The third day of India Energy Week 2026 concluded with a strong focus on aligning policy, data, technology and investment to meet India’s rapidly expanding energy needs, as leaders from government, industry and global institutions outlined pragmatic pathways for a secure, resilient and inclusive energy future aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
At the Global Energy Conclave, during the release of the IEA India Bioenergy Market Report Outlook for Liquid and Gaseous Biofuels to 2030 and the fifth edition of the PPAC Journal Ensuring Energy Security Role of State Energy Policies, Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said India’s bioenergy sector has the potential to grow significantly faster than overall energy demand and emerge as a critical pillar of energy security, emissions reduction and rural development.
He noted that while India’s per capita energy consumption remains in the lower half globally, its growth rate is nearly twice the world average. Over the next decade, India’s energy demand growth could outpace global growth by a factor of two or more. Highlighting policy-led outcomes, he said ethanol blending has increased from 1.4 percent in 2014 to nearly 20 percent today, with similar momentum being built for biodiesel, compressed biogas and sustainable aviation fuel.
Presenting key findings from the report, Paolo Frankl, Head of the Renewable Energy Division, International Energy Agency, said India has tripled its consumption of modern bioenergy since 2020 and could double deployment again by 2030 with strengthened policy implementation.
In a Leadership Spotlight Session on empowering economic policy with energy data, Pankaj Jain, Former Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Member Secretary, Eighth Central Pay Commission, warned against reactive planning. He said energy systems must anticipate economic growth rather than chase it, calling for integration of data across petroleum, power, coal and gas to support macroeconomic forecasting and infrastructure prioritisation.
Addressing another Leadership Spotlight Session on leveraging artificial intelligence in the upstream sector, Rajarshi Gupta, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ONGC Videsh Limited, said India is witnessing a fundamental shift in how exploration data is generated, shared and utilised. He emphasised collaboration and breaking institutional silos to unlock value from AI-driven decision-making.
In the session on The Solar and Wind Opportunity Realising the Dual Potential of Scaling India’s Renewables, Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said India must move beyond capacity addition to focus on grid integration and domestic manufacturing. He noted that India’s non-fossil fuel capacity has reached around 267 gigawatts, underscoring the need for technology and systems that support reliable integration.
At the leadership panel on coal’s evolving role in a secure energy mix, Vikram Dev Dutt, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, said affordable and dependable baseload power remains imperative as India works toward tripling per capita energy consumption, even as renewable energy scales up. He stressed a balanced and pragmatic transition aligned with national development needs.
In the Leadership Spotlight Session on scaling green ammonia and the hydrogen ecosystem, Abhay Bakre, Mission Director, National Green Hydrogen Mission, said India’s green hydrogen ecosystem is moving decisively from ambition to execution, supported by competitive renewable energy costs, policy certainty and expanding global partnerships.
As the third day concluded, India Energy Week 2026 reaffirmed that India’s energy transition will be shaped not by a single pathway but by a coordinated approach balancing growth with sustainability, innovation with reliability and ambition with realism. With policy certainty, data-driven decision-making and collaboration across stakeholders, India continues to strengthen its position as a central force shaping the future of global energy systems.
