The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), where India is the second biggest shareholder after China, is looking to raise $500 million to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan to expand the country's solar capacity to 100 gigawatts by 2022.

The Beijing-based AIIB, which was launched in January this year, has an authorised capital of $100 billion. The newly created bank is looking to support global clean-energy initiatives, and could fund eco-friendly investment projects.

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India, one of the founding members of the AIIB, has been elected to the board of directors of the bank, which is expected to begin loan approvals before the end of this year. The AIIB is expected to lend $10 -$15 billion a year for the first five or six years and could start operations in the second quarter of 2016.

Meanwhile, India is reported to also be in discussion with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Germany's KFW and the New Development Bank established by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to raise $3 billion in the financial year (starting from April 2016) for its solar project.

India has also put a request to raise $500 million in financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to back rooftop solar projects, and a similar sum to expand transmission networks to connect to solar parks.

The Indian government estimates that it requires a whopping $100 billion of investment in solar power in the next six to seven years to meet its ambitious target of boosting capacity by roughly 17 times from current levels of 5,800 megawatt.

Tagschina, India, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Modi, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, ADB, solar energy