Chemicals, fertilisers, refineries and pharmaceuticals

Detail

1. Chemical industry: overview

• The chemical industry turns raw materials into useful substances by chemical change. Examples are acids, alkalis, dyes, plastics and drugs.
• It is one of India's fastest-growing industries. It has both large and small units.
• It is divided into two groups: inorganic and organic chemicals.
• The chemical industry is its own largest consumer. Many chemicals are not end products. They are inputs for other chemicals.
• Sulphuric acid → used to make fertilisers → fertilisers are themselves chemical products.
• Soda ash and caustic soda → used to make soap, detergent and other chemicals.

2. Inorganic chemicals: a scattered pattern

• Inorganic chemicals are chemicals that are mostly not built on carbon chains. They come from minerals, salt, air and water.

Chemical	Main uses
Sulphuric acid	Fertilisers, synthetic fibres, plastics, paints, dyes
Nitric acid	Fertilisers (ammonium nitrate), explosives
Alkalis (caustic soda, soda ash)	Soap, detergent, paper, glass
Soda ash (sodium carbonate)	Glass, soap, detergent, paper
Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide)	Soap, paper, textiles, aluminium processing

• Why they are spread across India:
• The raw inputs (salt, sulphur, limestone, air) can be found or brought almost anywhere.
• Buyers such as fertiliser, paper, glass and soap factories are found in every region.

• So plants locate near both inputs and markets. This gives a widely dispersed pattern.

• Exception: soda ash clusters on the Gujarat coast.

• The coast of the Gulf of Kutch and Saurashtra has large sea-salt pans, and limestone is found close by.
• Soda ash is made from salt and limestone, so its plants stay near both.
• Result: Gujarat is India's main soda ash region.

3. Organic chemicals: a refinery-linked pattern

• Organic chemicals are carbon-based chemicals. Most come from petroleum and natural gas and are called petrochemicals.
• Uses: synthetic fibres (polyester, nylon), synthetic rubber, plastics, dyes and drugs.
• Location rule: they locate near refineries.
• A refinery splits crude oil into fractions such as naphtha and gases.
• These fractions are the feedstock (raw input) for petrochemicals.
• Pipelines from the refinery feed nearby cracker and polymer plants. So clusters form at Jamnagar–Vadodara–Hazira (Gujarat), Mumbai, Panipat, Paradip and Numaligarh.

4. Fertiliser industry

4.1 Types of fertiliser

Type	What it supplies	Main product	Raw material base
Nitrogenous	Nitrogen (N)	Mainly urea	Natural gas or naphtha → ammonia → urea
Phosphatic	Phosphorus (P)	Single superphosphate; DAP (di-ammonium phosphate, which gives both N and P)	Rock phosphate and sulphuric acid, largely imported
Complex	N, P and K together	NPK blends	Mixed inputs
Potassic	Potassium (K)	Muriate of potash	Wholly imported. India has no commercial potash reserves.

4.2 Growth and distribution

• The industry spread after the Green Revolution (late 1960s).

• Green Revolution (the use of high-yielding seeds with irrigation and chemical fertiliser from the mid-1960s) → fertiliser demand rose sharply → many new plants were built across India.

• Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala together give about half of fertiliser output (NCERT).

• Coastal plants (Gujarat, Kerala, Tamil Nadu) can use imported feedstock. Inland plants (UP, Punjab) are close to big farm markets.

4.3 Gas pipelines and urea

• Urea is made in this order: natural gas → ammonia → urea. So plants need a steady gas supply.
• HVJ pipeline (Hazira–Vijaipur–Jagdishpur: Gujarat → Madhya Pradesh → Uttar Pradesh) brought gas inland and allowed a chain of urea plants to grow along its route.
• Urja Ganga (Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga, or Jagdishpur–Haldia–Bokaro–Dhamra pipeline) carries gas east into UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Odisha. It made the revival of eastern urea plants possible.

4.4 Revival of closed urea plants

• The government is reviving five closed plants of FCIL (Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd) and HFCL (Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd) through joint venture companies of public sector units. Each new urea-ammonia plant has 12.7 lakh tonnes a year of capacity [6].
• Together the five plants add 63.5 lakh tonnes a year of home-grown urea capacity [6].

