India launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2010. Since its introduction, solar deployment has increased in the country. However, there are few analytically sound ex post evaluations of the effectiveness of the JNNSM. This paper presents data on the performance of Phase 1 of the JNNSM and develops quantitative metrics to assess its effectiveness against stated targets. It shows that Phase 1 has been successful in deploying solar photovoltaic technology in a cost-effective manner, but that it has failed to deploy solar thermal technology.
