Union Minister for Steel and Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy delivered a keynote address at the 7th CII International Energy Conference & Exhibition in New Delhi, fundamentally redefining energy security in the contemporary global landscape. The Minister asserted that a nation's strength is now determined by its manufacturing capability, innovation capacity, and resilient supply chains for future technologies, rather than mere access to energy resources.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership, India's strategy focuses on becoming a global manufacturing hub for clean energy technologies, with industrial capability and energy security becoming inseparable. Kumaraswamy emphasized that India must transform from being one of the world's largest consumers of clean energy technologies to becoming one of the world's leading producers of the equipment, materials, and technologies driving the global energy transition.
The Ministry of Steel plays a crucial role as steel represents the backbone of the clean energy transition, supporting renewable energy infrastructure including solar parks, wind turbines, transmission networks, battery manufacturing facilities, ports, and green hydrogen projects. India, as the world's second-largest steel producer, aims to achieve 300 million tonnes of steelmaking capacity by 2030 through sustainable and environmentally responsible production practices. The Minister emphasized that the future of steel will be defined by sustainability, competitiveness, and technological advancement rather than just production capacity.
The government is promoting green steel through greater deployment of renewable energy in manufacturing, adoption of energy-efficient technologies, improved resource efficiency, and accelerated decarbonization across the steel value chain. For the heavy industries sector, the transformation requires strengthening domestic manufacturing across the entire industrial value chain including advanced batteries, heavy electrical equipment, construction equipment, automotive manufacturing, and energy storage systems.
Several major government initiatives were highlighted: the PM E-DRIVE Scheme with a financial outlay of ₹10,900 crore takes an integrated approach to building complete industrial ecosystems for electric mobility rather than simply encouraging vehicle adoption. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell Batteries commits ₹18,100 crore to establish 50 GWh of domestic battery manufacturing capacity. Additionally, the Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Sintered Rare Earth Permanent Magnets with an outlay of ₹7,280 crore aims to reduce import dependence and secure critical supply chains for automotive, defence, renewable energy, and aerospace sectors.
The Minister called for deeper collaboration between government, industry, academia, research institutions, and financial organizations to build complete domestic manufacturing ecosystems that create value and generate employment, which he identified as the essence of resilient supply chains in the twenty-first century.