Plant	State	Feedstock	Status
Gorakhpur	Uttar Pradesh	Natural gas (Urja Ganga)	Producing [6]
Sindri	Jharkhand (Dhanbad)	Natural gas	Producing; dedicated to the nation in 2024 [6][8]
Barauni	Bihar (Begusarai)	Natural gas	Producing; inaugurated in 2024 [6][9]
Ramagundam	Telangana	Natural gas	Producing [6]
Talcher	Odisha (Angul)	Coal gasification	Under construction; target given was September 2024 [6][7]

• Coal gasification means turning coal into a gas (syngas, mainly hydrogen and carbon monoxide) by heating it with steam and oxygen. That gas then replaces natural gas for making ammonia.
• India has large coal reserves but limited gas → Talcher (Odisha coalfield) uses local coal → less need for imported gas or LNG [7].
• Talcher will use coal-gasification technology from Air Products, USA, and is designed for 12.7 lakh tonnes a year of urea [7].

4.5 Nano urea

• Nano urea is liquid urea made of very tiny (nano-scale) particles. It is sprayed on leaves, so a small bottle can replace a bag of ordinary urea.
• IFFCO's Kalol plant (Gandhinagar, Gujarat) began commercial production on 1 August 2021. India became the first country in the world to make nano urea commercially [10].
• Plans call for 8 plants making 44 crore bottles a year, equal to 200 lakh tonnes of ordinary urea [10].
• IFFCO also opened a Nano DAP (liquid) plant at Kalol in 2023 [11].

5. Refinery locations in India

• A refinery heats crude oil and separates it into products such as LPG, petrol, diesel, kerosene, naphtha and bitumen.
• Capacity (current): India's total refining capacity is 258.1 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) [12].
• In the 2024 year-end review there were 22 operating refineries with 256.8 MMTPA: 18 public sector, 3 private and 1 joint venture [13].
• Of this, 157.3 MMTPA is public sector, 11.3 MMTPA joint venture and 88.2 MMTPA private [13].
• In 2022 the count was 23 refineries with 249.22 MMTPA [15].
• Capacity is projected to reach 309.5 MMTPA by 2030 [14].

5.1 Two location types

Feature	Coastal refineries	Inland refineries
Crude source	Imported crude by tanker	Pipelines from ports, or nearby old oilfields
Location logic	Port-based: cheap sea transport, export access	Market-based (near consumers) or field-based (near oilfields)
Examples	Jamnagar and Vadinar (Gujarat), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Kochi (Kerala), Mangaluru (Karnataka), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Paradip (Odisha)	Mathura (UP), Panipat (Haryana), Barauni (Bihar), Bina (MP), Bongaigaon, Guwahati, Numaligarh, Digboi (Assam)

• Field-based refineries are built near oilfields. The four Assam refineries grew around the Upper Assam oilfields. Digboi (1901) is India's oldest refinery.
• Market-based refineries are built near large groups of users. Mathura and Panipat serve the North-West and the Delhi region, and they get crude by pipeline from the Gujarat coast.
• The trend is towards the coast. India imports most of its crude, so new large refineries come up at ports such as Jamnagar, Vadinar and Paradip.

5.2 Jamnagar refinery

• Reliance's Jamnagar complex on the Gulf of Kutch (Gujarat, about 22°N, Arabian Sea coast) is the world's largest refinery at a single site. Its capacity is about 1.4 million barrels a day.
• Why it is here:
• It is a short sea voyage from Persian Gulf crude (West Asia).
• The deep-water coast of Kutch allows very large crude carriers to dock.

• The west coast faces export markets in West Asia, Africa and Europe.

• Vadinar (Nayara Energy) is close by on the same gulf. This makes the Gulf of Kutch India's refining hub.

6. Pharmaceutical industry

6.1 Position

• India is a leading supplier of generic medicines and vaccines to the world.

• Generic medicine: a copy of a branded drug, sold after the patent ends, at a much lower price.

• API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, or bulk drug) is the chemical in a medicine that actually treats the illness. KSM (Key Starting Material) is the raw chemical used to make the API.

• Weak point: India depends heavily on China for APIs and KSMs. Supply breaks (such as in 2020) put medicine production at risk.

