India Launches Global Solar Initiatives for Inclusive Energy Transition at ISA Assembly

India announced major global solar initiatives at the 8th International Solar Alliance (ISA) Assembly in New Delhi on October 28, 2025. Key programmes include SUNRISE to promote solar recycling and circularity, One Sun One World One Grid (OSOWOG) for cross-border solar grid links, and the Global Capability Centre (GCC) - a “Silicon Valley for Solar.” India also launched a SIDS Procurement Platform with the World Bank to strengthen solar access for island nations.

These initiatives mark ISA’s shift from advocacy to implementation. SUNRISE will turn solar waste into green industry opportunities, while OSOWOG will connect regional grids across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. The GCC and ISA Academy will boost innovation and training through a global solar knowledge network.

President Droupadi Murmu urged nations to make the solar revolution people-centric, ensuring no community is left behind. She said progress should be measured in “lives illuminated, not megawatts.” The new initiatives reinforce India’s leadership in global solar development and its push to position the Global South at the centre of clean energy growth ahead of COP30 in Brazil.

The ISA initiatives collectively mark an important structural shift in the alliance's operating model - from advocacy and target-setting to operational programme delivery.

SUNRISE tackles what is becoming a first-order sustainability question in the sector: how the industry manages the growing volume of end-of-life solar modules that will need to be recycled through the 2030s and beyond. OSOWOG addresses the underlying grid architecture required to move solar generation across time zones and demand centres.

The Global Capability Centre framed as a "Silicon Valley for Solar", combined with the SIDS Procurement Platform partnership with the World Bank, positions India as a coordinating hub for Global South solar innovation and procurement. President Murmu's framing - "lives illuminated, not megawatts" - signals an explicit shift toward equity-and-access measurement alongside conventional capacity metrics.

For solar-industry participants, financiers and multilateral partners, Cognitud's climate action, responsible investment and circular economy teams help clients position for the emerging solar-recycling and cross-border-grid opportunities, structure participation in Global South solar-financing platforms, and prepare the impact-measurement architecture that increasingly determines eligibility for concessional and climate-linked capital.