Sumant Sinha starts own firm

Sumant Sinha, former chief operating officer of Suzlon Energy, has started a renewable energy firm focused on wind and solar power generation.

ReNew Power is Sinha’s second venture since his exit from the wind turbine maker last year. Late last year, he founded Savant Advisors, an investment banking and consulting firm.

Sinha told DNA on Wednesday that there is a team in place at Savant and he will be more involved in an executive role at ReNew, of which he is chairman and chief executive.

Asked why a renewable energy firm, Sinha said, “When I was with Suzlon I wanted to set up an advisory firm and having been in the wind industry, I knew the opportunities there were huge and exciting.”

He added that ReNew is in the process of identifying projects and has signed agreements with Suzlon, Kenersys GmBH, which is part of the Kalyani group, and Regen Powertech for wind turbines. However, he refused to divulge planned capacity and financial details.

“We will also look at biomass and hydro but wind will be the primary focus,” he added.

Sinha had before joining Suzlon in 2008 been the CEO of Aditya Birla Retail and before that group CFO of the Aditya Birla Group when it acquired Ultratech Cement, Novelis and Idea Cellular.

Sinha is a graduate of IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta. His father is former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha and brother, Jayant, is managing director, Omidyar Network India Advisors.