Green energy goals achievable if we take the right steps immediately, says Nandan Nilekani

India can leapfrog traditional technologies - like it did with mobile devices over landlines and Aadhaar over physical identity for its citizens - with green tech to address the issue of climate change, said Nandan Nilekani, cofounder and non-executive chairman of Infosys on Friday.

Nilekani was speaking virtually with Bharti Enterprises chairperson Sunil Bharti Mittal at the InFinity Forum, organised by Bloomberg and the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). He said in future energy will need to come from new tech and that countries like India that have not invested in legacy infrastructure will be able to leapfrog to make those investments in newer areas.

"Countries that don't have a legacy of (investing in) technology for the last 30-40 years can leapfrog, and I think the same principle can be applied in (going) green. It requires good strategic planning, but I think we can get there," Nilekani said, referring to India's example of mobile phones, digital banking accounts and Aadhaar. Mittal agreed with Nilekani, saying that the adoption of the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity to take banking to the unbanked has had a big effect, with Airtel Payments Bank being able to get 100 million registered users, with 40 million monthly active users, even without investing on physical infrastructure and not requiring citizens to go to a bank.

He added that further advances in achieving India's net zero ambition will be driven by increased digital connectivity that will drive technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, which will also help cut down on carbon emissions.

Airtel's towers already function in a dynamic manner - powering off and on based on demand, he added. "The power of high-speed broadband connectivity will spin off a lot of benefits to the country and, of course, the world, and will contribute towards my making the world greener," Mittal said.