S&T Trends

Reviewing the National Solar Mission in India from the lens of Mission Oriented Innovation Policies

Avinash Kshitij, Kasturi Mandal

Abstract

Mission Oriented Innovation Policies (MOIP) have historically focused on achieving specific goals and more 

recently have oriented towards meeting "grand challenges" or “societal challenges” and are being referred to as 

"big science deployed to meet big problems". Combating climate change is one of such grand challenge and the 

consequences, Government of India had launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) as one of 

the eight missions that make up India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2010 and it is now 

more than a decade of the mission which had grown significantly over the years. The present paper therefore takes 

the case of National Solar Mission in India and examines it within the MOIP framework. It analyses the various 

components of MOIP within the NSM like policies, governance structure, funding mechanisms, human resource 

development and R&D activities. 

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