India Plans Rs 5,000 Crore Scheme to Push Clean Steel Technology

The government is preparing to launch a Rs 5,000 crore program to promote clean steel-making technology in an effort to reduce carbon emissions as well as meeting India's net-zero objectives, Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik said on Wednesday.

As part of a proposed National Mission for Sustainable Steel, the program is expected to be designed in the coming months. Poundrik stated that the scheme will apply to all steel manufacturers and will devote 75-80 percent of funds to secondary producers. The scheme will create incentives for companies based on the amount of emissions reduced compared to last year.

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“Basically, this scheme is that you will get incentives depending on how much you reduce the emission...What we are saying is to improve the technologies, but the output parameter we are measuring is decarbonisation.” he said.

India’s steel industry, one of the world’s hardest sectors to decarbonise, accounts for nearly 12% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. Current emission intensity stands at 2.55 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel, far above the global average of 1.9 tonnes. The scheme aims to encourage the adoption of alternative materials and cleaner production methods to close this gap.

With India being a signatory to the Paris Agreement and committed to becoming a net-zero economy, this move could mark a turning point for the steel sector. By incentivising clean steel production, the government hopes to strengthen industry competitiveness while aligning growth with sustainability goals.