Green money spreading roots in Indian economy

Issuance of green bonds up 20x in 10 years

- KUNAL DOLEY

MAHESH APTE (NAME changed), owner of a Pune-based MSME, had been considering a rooftop solar installation for quite some time now, but faced limitations due to a lack of financial service providers and time-consuming disbursal processes.

Enter Ecofy, a green-only non-banking financial company (NBFC) that provides financial solutions for the electric vehicle(EV), solar, and SME sectors. “Ecofy assisted me with financing to install solar panels on my rooftop. Their loan process was seamless—simple and fully digital. With a very quick approval process, I faced no issues in getting the loan approved,’ Apte said.

Platforms like Ecofy are focusing on ‘green finance’—which essentially represents the allocation of capital toward projects and technologies that benefit the environment—building on the belief that climate action and financial growth can go hand in hand.

It’s a ‘necessity’ that even the government is accepting. At a conference earlier this year, Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav acknowledged that green finance is no longer a niche sector, as it now forms the “backbone of resilient, competitive economies”.

"GREEN FINANCE IS about restructuring the flow of capital so that every investment in infrastructure, industry, transport or agriculture contributes to sustainability rather than undermines it," the minister stated.