The energy sector ministries saw shades of both continuity and change vis-à-vis the previous government, with Hardeep Singh Puri retaining the petroleum portfolio, while power, renewable energy, and coal ministries getting new ministers at the helm. Former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar is the new power minister, while Pralhad Joshi has been entrusted with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The coal portfolio has been allocated to G Kishan Reddy. Khattar and Joshi replace RK Singh, the outgoing minister of power and MNRE, who lost in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. Until a few months ago, Khattar served as Haryana CM, while Joshi handled coal, mines, and parliamentary affairs portfolios at the Centre in the second Modi government. Reddy was heading ministries of tourism, culture, and development of north eastern region. As for the Ministers of State (MoS) in these ministries, Shripad Yesso Naik will handle power and MNRE, while Suresh Gopi will serve in the petroleum ministry. Satish Chandra Dubey is the new MoS for coal. At a broad level, accelerating energy transition, striking the delicate and critical balance between fossil fuels and green energy sources, pushing new and future fuels like green hydrogen, raising domestic energy production while cutting costly energy imports, ensuring energy affordability amid global volatility, and spurring private sector investment in various segments are likely to be the themes for these ministries’ efforts over the next few years. Given India’s high and rapidly rising energy demand, the work these ministries do is critical to the economy. The petroleum ministry is expected to push public and private sector companies to increase domestic oil, gas, and fuel production and refining capacity, further expand fuel retail network including charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, while working simultaneously to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint. As in the past two terms, expanding the share of natural gas in India’s primary energy mix shall continue to be a key focus area of the new NDA government. Work for the power ministry and MNRE appears to be cut out—setting up extensive energy storage infrastructure, building adequate thermal and nuclear baseload capacity, raising annual renewables capacity, pushing for reforms in the beleaguered power distribution sector, and effectively implement schemes that facilitate and incentivise adoption of clean energy. The coal ministry will be expected to focus on raising India’s domestic coal output further to facilitate the country’s ever-growing demand for power. The energy ministries—mainly through the public sector companies under their control—have already been working to rapidly develop a green hydrogen ecosystem in India with a common aim to make the country a global production and export hub for what is seen as a zero-emission fuel with massive potential to change the global energy landscape. The efforts, including pushing for localisation of the equipment supply chain and domestic manufacturing of electrolysers, are expected to only get accelerated over the coming years.
