New York, Nov 17: Eight Indians and Indian-origin persons, including World Bank President Ajay Banga and co-founder of Ola Electric Bhavish Aggarwal, have been featured in Time magazine’s first-ever list of the world’s most influential leaders driving business to real climate action.
‘Time 100 Climate’ list, which includes CEOs, founders, philanthropists, musicians, policymakers and government officials from across the world, comes ahead of the 2023 UN Climate Change Conference scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from November 30.
Along with Banga and Aggarwal, Rajiv J Shah, president of The Rockefeller Foundation; Geeta Aiyer, founder and president of Boston Common Asset Management, Jigar Shah, director of the US Department of Energy Loan Programmes Office; Manoj Sinha, CEO and co-founder of Husk Power Systems; Seema Wadhwa, executive director for environmental stewardship for Kaiser Permanente and Amit Kumar Sinha, managing director and CEO of Mahindra Lifespaces, are also on the list.
Banga, 64, who began his five-year term as World Bank Group president in June, is ushering in a new mission for the institution: eradicating poverty while fighting climate change, according to Time.
“If you can’t breathe and you can’t drink clean water, there’s very little point in eradicating poverty,” he said at the 2023 World Bank Group-IMF Annual Meetings in Morocco.
India is the world’s most populous country, and it is likely to be the most vital to transition to sustainable transportation. Some 70 per cent of the vehicles on India’s roads are mopeds and scooters, and Aggarwal, 38, is leading the path to electrifying them, the magazine said.
This year, Ola launched its most affordable electric scooter ever, priced at INR 79,999 (about USD 960).
Rajiv Shah’s The Rockefeller Foundation works to ensure that all initiatives and investment strategies are focused through a climate lens.
This year, the Rockefeller Foundation partnered with the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet to launch the Coal to Clean Credit Initiative. The aim is to develop a new carbon finance standard to spur a just transition away from coal-fired power plants to renewable energy in emerging economies, the magazine said. (PTI)
