India’s strategic push for cleantech manufacturing…
Budget 2025 outlines efforts to boost manufacturing, focusing on renewable energy (RE) and cleantech. The National Manufacturing Mission aims to enhance domestic production across key sectors, reducing import dependency, and fostering innovation, technology, and skills for future growth.
As part of India’s commitment to sustainable development, the Budget for 2025-26, presented by the Finance Minister, has outlined development measures across ten broad areas, including boosting manufacturing and furthering the “Make in India” initiative.
India has made remarkable progress towards the 500 GW non-fossil power capacity goal announced at COP26. The renewable energy (RE) capacity in the country has crossed 209 GW. Due to significant steps taken by the government, boosting the confidence of RE players, the RE capacity addition has picked up rapid pace, with an addition of 29 GW in calendar year 2024, more than double what was added in the entire year of 2023. All indications suggest that the country will more than double its capacity addition in FY25 as well, reaching over 30 GW on a year-on-year basis—a fitting response to those who have doubted whether we can achieve this landmark.
Meanwhile, solar manufacturing has witnessed exponential growth. The solar PV module manufacturing capacity listed under the ALMM now amounts to over 67 GW, compared to around 18 GW two years ago, with another 10-15 GW capacity in the process of enlistment. In solar PV cells, the current capacity is understood to be between 18-24 GW, while the first wafer capacity of 2 GW is already operational. In the next 2-3 years, India is expected to have a manufacturing presence across the entire value chain – polysilicon, ingots/wafers, cells, and modules. However, with another 270+ GW of RE capacity targeted for completion by 2030, capacity additions need to reach at least 50 GW per annum. To be truly “Atmanirbhar,” India must have sufficient manufacturing capacity across the value chain to support this installation.
Despite the capacities being developed under the PLI for solar PV modules and elsewhere, the solar supply chain will remain highly import-dependent unless a significant push is made for enhanced investments in manufacturing polysilicon, ingots/wafers, and cells in the country. Even in wind turbine manufacturing, although India has over 18 GW of annual capacity—more than enough for the expected capacity addition of around 5 GW in the current fiscal—it is still far from full indigenisation. In fact, the recent Bharat Climate Forum 2025 highlighted that import dependence across renewable energy, electric mobility, and other cleantech sectors’ value chains varies between 20% and 90%, exposing the nation to vulnerabilities in terms of price volatility and supply chain disruptions.