India and the US have entered into an agreement to set up a Rs 50-crore fund to support clean energy by providing financial support to develop and test innovative products, systems and business models.

"India and the United States of America signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation to establish the PACESetter Fund," a New and Renewable Energy Ministry press release said.

It further said that India-US corpus of about Rs 500 million (US $8 million) have been drawn on 50:50 sharing basis (under the pact for the purpose).

According to the statement, the fund will support the Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) to accelerate the commercialisation of off-grid clean energy through early-stage grant funding grants to develop and test innovative products, systems, and business models.

The MoU was signed by New and Renewable Energy Secretary Upendra Tripathy from Indian side and United States Ambassador to India Richard Verma from USA side on June 30 at New Delhi.

The Government of India and the United States of America have announced the launch of a new initiative "Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE)".

This ambitious cooperation is a new tract under the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE), a flagship initiative on Clean Energy that combines the resources of several US agencies and Government of India ministries. This has also been listed in the Joint Statement during the visit of President of USA to India in January.

Under this, a Steering Committee comprising the New and Renewable Energy Secretary and the US Ambassador to India, and three representatives from each side has been constituted.

It was agreed to cooperate through technical and commercial innovation and the advancement of clean energy in off-grid space.