Policy Perspectives Foundation and Orange Circle Energy convene energy sector experts to examine India’s evolving electricity requirements, grid constraints and power-system planningEnergy experts highlight the need to plan for rising demand alongside transmission infrastructure, regulatory stability and investment

NEW DELHI, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — India’s electricity planning faces a growing challenge: anticipating how demand will evolve while ensuring transmission infrastructure can deliver power reliably and affordably. At RE: DIALOGUES 2026: Powering a Developed India, convened by Policy Perspectives Foundation (PPF) and Orange Circle Energy (OCE) in New Delhi on 14 October, discussions centred on the gap between future electricity requirements and the infrastructure, investment and regulatory frameworks needed to meet them.

The dialogue examined four interconnected priorities for the power sector: electricity demand, transmission and distribution infrastructure, regulatory stability, and the economics of power generation. A central theme emerging from the discussions was the need to look beyond generation capacity and address the infrastructure, planning and investment required to deliver electricity reliably and affordably as India’s economy grows.

The dialogue featured Shri Bhupinder Bhalla, former Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, as Chief Guest. Speaking about the energy and power ecosystem he said, “India’s energy transition must be viewed in the wider context of its development priorities. Beyond expanding generation capacity, we need to strengthen domestic manufacturing, advance technology, mobilise investment and create jobs while safeguarding energy security. This calls for a coordinated approach to planning and implementation, with the Centre and states working together to address infrastructure and regulatory challenges.”

In his opening presentation, Nikesh Sinha, Founder, Orange Circle Energy, used international per-capita electricity consumption benchmarks to explore the potential scale of India’s future power requirements. The discussions highlighted the time needed to build transmission infrastructure, alongside right-of-way constraints, transformer availability and the distance between renewable energy generation centres and consumption hubs.

Nikesh Sinha, Founder, Orange Circle Energy, said: “India’s power-sector planning needs to look beyond how much electricity we can generate to how much the country will need, where that demand will emerge, and how reliably it can be delivered. Transmission infrastructure takes time to build, and generation and consumption centres are not always in the same locations. Anticipating these requirements and aligning transmission planning with generation, while also considering decentralised solutions, will be critical to meeting India’s future electricity needs.”

The discussions highlighted that India’s energy transition will depend not only on expanding generation capacity but also on deploying domestic capital effectively, strengthening electricity distribution and translating policy into implementation. Looking ahead, wind energy was identified as a potential area of significant growth alongside solar and other renewable sources, reinforcing the need for coordinated investment, infrastructure development and power-system planning to support India’s evolving energy mix.

Safi Ahsan Rizvi, former Advisor to the National Disaster Management Authority (Policy Perspectives Foundation), said “India needs to look beyond creating new funding mechanisms and examine how existing public resources can be strategically channelled towards national priorities such as renewable energy and disaster resilience. Even a small reallocation of resources, supported by the right institutional frameworks, can help unlock investment at scale. Building a dialogue between government and industry is critical to identifying these opportunities and translating public capital into meaningful outcomes.”

Discussions also brought together Ronnie Khanna, NITI Aayog; Prakash Garg, National Solar Energy Federation of India; Nidhi Sarin, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet; Dr Ritu Mathur, TERI; Professor Bhim Singh, IIT Delhi and Netaji Subhas University of Technology; Professor V. K. Jain, Amity University; Dr R. K. Tyagi, Power Foundation of India; Manika Malhotra Jain, Policy Perspectives Foundation; Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, NITI Aayog; Dr Kavita Singh, TERI School of Advanced Studies; Rashi Singh, Council on Energy, Environment and Water; Mohit Kumar Gupta, Grid Controller of India Limited; Safi Ahsan Rizvi, former Advisor to the National Disaster Management Authority; Shubhashis Dey, Solutions for Sustainable Living (SoSuL LLP); Srishti Ahuja, EY; and Arushi Relan, CEEW.

RE: DIALOGUES 2026 concluded with a call for continued engagement among policymakers, industry stakeholders, financial institutions, technology experts and research organisations to address the interconnected challenges of India’s energy transition.

About Policy Perspectives Foundation (PPF)

Policy Perspectives Foundation is an independent public policy think tank working through research, community outreach, capacity building and policy advocacy to promote inclusive and sustainable development. The Foundation is directed by Sh. P. C. Haldar, former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Government of India.

