3 min readMumbaiFeb 1, 2026 01:23 AM IST
The country’s largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), Saturday launched CHAKRA — Centre of Excellence (CoE) for financing eight sunrise sectors, including renewable energy, advanced cell chemistry and battery storage.
Other sunrise domains are data centre infrastructure, smart infrastructure, electric mobility, green hydrogen, semiconductors and decarbonisation.
These sectors, emerging as key drivers of the country’s economic future, entail capital investment of Rs 100 lakh crore over five years.
“India’s growth over the coming decades will be anchored in innovation, sustainability and advanced manufacturing. With CHAKRA, SBI is strengthening its institutional capability to understand emerging sectors, design specialised financing solutions and partner with the ecosystem to enable projects that meaningfully contribute to the nation’s development journey,” said C S Setty, chairman, SBI.
The lender will focus on enabling these capital-intensive sectors by directing capital flows responsibly, strengthening risk assessment capabilities and developing innovative financing structures aligned with evolving business models and policy priorities.
“In many of these sectors, the industries themselves are putting in their own equity. As they scale up, they need the debt capital, and during that period we would like to bring in debt capital, both Indian as well as international,” he said.
Speaking at the event, M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, urged state-run lenders to focus on two-three sunrise sectors instead of just one sector as it will help in diversifying risks.
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“India’s growth over the coming decades will be anchored in innovation, sustainability and advanced manufacturing. With CHAKRA, SBI is strengthening its institutional capability to understand emerging sectors, design specialised financing solutions and partner with the ecosystem to enable projects that meaningfully contribute to the nation’s development journey,” he said.
It will facilitate structured engagement with development finance institutions, multilateral agencies, banks, NBFCs, industry bodies, corporates, start-ups, academia and policy think-tanks.
Setty said SBI has signed MoU with nearly 21 financing institutions for the initiative. As part of these pacts, project finance teams of these entities would be stationed at SBI CHAKRA, and help in capacity building and co-financing.
Japanese banks MUFG and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation are major partners who will be bringing foreign capital and expertise, he added.
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Through CHAKRA, SBI aims to build strong capabilities, support innovation‑focused enterprises, and improve the flow of capital to sectors driving India’s sustainable and technology-led future. This initiative builds on the bank’s earlier Centre of Excellence for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) at the State Bank Academy, the bank said.
