By Subhasish Mukerjee

In the last two posts on energy in India, we covered India’s ambition to be a global leader in the fossil-fuel-to-clean transition and the technologies it is focusing on to take it there.  In this third instalment, we examine a different strand of India’s aspirations: its desire to localise more manufacturing, with specific focus on energy technology. 

Manufacturing in India, both for domestic markets and for export, is an area Ceres is closely involved in through our strategic partnership with Thermax. I will return to that topic later in this post when I look at how India’s ambitions could be supported through innovative manufacturing licensing, the model we have employed with Thermax for our solid oxide electrolysers.

Self reliance

India is emerging to be a global giant in industry and manufacturing. This is not happening by chance, but through a deeply thought out and thoroughly planned transition. One of the central principles at the core of this transition is Atmanirbhar Bharat¹, or Self-Reliant India.

Atmanirbhar Bharat is the Government’s policy initiative to achieve its goals across the burgeoning industries of energy technology, semiconductors, defence, electric vehicles and biopharmaceuticals.

The basis of the initiative lies in the combination of policy support, process reform and innovation in areas such as digital financial services. The central policy platform being the “Make in India” initiative that is built on four pillars:

• New ease of doing business by deregulating industry, simplifying tax structures and reducing the red tape that has tended to be a brake on growth. India has also set out the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan² to integrate government departments in order to improve infrastructure and reduce logistics costs.

• New infrastructure: The Government is promising to develop world-class modern infrastructure based on industrial corridors and smart cities. This also involves supporting innovation and research through a fast-tracked intellectual property rights (IPR) registration system and skills development to create a capable workforce.

• New sectors: India has identified 25 key sectors in manufacturing, infrastructure and services for focused development and opened many of them to higher levels of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

• New mindset: A major element involves a paradigm shift in how the Government interacts with industry. The Government seeks to act as a facilitator rather than a mere regulator, partnering with industry for the country's economic development.

Energy in its sights

Both technology and energy are high up India’s list of target sectors for localisation. In 2023 it set out the National Green Hydrogen Mission³, which aims to produce five million metric tonnes of green hydrogen annually by 2030, supported by investment in renewable energy and electrolyser manufacturing. In a country where industrial processes such as fertiliser production and steel manufacturing are huge industries and can only be decarbonised through the use of hydrogen, the National Green Hydrogen Mission is key to both its self-reliance and net zero ambitions.

Manufacturing its own electrolyser technology is critical to India, but there is still some work to do. While no specific figures are available for electrolysers, India remains reliant on foreign technology and imported approximately $36.8 billion of electrical components⁴ during 2024-25 financial year.

To reduce imports in the electrolyser market for the production of hydrogen, India has undertaken a US$2.1 billion push⁵ to transform itself into a global green hydrogen powerhouse. The initiative involves large strategic investors in the country’s private sector, but will also attract start-ups and global players.

India plans to boost domestic electrolyser production through subsidies for building manufacturing capacity and placing large government orders such as the 3 GW electrolyser capacity allocation to manufacturers under the SIGHT programme⁶.

Through this, India plans to reduce imports of electrolysers, expand domestic production and aims to become an exporter itself.

Technology challenge

The challenge for India is the technology. It could focus on domestic manufacture of Alkaline and PEM electrolysers or it could try to develop its own state of the art electrolyser technology, but that would take decades to research, develop and perfect.

A third option, and this is where I return to Ceres’ close involvement in India’s quest for self reliance, is to gain access to the world’s leading electrolyser technology through a technology licence. This is exactly what Thermax, one of the country’s leading energy and environment solutions providers, has done. The partnership with Ceres ensures both rapid time to manufacture for Thermax and ensures that it is building the world’s highest performance electrolysers. Ceres has previously demonstrated a 37kWh/kg hydrogen production efficiency at its megawatt-scale electrolyser demonstrator at Shell’s Technology Centre in Bengaluru⁷.

India’s hydrogen future

The scale of electrolyser development in India means that the levelised cost of green hydrogen (LCOH) in India is targeted to fall to US$2/kg by 2030⁸. The pricing, albeit that this is with the help of government incentives, is transformational in how hydrogen can decarbonise industry in India and enable the country to become a net exporter of hydrogen.

Partnerships such as that between Ceres and Thermax are clearly hugely advantageous not just to the respective companies or even to their countries of origin, but to the entire world. This partnership has the potential to rapidly scale up the production of electrolysers and cut the cost of hydrogen in India and could be an important contributor globally to the decarbonisation of industry.

¹Self Reliant India IBEF

²PM Gati Shakti Yojana Boosting India's Infrastructure Potential IBEF

³MNRE National Green Hydrogen Mission

⁴CNBC India is dependent on China for electronic components. Now it's trying to change that.  

⁵IEEFA India's $2.1bn push for local electrolyser manufacturing and green hydrogen production

⁶India allocates full $513mn electrolyser subsidy budget 

⁷Shell - Ceres MW scale electrolyser project produces first hydrogen

⁸S&P Global World Hydrogen India targets renewable hydrogen cost below $2/kg by 2030