India, China sign mammoth energy deals

Agreements in clean energy, electric power worth upwards of US$5 billion.

Indian and Chinese companies have signed massive commercial deals as the two emerging market leaders broadened ties despite political tensions.The deals signed in New Delhi included plans for investments in clean energy, electric power, infrastructure and other projects.

“We must aim at a magnitude and intensity of (economic) engagement appropriate for the world's two most populous nations,’’ said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who led the Indian side at the talks and who is deputy chairman of India's economic planning commission..

“It is only through larger mutual investments that we can take the India-China economic cooperation to a higher level.”

Among the agreements is a US$3 billion deal by India's Reliance Power and China's Ming Yang Wind Power Group, a leading maker of wind turbines, that develops renewable energy projects.

India's Lanco Infratech said the state-run China Development Bank would arrange US$2 billion worth of loans for its two power projects.

At the government-to-government level, India signed an agreement with China to explore cooperation in modernizing the dilapidated Indian railway system.