About Orange Circle Energy (OCE)

Orange Circle Energy is committed to accelerating India’s transition to clean, affordable and reliable solar energy. With expertise spanning rooftop installations and utility-scale solar projects, the companyc delivers tailored solar solutions across residential, commercial, industrial and utility sectors. Combining engineering expertise with a client-centric approach, Orange Circle Energy works closely with its partners to address their energy goals, financial considerations and operational requirements.

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Pantera Capital leads the round with participation from Circle Ventures, New Form, gumi Cryptos Capital, Borderless Capital and Ari Rubenstein, CEO of GTS

Tokenization is rapidly moving private-market funds onto digital rails, but liquidity has not kept pace. Traditional fund structuring forces investors to face long settlement and redemption cycles. Fission helps close that gap by giving eligible investors faster access to capital.Funding will expand Fission’s liquidity capacity, support a broader range of tokenized private-market and semi-liquid funds, and deepen integrations across the digital investment ecosystem.Fission has already processed millions of dollars in redemptions, demonstrating growing demand for more flexible liquidity across tokenized private-market funds.

NEW YORK, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Fission, a blockchain-enabled financial technology company building liquidity infrastructure for tokenized investment funds, today announced it has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital and backed by a group of investors spanning traditional finance and digital assets.

Investment funds are rapidly moving on-chain. Tokenization has already transformed how fund interests can be issued, distributed and settled, but much of the underlying market structure remains unchanged. Tokenized funds still rely on periodic redemption windows, limited secondary liquidity and restrictive financing structures.

Fission is building the liquidity layer designed to change that.

The company enables investor liquidity for supported tokenized fund products, allowing eligible holders to access capital without waiting for traditional fund redemption cycles. Fission supports a growing universe of tokenized funds across asset classes including private credit, alternatives and other institutional investment products. The company has already processed millions of dollars in transactions and is expanding its capacity through both traditional and on-chain sources of capital.

“Putting funds on-chain is only the beginning,” said Jonathan Shaffer, Founder and CEO of Fission. “The real promise of tokenization is creating fundamentally better markets around these assets: broader distribution, continuous liquidity and the ability to use fund interests as collateral in lending markets. Whether a fund is private or simply constrained by traditional liquidity structures, Fission is building the technology that makes those assets more liquid, transferable and useful across financial markets.”

Fission’s platform is purpose-built for institutional and permissioned markets, with infrastructure designed around the investor eligibility, transfer restrictions and compliance requirements governing regulated investment products. This allows Fission to bring on-chain liquidity to these assets while preserving the controls required by securities markets.

The new capital will support Fission’s continued expansion across asset coverage, liquidity capacity and institutional integrations.

“Investment funds are moving onto digital rails and liquidity is one of the critical pieces required for that transition to reach its full potential,” said Franklin Bi, General Partner at Pantera Capital. “Fission is building infrastructure that will help transform tokenized funds from representations of traditional products with legacy constraints into fundamentally more liquid and productive assets.”

The round adds Pantera Capital, Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital and Ari Rubenstein to Fission’s investor base, alongside existing backers including New Form, gumi Cryptos Capital, Anthony Scaramucci, Manhattan Venture Partners, Reflexive Capital and Lattice Capital.

For more on Fission’s infrastructure and its vision for the future of on-chain investment funds, visit Fission: The Liquidity Layer for Tokenized Funds.

About Fission

Fission is building the liquidity infrastructure for the next generation of digital investment funds. Its team brings experience from institutions including Point72 and Securitize, spanning institutional trading, private-market distribution, tokenization and regulated securities markets. Fission’s mission is to make investment funds more liquid, accessible and financeable by powering the digital infrastructure required for these products to scale globally.

About Pantera Capital

Pantera Capital is an institutional investment firm focused on blockchain technology, digital assets, and the companies building the digital economy. As a multi-stage partner, Pantera backs companies from their earliest seed rounds through the public markets, providing capital and expertise to the founders building the defining companies of the frontier. In 2013, the firm launched the first blockchain fund in the United States, when bitcoin traded at $65. It went on to launch the first exclusively blockchain venture fund and, in 2017, the first early-stage token fund. Today Pantera invests across venture, hedge, and passive strategies, drawing on more than a decade of experience supporting companies through multiple market cycles. The Pantera Bitcoin Fund has returned 102,760% since inception and billions of dollars to its investors.

Fission.xyz

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SOURCE Fission Labs

Inaugural national summit unites American leaders to sign landmark multi-state MOU, creating a unified network for commercial partnerships, joint tech pilots, and U.S.-Israel economic growth.

DETROIT, Oct. 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Michigan Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA), an economic development non-profit that facilitates connections between Israeli innovation and Michigan industries, today announced the formal launch of the U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange (USIIE). The inaugural USIIE Summit gathered 80 economic development, corporate, and government leaders in Detroit to unite previously siloed U.S. state initiatives into a single, high-impact national platform designed to accelerate U.S.-Israel commercial partnerships, cross-border investment, and job growth.

During the two-day summit (October 13–14), participating organizations formalized this alliance by signing a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The framework establishes a national gateway for market intelligence, investment missions, Israeli business delegations, and joint technology pilots. This creates an actionable model for multi-state collaboration that preserves regional competitiveness while uniting under a national strategy to attract Israeli innovation.

“U.S.-Israel economic collaboration is vital to the growth and competitiveness of both nations,” said Mark Davidoff, CEO of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator. “For years, states have built successful economic development strategies without the power of a collective approach. USIIE turns those individual wins into a powerful, nationwide hub. By combining our network, intelligence, and resources, we are significantly scaling the commercial impact for every state involved.”

Under the MOU framework, USIIE members also agreed to support the creation of the USIIE Ambassador Network, a national network of corporate, civic, academic, and community leaders designated to champion cross-border economic growth across key sectors, including mobility, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and technology.

“Israel and the United States share a powerful foundation of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic partnership,” said Elad Strohmayer, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest. “The U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange creates a new bridge between the shared strength of Israel and the regional economies that can benefit from this important endeavor.”

The convening in Detroit carries significant weight, taking place at a critical moment in U.S.-Israel relations. It highlights the strength of business alliances as essential stabilizers and catalysts for new innovation, investment, and job creation.

“A strong U.S.-Israel economic relationship is not simply a matter of trade, it’s also a strategic asset that strengthens innovation, competitiveness, and resilience,” said Chaim Martin, Israel’s Minister of Economic Affairs to the United States.

The summit featured roundtables and keynotes on capital deployment, technology transfer, and Israel’s role as a catalyst for U.S. regional economies. Leaders in attendance also recognized Laurie Cunnington, Founder of the Pro Semitism Committee in Michigan, with the inaugural USIIE Gesher Award for outstanding leadership in building meaningful economic bridges between the U.S. and Israel.

The power of Israeli innovation as a U.S. economic driver is well documented. By way of example, in New York, nearly 650 Israeli-founded companies have generated over 28,500 jobs and $13.3 billion in economic value. In Michigan, MIBA has connected over 5,000 business leaders, hosted hundreds of trade delegation participants, and driven over $90 million in direct economic impact since 2021. USIIE provides the national infrastructure to mirror these results across additional U.S. markets.

“This is the beginning of a much larger economic movement,” said Howard Handler, Chair, Michigan Israel Business Accelerator. “Our vision is to build the U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange into one of the country’s leading platforms for connecting Israeli innovation and American markets, industries, and communities.”

To learn more about the U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange, contact Krista Siefert at krista@michiganisrael.com 

About Michigan Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA)

Established in 2017, the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA) is an economic development NGO dedicated to driving Michigan’s growth by connecting Israeli innovation with state industries. Through curated connections, strategic delegations, and direct referrals, MIBA has connected over 5,000 Israeli and Michigan entities, facilitating more than 90 high-value collaborations and generating over $90 million in direct economic activity. Visit https://www.michiganisrael.com/ and follow MIBA on LinkedIn. 

About U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange (USIIE)

The U.S.-Israel Innovation Exchange (USIIE) is a national network of organizations working to strengthen economic, business, and innovation ties between the United States and Israel. Established with leadership from the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA), USIIE brings together regional economic development agencies, corporate leaders, and industry partners from across the country. Guided by a national steering committee representing key regions nationwide, USIIE enables member organizations to share strategic intelligence, and accelerate cross-border investment and commercial growth. 

FINN Partners for MIBA

Israel Inquiries:
Daniel Davis
Daniel.davis@finnpartners.com 

US Inquiries:
Adam Gasper
Adam.gasper@finnpartners.com

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SOURCE Michigan Israel Business Accelerator