6.2 Pharmaceutical clusters

Cluster	State	Location factor
Hyderabad (Genome Valley)	Telangana	Research parks, skilled workers, bulk-drug base
Baddi	Himachal Pradesh	Tax incentives for hill states
Ahmedabad–Vadodara	Gujarat	Close to the petrochemical belt (solvents, chemicals)
Mumbai–Pune	Maharashtra	Old industrial base, port, finance
Visakhapatnam	Andhra Pradesh	Port, pharma city, chemical units
Sikkim	Sikkim	Tax incentives for the North-East

6.3 Bulk drug parks and PLI

• A bulk drug park is a large shared industrial zone for making APIs. It has common facilities such as effluent treatment, power, steam and testing labs, which cut costs for every unit in it.
• In 2022 the Centre gave in-principle approval for three bulk drug parks, one each in Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh [2].

Park	Site	Area
Gujarat	Jambusar, Bharuch district	2,015.02 acres [3]
Himachal Pradesh	Haroli, Una district	1,405.01 acres [3]
Andhra Pradesh	Anakapalli district (first announced for Kakinada)	[3]

• PLI (Production Linked Incentive: the government pays firms a share of their extra sales for making goods in India):
• The PLI scheme for bulk drugs has an outlay of ₹6,940 crore. It aims to stop supply breaks in critical APIs caused by depending on a single source [4].
• Under it, 48 projects were selected and 34 commissioned for 25 bulk drugs [5].
• The PLI scheme for pharmaceuticals has an outlay of ₹15,000 crore [5].

Prelims Hooks

• Potash is the only main fertiliser nutrient that India wholly imports, because it has no commercial reserves.
• The chemical industry is its own largest consumer.
• Soda ash clusters on the Gujarat coast because of sea salt and limestone. Organic chemicals locate near refineries.
• Revived urea plants and their states: Gorakhpur (UP), Sindri (Jharkhand), Barauni (Bihar), Ramagundam (Telangana), Talcher (Odisha). Only Talcher uses coal gasification. Each plant is 12.7 lakh tonnes a year [6][7].
• Nano urea: IFFCO Kalol, Gujarat, 1 August 2021. India was the first country to make it commercially [10].
• Field-based refineries are Digboi, Numaligarh, Guwahati and Bongaigaon (all Assam). Market-based inland ones include Mathura and Panipat.
• Trap: Mathura, Panipat, Bina and Barauni are inland refineries. Paradip, Kochi and Mangaluru are coastal.
• Jamnagar (Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat) is the world's largest single-site refinery, at about 1.4 million barrels a day.
• Bulk drug parks are at Bharuch (Gujarat), Una (HP) and Anakapalli (AP). Andhra Pradesh's park was first announced for Kakinada [2][3].
• India's refining capacity is 258.1 MMTPA, and the public sector holds the largest share [12][13].

Mains Points

• Location contrast (GS-I):
• Inorganic chemicals are dispersed, because inputs and markets are everywhere.
• Organic chemicals and petrochemicals are concentrated near refineries.

• Refineries are moving from field-based inland sites (Assam) to coastal import-based sites (Jamnagar, Vadinar, Paradip), because India imports most of its crude.

• Fertiliser security (GS-III):

• India has no potash and depends on imported rock phosphate and gas.
• The response has three parts: gas pipelines (HVJ, Urja Ganga) to the inland and eastern plants; revival of 5 urea plants adding 63.5 lakh tonnes a year [6]; and coal gasification at Talcher [7].

• Nano urea can cut both bulk urea use and imports [10].

• Pharma's China dependence (GS-III):

• India is a world leader in generic medicines but imports critical APIs and KSMs.

• The response is three bulk drug parks [2][3] and PLI schemes of ₹6,940 crore for bulk drugs and ₹15,000 crore for pharmaceuticals [4][5]. These support Atmanirbhar Bharat and resilient supply chains.

• Regional balance:

• Reviving plants in Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern UP, Telangana and Odisha spreads industry into the lagging eastern regions.
• Hill-state incentives created clusters in Baddi and Sikkim. This shows how policy, and not only raw materials, can decide industrial location.