Adviser, KPMG
Anvesha Thakker works as a full-time adviser with KPMG in the firm’s infrastructure and government services division. Her key responsibilities are developing the renewable energy, strategy and operations advisory practice and leading the delivery of projects. She advises both public and private sector clients on policy, strategy, operations and finance. She began her career with Arthur Andersen and has over two decades of experience in advisory including tax and regulations advisory, corporate finance advisory and infrastructure advisory. She is a chartered accountant and a chartered financial analyst charter holder.
Thakker believes that her past experience has enabled her to look at businesses in a holistic manner, ensuring that she understands a client’s needs from different vantage points. Therefore, instead of being unidirectional in her advice, she has the ability to bring perspective in various areas that need attention including tax or regulatory implications and fund-raising needs.
Thakker finds the renewable energy sector very exciting. Having been associated with the infrastructure sector for a long time, she finds the energy sector to be one of the most fast paced, technologically innovative and intellectually challenging areas that she has come across. In her view, sectors such as renewable/clean energy with emerging associated technologies such as electric vehicles and storage can potentially change the world order. Moreover, with 20 per cent of the Indian population without access to electricity, focusing on promoting energy access in rural areas is extremely fulfilling for her. The two key issues faced by the sector are payments and despatch risk. As the recent Rewa Solar Park bid demonstrated, if these two key risks are addressed, solar power is likely to displace other fuels in the merit order. While there could be some short-term challenges owing to demand uncertainty, rapid village electrification through measures such as UDAY will accelerate demand in the medium term.
Thakker loves to create high-performance teams and is focused on developing teams that are confident, charged, on top of the sector and sharply analytical, and have the ability to collaborate as well as lead. She loves spending time with her family – her husband, in-laws and two young children – and likes to take a short trip every quarter, even if it is a weekend getaway. While she has myriad interests, there is very little time to pursue them. She constantly tries to stretch her day to dabble in passions such as sports, fitness, reading, music and art, amongst others.
