We want to ensure that there is no energy poverty in the country: Dr Praveer Sinha

The CEO and MD of Tata Power, talks about India's potential in the power sector, its renewable energy capabilities, leadership lessons, and more

By Forbes India

Published: Mar 6, 2025 01:35:57 PM IST

Updated: Mar 13, 2025 05:56:07 PM IST

The next fireside chat of the night was with Dr Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power Company Limited. The conversation about his leadership journey, vision for the energy sector, and fundamentals of shaping the future of EV infrastructure in India Image: Madhu Kapparath

The final session at the 14th edition of the Forbes India Leadership Awards, held on February 28 at the Jio Convention World Centre in Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla Complex was all about power. Dr Praveer Sinha, MD and CEO of Tata Power Company Ltd, spoke with CNBC-TV 18’s Nigel D’Souza on the future of energy, on India’s renewable power capabilities, Tata Power’s mission to ensure each Indian household gets electricity, and his leadership lessons.

Sinha, who won the Forbes India Leadership Award for CEO of the Year in 2024, shed light on India being an aspirational country. And power will play a pivotal role. “I am fortunate that I work in a sector which is growing extremely fast. The aim is to provide access to energy to people in all parts of the country, and I'm excited about the opportunity,” said the 62-year-old.

Throughout its over-a-century history, Tata Power has consistently led the way in embracing new technologies, Sinha pointed out. Such an innovative mindset has fostered a culture of experimentation within the company, allowing it to evolve beyond traditional business models. In 1915, over a century ago, Tata Power established India's first hydroelectric plant. More recently, the company was a key shareholder and promoter of the Indian Energy Exchange, an electronic power trading platform. In 2020, Tata Power targeted to become net-zero by 2050; it was later advanced to 2045.

It is imperative for the world to achieve net-zero targets as soon as possible as there have been extreme changes in climate conditions such as heat waves in various parts of the globe. During his conversation, Sinha touched upon this briefly, pointing out that with climate change, demand for power has also increased.

Sinha believes at a time when there is an increasing need for power, India is fortunate that it has solar energy in abundance. “We have more than 300 days of sunshine, and I think we need to exploit that. We need to use it to the maximum,” he said. He believes that a transition to renewable energy is extremely important, given the climate change that one is experiencing and the government’s push in investing resources in the production of renewable energy.

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“With its great legacy, Tata Power will play an integral part in the transformation that will happen in the country in the coming years as well,” Sinha added. As of March 2024, Tata Power had 38 percent of its 14,453 GW capacity coming from renewables. By 2030, this figure is expected to rise to 70 percent from a mix of solar, wind and hydro.

With a personal and company-wide goal to provide energy access to people in all parts of the country, Sinha considers himself blessed to be a part of the Tata Group. The company’s purpose is to produce clean, affordable energy in large quantity. “We want to ensure that there is no energy poverty in the country. We can now actually give people access to clean energy, owing to technological innovations, something which was difficult to do earlier,” he explained.

The urgency to get rid of energy poverty in India, highlights Sinha, is because of the hardships that people in certain parts of the country face for something as basic as electricity. “There are large parts of this country and also large parts of the world where people do not have access to energy.

And when I talk of access, it's affordable energy that I am talking about,” he emphasised. Citing the example of some villages in India where people collect mobile phones of their family members and fellow villagers, and then go to nearby towns to charge the phones—once in three days—Sinha spoke about the importance of providing 24x7 electricity to Indians across the country. “What we take for granted—24x7 electricity—has a different meaning in many other places. It means 24 hours in seven days,” Sinha said.

About keeping his team motivated, Sinha spoke about the importance of empathy and humility. “One of the things that we always keep working on is humility and how that will bring us the best technology among us. Because when you have humility, you always have a purpose to learn,” he said. Sinha believes in being a student always and striving to learn more. “At Tata Power, we like to see ourselves as a young company, always trying to learn new things, and never saying that we know everything. The spirit of trying new things is always there," he concluded.