and Expressways into E-Highways with Charging Stations and Public Transport fleets) under EoDB of ASSAR supported by NITI Aayog, Ministry of Science & Technology and current Cabinet Ministers.
He is currently in additional charge of Project Director – National Highways for Electric Vehicles and also on Advisory Board of Steel Users Federation of India and India Think Council. Member- Belgium Luxembourg Business Association, Member- Indo Dutch Chamber of Business & Sciences and has been a well known corporate’s consultant for Govt of India’s flagship initiatives and programs.
We bring sustainability on center-stage because climate is tomorrows key responsibility of business and if you priorities climate, we help defining you its affordability
To reduce the impact of climate change, and adapt to its effects, India with other 194 countries adopted the first ever universal, legally binding global climate deal at the Paris Climate Conference in December 2015. Transition from using fossil fuel combustion vehicles to electric-powered vehicles was one of them. PM Modi in his Independence Day speech, announced that India will produce 175 GW of non-fossil fuel as part of its commitment to the Paris Climate agreement. He said at Summit that “We must accept that if we have to overcome a serious challenge like climate change, then what we are doing at the moment is just not enough”.
Before joining currently Prime Minister of India then CM Gujarat Sri Narendra Modi’s Citizen for Accountable Governance (CAG) campaign during 2014 Parliamentary polls; Abhijeet started his career as a corporate banker, he later stepped in project consulting of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) initiatives with his expertise in delivering strategic level policy and ground level financial models for climate and green energy projects. He further served as Program Director at ASSAR Studies in climate initiatives across India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Extending his services to other international bodies, he worked with projects under UNDP India, UNICEF India, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CARIAA, IDRC, CRDI, Red Cross, Red Crescent and other studies under Universities of Cape Town, Ghana, Nairobi, East Anglia, Namibia funded by Dept for International Development UK-AIDs in varied ASSAR projects.
Abhijeet is a frequent traveller, Urdu Poet and taken as no-nonsense keynote speaker at public forums and news channels. On pro-bono he also contributes as Corporate resources for Centre for Entrepreneurship Development – NIFTEM (Ministry of Food Processing Industry) and on Board of Studies of AMITY University and also a Corporate Counsel to ENACTUS (DCAC & SRCC, Delhi University)
The E-Highway Story
Being the Fourth largest automobile market in the world has not come easy for India. Similarly the road to Electric Mobility adoption in the country also has faced lots of difficulties and is currently piled up with pressing challenges. Industry stakeholders admit that Indian E-Mobility sector has huge potential. But also in burning need of Ease of Doing Business. EoDB Division of ASSAR has stepped into the E-mobility sector in 2018 with the Reform, Perform and Transform mantra of our Prime Minister Modi.
National Highway for Electric Vehicle (NHEV) an Ease of Doing Business initiative by ASSAR has recently completed its TECH-Trial Run of India’s 1st E-Highway between Delhi and Agra on Yamuna Expressway in Dec. 2020. Getting its lead technocrat – Mr. Abhijeet Sinha, National Program Director of Ease of Doing Business also Project Director of NHEV (in additional charge) for an exclusive interview to answer industry questions related to business barriers in E-mobility, need of E-Highways, banking challenges, hybrid financing model, emerging procurement tools, charging station cost, and allocation to investors, its break-even and actual utilization; is the most common request we receive from media houses.
Abhijeet’s 20 million E-highway challenge raised the utilization of Civil & Charging infrastructure CAPEX utilisation by 35 % as opposed to existing 3 to 4% in the cities and aims at 0.3 to 9% change of total traffic in a year. This holistic plan also marries “Make in India” Initiative to promote indigenous production of e- vehicles and create a booming market place for ancillary industries.
We genuinely fail to make him available for all occasions and media interactions due to technical and operational seminars and budgetary exercises og ongoing pilot projects. But we try to consolidate his interactions with mainstream media at one place, his technical opinions and remarks on financial viability or economical dynamics put together here for common usages and references.
EoDB NEWS is one of such archive of his opinions and he also write occasionally for couple of tech magazines and news portals.