Evaluate the progress of the National Green Hydrogen Mission against its 2030 targets.

The Union Cabinet approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission (NGHM) in January 2023 with an outlay of ₹19,744 crore [2]. Its target is at least 5 MMT of green hydrogen a year by 2030 [1]. The policy framework is largely in place. Actual production, however, is far behind the target.

Progress so far

• Funding structure: SIGHT gets ₹17,490 crore. A further ₹1,466 crore goes to pilots and ₹400 crore to R&D [2].
• Production pipeline: Incentives have been awarded for 8,62,000 tonnes a year of production capacity to 18 companies. A further 3,000 MW a year of electrolyser manufacturing has been awarded to 15 companies [4].
• Cost reduction: Plants commissioned by December 2030 pay no inter-state transmission (ISTS) charges for 25 years. Hydrogen hubs are also planned [3].
• Demand: Indian developers have won supply orders of about 5.5 lakh tonnes [6].

Gaps against the 2030 target

• Production: Only about 8,000 tonnes a year had been commissioned by February 2026 [5]. That is about 0.2% of the 5 MMT target.

Target 5 MMT → Awarded 0.86 MMT → Orders 0.55 MMT → Commissioned 0.008 MMT

Each stage shrinks sharply from target to actual production

• Cost: Electrolysers and renewable power make up most of the production cost [3]. Both still need to scale up a great deal.
• Finance: Green hydrogen alone needs $20–25 bn in FY27–30 [6]. FDI made up only $6.2 bn of the ~$64 bn of recent RE investment [6].
• Buyer risk: About 44 GW of awarded solar capacity has no signed sale agreement [7]. This shows that awards and orders do not guarantee buyers or production.
• Expected benefits: The ~₹8 lakh crore of investment and >6 lakh jobs are still projections [3].

Verdict The policy design and incentives are progressing well. Actual production lags far behind. At the current pace, the 5 MMT target looks hard to reach unless commissioning speeds up sharply.

Overall, NGHM has built strong foundations, but it has not yet delivered at scale. The way forward is to:

• set mandatory green hydrogen use in fertiliser and refining
• link incentive awards to signed purchase contracts
• reduce investor risk through blended finance
• scale up domestic electrolyser manufacturing

These steps can turn the pipeline into working plants. That would advance India's Panchamrit pledges and SDG 7.