Sumant Sinha


Sumant Sinha is a notable entrepreneur in the Indian renewable energy sector. He is the current chairman and managing director of ReNew Power in India's largest renewable energy company. As of May 2018, ReNew Power had over 5,800 MW of solar and wind power projects.
He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and Columbia University. He was noted by The Economic Times as Entrepreneur of the Year – for 2018 and Ernst and Young as Entrepreneur of the Year – Real Estate Infrastructure- for 2017.
After a decade-long banking career in the U.S. and England, Sumant returned to India in 2002 and became the chief financial officer of Aditya Birla Group. Later, he went on to become the chief operations officer of Suzlon Energy. In 2011, he founded ReNew Power, an independent renewable power producer headquartered in Gurgaon, India. With Sumant at the position of chairman and CEO, ReNew Power is the largest renewable energy producers in India today.

Personal life and education

Sumant Sinha was born in Delhi. Sumant's mother Nilima Sinha is an author of children's books and his father Yashwant Sinha is an Indian civil servant-turned politician and former minister of finance and minister of external affairs. Sumant's brother Jayant Sinha is the present Minister of State for Civil Aviation. He has a sister named Sharmila Kanth. Sumant is married to Vaishali Sinha and has a son named Siddhant and a daughter by name Tarushri.
In 1983, Sumant joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in technology. He followed it by a master's degree in business administration from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. In 1991, after two years of working with Tata Administrative Service – Tata Group, Sumant went on to take a master's degree in international finance from the Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

Career

Academics and early career

After graduating from Indian Institute of Management and before joining Columbia University, Sumant joined Tata Administrative Services as a manager, where he worked for two years. After his graduation from Columbia University Sumant spent over a decade in international finance, mostly with Citicorp Securities and ING Barings in New York. Later, he joined Aditya Birla Group as its chief financial officer. It was during his time as CFO that Aditya Birla Group acquired Ultratech Cement, Novelis, and Idea Cellular. Sumant was also instrumental in the creation of Aditya Birla Group's retail arm, Aditya Birla Retail Limited, where he served as chief executive officer from 2007 to 2008.
In 2008, Sumant joined Suzlon, then India's largest wind-energy company, as the chief operating officer. A month after he joined Suzlon, the 2008 financial crisis struck, weakening the company's business model. He worked the next 15 months in Suzlon, helping it through the crisis. After exiting from Suzlon in 2010, Sumant started Savant Advisors, an investment banking and consulting firm. Then, in 2011, he founded ReNew Power Ventures Private Limited, a clean energy company.

ReNew Power

Sumant identified the opportunity in India's renewable landscape. He hired a small team and set up ReNew Power in 2011. In early 2012, Sumant set a road-map to have at least 1000 MW of capacity by 2015. In March 2014, ReNew Power won its first solar power bid, a 57.6MW project in Madhya Pradesh. It is reported that Sumant drove ReNew Power at breakneck speed, going from zero to 5,800 MW of commissioned capacity in six years, to make it one of India's largest independent renewable energy producers. In 2017, the company had an equity valuation of US$2 billion. According to a media report in November 2017, the company was in talks to acquire the wind power assets of the KC Thapar Group in a Rs. 1,000-crore deal.
As per the recent reports, ReNew Power Ventures has inked a pact with Uttar Pradesh government to produce the power of 1200 megawatt capacity at UP Investors Summit 2018. The project is reportedly expected to generation an employment of 5500 to 6500 numbers in the Uttar Pradesh state. The company proposal to develop 1,000 MW of installed capacity for solar power projects alongside another 200 MW for waste-to-energy projects is in line with the India's goal to provide access to energy for all through clean energy.
In 2018, Renew Power acquired Ostro Energy and its 1100 MW wind and solar projects for US$1.5 billion, which is reportedly India's largest renewable energy deal. After acquisition of Ostro, Renew Power has a cumulative capacity of more than 5,600 MW. With Renew Power, Sumant was able to raise more than US$1 billion equity. Renew Power is funded by Goldman Sachs, JERA, Asian Development Bank, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Global Environment Fund and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In May 2018, ReNew filed for IPO in India to raise over US$1 billion at over US$3 billion of equity valuation.
Sumant has ventured in to academic cooperation with IIT Delhi through ReNew Power to establish a research center named "Sumant Sinha ReNew Centre of Excellence for Energy & Environment".
Sumant was a part of Indian Government's ‘Champions of Change’ team, a group of CEOs that was formed to make development in India a mass movement and reported its ideas to the Indian Prime Minister.

Public and media appearances

Some of the public appearances are as below: