Talk Series 4.12

Clean Cooking in India’s Energy Transition Pathways to Viksit Bharat and Net Zero

We are pleased to invite you to the 12th session of the Talk Series – Phase IV on Modern Energy Cooking titled “Clean Cooking in India’s Energy Transition Pathways to Viksit Bharat and Net Zero.” This session will be conducted online on 18^th June, 2026 and is being organised by Finovista and MECS Programme.

India’s long-term energy and climate strategy, as articulated in the NITI Aayog report “Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat @2047 and Net Zero India – An Overview (Vol I)”, presents integrated modelling pathways for achieving high economic growth alongside deep decarbonisation of the energy system. The study examines alternative scenarios that project sectoral energy demand, electrification rates, fuel substitution patterns, emissions trajectories, and infrastructure requirements up to 2047 and 2070.

The report is very clear that the energy transition of the Indian economy is to be anchored in a decisive shift towards electricity and non-fossil energy. In fact, the role of electricity is going to expand across sectors such as transport, buildings, cooking, and industry, supported by large-scale deployment of renewable energy, energy storage, and a strategic expansion of nuclear power to ensure system reliability. In the process, while the power sector will move steadily towards near-zero emissions, India’s per capita electricity consumption will increase to levels comparable with advanced economies. Apart from climate benefits, this transformation will also strengthen energy security by reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels and their price volatility.

Among the pathways, the residential sector has emerged as a structurally important contributor to future electricity demand growth, fossil fuel consumption patterns, and end-use electrification. Specifically, the Cooking energy, historically dominated by biomass in rural areas and LPG in urban and peri-urban regions, sits at the intersection of multiple modelling assumptions: energy access, affordability, electrification intensity, peak demand, import dependence, and emissions reduction.

The foreword by V. ANANTHA NAGESWARAN, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, is particularly significant.  He states, “India’s late-developer advantage allows it to avoid locking into inefficient, carbon-intensive systems that now burden many advanced economies. With much of its future infrastructure yet to be built, India can leapfrog to cleaner, more efficient, and more resilient technologies.

If executed well, the net-zero transition can strengthen energy security, reduce import dependence, improve air quality and public health, catalyse domestic manufacturing, and position India as a major supplier of clean technologies to the world.”  This is very much the message of the recently published “A Wide-Ranging Review of India’s Journey Towards Electric Cooking” by the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Programme in India.

Under Net Zero-aligned scenarios, accelerated electrification of end uses, improvements in appliance efficiency, and a gradual reduction in fossil fuel dependence are central design features.

These trajectories have direct implications for the cooking sector:

• The pace of biomass phase-down and clean fuel saturation
• The long-term role of LPG/PNG as a transition fuel versus structural electrification
• The magnitude and timing of incremental residential electricity demand
• Peak load implications due to cooking-time concentration
• Greater integration of renewable energy and the consequent requirements for better grid management, storage solutions, and smart technology to handle variable supply.
• Impacts on transformer loading, distribution upgrades, and DISCOM financial exposure
• The contribution of residential electrification to emissions abatement

As India advances toward becoming a Viksit Bharat by 2047, clean cooking transitions must be evaluated not only through public health and access lenses but also through system-level energy modelling, infrastructure planning, and fiscal sustainability considerations. Aligning clean cooking strategies with macro energy pathways requires a clearer understanding of modelling assumptions, demand elasticity, efficiency parameters, and fuel substitution rates embedded in long-term scenarios.

This session aims to technically unpack how cooking energy is represented within national energy modelling frameworks and to examine the policy signals required today to ensure that clean cooking contributes optimally to India’s long-term development and Net Zero goals.

The session will bring together energy modellers, policymakers, DISCOM representatives, clean cooking practitioners, appliance manufacturers, climate analysts, and development partners to explore the structural positioning of cooking energy within India’s broader transition architecture.

Clean Cooking in India

Clean cooking in India involves the transition from traditional biomass and fossil-fuel-based cooking towards cleaner, more efficient solutions, including electric cooking, LPG, PNG and renewable-energy-powered technologies. This transition is closely linked to India’s energy security, emissions reduction, electricity demand and the broader pathways towards Viksit Bharat 2047 and Net Zero 2070

NITI Aayog’s Energy Transition Pathways and Clean Cooking

NITI Aayog’s long-term energy scenarios provide a national framework for understanding India’s transition towards greater electrification, renewable energy and reduced fossil-fuel dependence. These pathways have important implications for the cooking sector, particularly the future role of biomass, LPG and electric cooking, as India progresses towards Viksit Bharat 2047 and Net Zero 2070