We should pay special attention to round-the-clock renewables

The Centre must help states transition to green energy now that reliable supply is easier to secure

- APARNA ROY & PARUL BAKSHI

As the Union budget approaches, India faces a defining choice in how it plans its energy future.

Energy assessments indicate that electricity demand will expand by over 6% annually in the second half of this decade, driven by industrial growth, urbanization, data centres and the electrification of transport and buildings. This demand surge will test the capacity of states to deliver reliable and affordable power. In this context, the ambition of a developed India by 2047 depends not only on capacity addition, but also on how energy planning is embedded in state-level development strategies.

Clean energy has, therefore, become central to India’s growth narrative. Yet, the spatial distribution of this transition is uneven. Renewable capacity additions, manufacturing investments and supply-chain ecosystems are clustered in a handful of renewable-rich states. Meanwhile, coal-dependent states, long the backbone of India’s industrial economy, risk being marginalized in the next phase of growth.

The challenge is not abstract climate compliance. It is economic: limited diversification, mounting fiscal stress and declining investment attractiveness at a time when growth is becoming increasingly energy-intensive. Without policy recalibration, the energy transition risks widening regional disparities.

This raises a key question: Can India’s clean-energy strategy be redesigned to place coal-dependent states at the centre of the next development cycle?