The energy portion of India’s latest budget for 2024-2025 released last month provided some new announcements related to developing a national energy transition pathway, including a taxonomy for climate finance, a roadmap to move hard-to-abate industries to emission targets, and the promotion of nuclear energy and pump hydro storage.
India expanded its energy budget to $8.2 billion from $6.6 billion in the previous year.
the budget indicates that to meet the estimated annual clean energy investment of over $250 billion.
Nuclear energy has been recognized as a significant part of the Viksit Bharat 2047 (Developed India) program. The state-owned Indian nuclear establishment is looking to almost triple the current nuclear power capacity of 8,180 MW to 22,480 MW by 2031-32. India’s long-term goal is to achieve 100 GW nuclear power capacity by 2047.
The overall budget for nuclear projects increased by 10 percent to $734 million as the government aims to partner with the private sector to set up indigenous small modular reactors or Bharat Small Reactors and support R&D for newer nuclear technologies .
Building on the launch of India’s first sovereign green bond in January 2023 with a $2 billion issuance, the targeted issuance amount has been increased to $3.8 billion in the current budget effectively funding almost half of the energy-related expenditures, especially the electrification of transportation and solar energy.