World Trade Organization has said in a Press Release that The U.S. has filled a dispute against India on grounds on certain measures of India
relating to domestic content requirements under the Jawaharlal Nehru
National Solar Mission (NSM) for solar cells and solar modules.
The United States claims that India requires solar power developers
to buy and use domestic solar cells and solar modules in order to
benefit from participating in the Jawaharlal Nehru NSM programme and to
enter into contracts under the NSM programme or with the National
Power Company.
As per this report (link) - In September, this year the Indian module manufacturing companies had
filed an official complaint to Indian
anti-dumping authority requesting them to start investigating solar
panels made in China, Malaysia and the US. Of Nearly 1045 MW of grid
connected installations, almost the entire Modules were supplied by
Foreign firms, especially from China and US (First Solar).
A Look into the Domestic Solar Production in the Country:
Domestic
production of solar PV modules based on crystalline silicon technology during
the year 2011 was around 300MW. Further, a total capacity of 268MW of Grid- connected Solar PV power plants have
been set up under JNNSM so far (as on 31.10.2012), of which plants with 120 MW aggregate capacity are using domestically
produced module, which corresponds to about 40% of the domestic
production. Off-grid solar PV systems
with aggregate capacity of 31 MW have also
been deployed under JNNSM so far (as on 31.10.2012), of which 99% are using
domestically produced modules.
