ISA Gets Full Time Interim Director General

• Upendra Tripathy has been appointed as the full time interim director general of the International Solar Alliance
• Tripathy is an IAS Officer, served as MNRE secretary and comes from the Karnataka cadre
• His appointment was made official by Indian MNRE head Piyush Goyal and Ségolène Royal of France

India headquartered International Solar Alliance (ISA) has its first full head. Upendra Tripathy has been appointed as the interim director general (IDG) of the organization.

Tripathy's appointment was confirmed by the Piyush Goyal, Indian Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines and his French counterpart Ségolène Royal, Minister for Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs.

An Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Officer of Karnataka cadre, Tripathy served as the secretary in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) from April 1, 2014 until October 31, 2016.

Launched on November 30, 2015 during the Climate Summit in Paris, the ISA brings together nations rich in solar resource. A brainchild of Indian premier Narendra Modi, it is strongly supported by French President François Hollande. The two had laid the foundation stone of the ISA and inaugurated the interim secretariat at the National Institute of Solar Energy in Gurgaon in January 2016.

India has committed to contribute $27 million to the ISA for creating corpus, building infrastructure and recurring expenditure over five year duration. A total of 121 countries are signatories of ISA.

In April 2016, India and France together launched new ISA programs on financing and agriculture (see International Solar Alliance In New York).