New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) India and the US Tuesday agreed to create a joint implementation committee to regularly monitor and further the PEACE (Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy) initiative launched in 2013 under the India-US Energy Dialogue.
This year’s talks, following an earlier postponement due to the row over the treatment of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, was co-chaired by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
PEACE promotes increased energy access in off-grid, unserved and underserved rural areas and is developing several priority activities, including the formation of an Off-Grid Clean Energy Alliance for off-grid business models.
“Our dialogue has been very successful,” Ahluwalia told media persons after the talks.
“Ahluwalia and Moniz discussed progress made by the working groups in renewable energy and new technologies, cooperation in shale gas, LNG imports, energy efficiency and low carbon technologies,” an external affairs ministry statement here said.
“In all these efforts (PEACE), the private sector engagement is central,” Moniz said.
The India-US Energy Dialogue, part of the broader strategic dialogue, was launched in May 2005 and last held in Washington in September 2012.