The Mahindra Group — the industrial conglomerate based in Maharashtra, India — has announced that it is to treble its investments in solar energy this year.

Chairman Anand Mahindra (pictured) said the company will have installed 180MW of solar capacity by the end of its financial year in March and will add another 500MW in the following 12 months, both as a plant operator and as a builder of plant for others.

He said: “This is going to be a major area of growth for our business,” adding that the company is considering selling off-grid rooftop installations, as well as building and running solar-power stations.

“In all those three areas, we intend to raise our game dramatically in the next year.”

Towards the end of last year, Energy Minister Piyush Goyal quadrupled the official target for India’s solar-power output to 100GW by 2022 and said that the country will invest $100 billion in renewables in the next five years.

Mr Mahindra said that his company is also looking for foreign partners to increase its defence manufacturing business; India recently raised the limit on foreign direct investment in arms manufacture from 26% to 49%.

The chairman said he may revive an abandoned partnership with BAE Systems or another foreign group to bid for India’s $9 billion procurement of its future infantry combat vehicle.

He said: “The government has stipulated that the winning bid will have to involve technology and manufacture in India. This is the kind of opportunity that is going to come up with the change in philosophy in our country since last year’s General Election.”