Will Suzlon Energy's 2.0 Plan Pay Off?

Suzlon 2.0: Can The Turbine Maker Become A Developer And Landlord?

By Dev Chandrasekhar

What?

On June 3, Suzlon Energy filed a press release with the stock exchanges that reads like a manifesto. Branded "Suzlon 2.0", it recast the thirty-year-old company from a maker of wind turbines into what it now calls a "wind-first full-stack renewable energy solutions company". 

Underneath the corporate language, however, sits a shift in how Suzlon wants to make money, and how it wants the stock market to value it.

The pitch has two halves. The first is the set of large numbers. Suzlon wants to sell 10 gigawatts of renewable capacity a year, up roughly fourfold from today. It wants its order book, meaning the confirmed work it has yet to deliver, to grow from about 5.9 GW to 15 GW. 

And it wants its assets under management, the installed fleet of turbines it maintains for a fee, to rise from around 21.5 GW now to 70 GW.

The second half is the structural change that is supposed to deliver those numbers. 

Suzlon has split itself into four businesses. RE Tech, RE Projects, RE Asset Management and RE DevCo. 

What Does This Mean? 

The strategic bet sits on those last two units. Take Asset Management. Selling turbines is a lumpy business. A big order lands, revenue spikes, then the company has to go and win the next one. 

Servicing a fleet is the opposite. It is a steady, predictable income that arrives every year, regardless of whether new orders come in, the kind of revenue that investors are usually willing to pay a premium for. Suzlon already maintains over 15 GW in India, with its machines available more than 95% of the time. Growing that service base to 70 GW would change the quality of the company's earnings, not only the quantity.

Suzlon wants to be valued on the rent it collects from an installed fleet rather than on the one-off sale of equipment. A landlord with a full building is considered worth more than a builder between projects.

What Next?

DevCo is the riskier wager. In Indian renewables, the hardest part of a project is often not building it but getting it ready to build. Land must be assembled, a grid connection point secured, and a thicket of state and central approvals cleared.

A developer who can hand a customer a "ready-to-build" site has solved the expensive problem. Suzlon wants to be that developer for 60 per cent of its future volumes. 

The catch is that this is a capital-hungry, execution-heavy business that Suzlon has never operated at scale; it carries land and permit risk that simply selling turbines never did.

Will Suzlon’s bet actually work?

Where to Invest $100,000 Right Now, According to Experts

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$7.1 billion

That’s how much India’s current account surplus reached in Q4 FY26, according to RBI’s data, equivalent to 0.7% of GDP.

However, Crisil notes that fourth quarters typically generate a surplus. In Q4 FY25, India recorded a $13.7 billion surplus, or 1.4% of GDP, making this year’s figure roughly half as large.

Breakdown:

• Goods trade deficit: Jumped to $83.4 billion from $59.3 billion a year earlier.

• Imports: Increased to $196.6 billion, up from $175.8 billion.

• Exports: Fell to $113.1 billion from $116.5 billion, with the West Asia conflict adding pressure.

• Services trade surplus: Rose to $60.4 billion from $53.3 billion, partly offsetting the wider merchandise trade deficit.

Future: Crisil projects India’s current account deficit to widen to 2.2% of GDP in FY27, up from 0.6% in FY26, as higher prices of crude oil, natural gas and fertilisers inflate the country’s import bill. At the same time, global trade disruptions and weakening demand are likely to drag on exports. 

Flashpoint: Crisil also warns that remittances could come under pressure because around 38% of India’s remittance inflows originate from West Asia, where geopolitical tensions remain elevated.

Although India’s strong services exports should continue to provide a cushion, Crisil expects those gains to offset only part of the pressure from a larger goods trade deficit and softer external demand.

Turbulence Continues For Indian Aviation

India's aviation industry faces mounting pressures on multiple fronts. India’s national flag carrier, Air India, is among them. Outgoing CEO Campbell Wilson told PTI in an interview that undelivered aircraft and supply chain constraints on premium cabin seats were his biggest regrets. This delayed fleet modernisation of the Tata-owned airline by roughly two years.

Catch Up Quick: Meanwhile, SpiceJet has reportedly delayed pilot salaries since March. The cash-strapped carrier is seeking an emergency government-backed loan of up to Rs 15 billion to stabilise operations, Reuters reported.

SpiceJet, once India's second-largest carrier with a 15% market share, has fallen to fourth place with just 3.4%. Its stock has plunged 60% this year, scheduled flights have dropped sharply, and the West Asia conflict continues to push jet fuel prices higher, squeezing already thin operating margins across the industry.

Setup: The contrasting struggles of a recovering Air India and a floundering SpiceJet underscore the uneven terrain of Indian aviation, an industry historically prone to financial turbulence, having already seen Kingfisher, Jet Airways and Go First collapse into bankruptcy.

Rise in Gold Smuggling

India's sharp increase in gold import tariffs is fuelling a resurgence in smuggling that could exceed 100 metric tons this year, as soaring grey market margins allow smugglers to undercut banks and refiners, according to a Reuters report.

India more than doubled import tariffs on gold to 15% in May to curb demand and ease pressure on the rupee. But the move has created an opportunity for smugglers who can offer prices legitimate importers cannot match.

Context: Gold smuggling had fallen from 156.1 tons in 2023 to just 20.4 tons in 2025 after India cut import duties. The recent hike has reversed that. The grey market discount has gone beyond $200 per ounce. At 100 tons, illegal imports would be worth around Rs 14.35 billion, implying roughly $2.65 billion in lost taxes.

Forecast: Grey market discounts have pushed domestic prices on legal gold above $100 an ounce, making refining uneconomical. "Gold refiners typically operate on margins of around 0.65%. With discounts now well above that level, refiners have little incentive to import," said James Jose of refiner CGR Metalloys.

The Attack Of The AI Agents

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) could have as many AI agents as human employees within the next three years, Chairman N Chandrasekaran said at the company’s 31st Annual General Meeting, signalling how rapidly the company expects autonomous AI systems to become part of its workforce.

Pivot: He argued that AI will work alongside employees rather than replace them, although it is likely to slow hiring as more tasks become automated. The company also said its annualised AI revenue reached about $2.4 billion in the latest quarter, reflecting growing demand from enterprise clients.

Turning Point: As we previously covered on The Signal Brief in our episode When AI Starts Deciding for You, the shift toward AI agents could mean greater convenience for consumers. But the cost is that mistakes can have massive real-world consequences, as AI agents are designed to make decisions and execute tasks on users' behalf.

Hidden Cost Of Online Shopping

Indian consumers are losing an estimated Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 28,000 crore annually to dark patterns, deceptive interface designs that nudge consumers into spending more than they intended, according to a report by market research firm Datum Intelligence.

Catch Up Quick: The report found that 88% of India's 304 million online buyers lose approximately Rs 78 to Rs 87 per month each to hidden charges, forced add-ons, drip pricing, false urgency and subscription traps.

The study surveyed 2,590 consumers across 50 cities in Q1 2026 and assessed 12 platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, BigBasket, Zepto, Blinkit, MakeMyTrip and Cleartrip. Amazon emerged as the most trusted platform, while Flipkart was the only one where distrust exceeded trust. BigBasket recorded one of the highest severity scores in quick commerce. Cleartrip ranked among the most harmful in online travel.

Forecast: These practices are putting more than Rs 55,000 crore in gross merchandise value at risk as users reduce spending or switch platforms. Yet 74% of shoppers said they would pay more for platforms that commit to transparent design practices.

India’s Sweating Supply Chains

Extreme heat is beginning to disrupt India’s garment manufacturing industry, with factories supplying global retailers such as Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer and Tesco reporting productivity losses of up to 10%, according to a new report by the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

Impact: Researchers studied 10 factories across four regions and found that high temperatures reduced worker efficiency, increased absenteeism and affected product quality and delivery reliability during the peak summer months. Factory managers reported sweat stains on fabric, dust contamination, stitching errors and even temporary production halts because of the heat.

The findings highlight a growing climate risk for India’s $39 billion apparel export industry, which employs around 45 million people, about 70% of them women. Much of the sector relies on labour-intensive production in hot and humid conditions, making it particularly vulnerable to rising temperatures.

The report also argues that many global brands are not adequately monitoring the problem. While nearly all buyers surveyed acknowledged that extreme heat poses a production risk, only 35% required suppliers to track factory temperatures, and about half had not asked whether heat had disrupted output.

Context: The broader concern extends beyond apparel. According to an analysis by the McKinsey Global Institute, rising heat and humidity could put 2.5% to 4.5% of India's GDP—roughly $150 billion to $250 billion—at risk by 2030 through lost labour productivity.

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Bank Stocks Push Up Indices on RBI Forex Moves

On Episode 897 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Neil Shah, Vice President Research & Co- Founder at Counterpoint Research.

• Bank stocks Push Up Indices on RBI Forex Moves

• Indian stocks no longer feature in the Top 10 of the MSCI EM index

• TCS says will hire less as AI agents and employees will work jointly

• Fitch lowers growth projections for India to 6.4%

• How hunger for storage memory is upending the smartphone market in more ways than one

• Heatwaves have cut productivity of India’s leading garment industry factories