At the Planet C3 Summit on Climate, Circularity and Community the minister said India’s clean energy transition is a national strategy to reduce import dependence, strengthen indigenous capacities and position the country to lead the global shift towards a greener future. He outlined an agenda covering resource security, domestic manufacturing and policy reform to accelerate innovation and ensure time-bound delivery. The approach aims to scale existing initiatives while launching new measures to meet rising demand across strategic sectors.

The minister highlighted demand for critical materials such as lithium and rare earth permanent magnets driven by electric mobility, renewable energy, electronics, space and defence. He noted that much of the requirement is met through imports and domestic capacity must be expanded rapidly to avoid shortfalls. He cited the first indigenous permanent magnet plant in Visakhapatnam and a dedicated rare earth magnet policy to strengthen supply chains.

He stressed that energy security is central to technological growth, particularly for sectors enabled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) that require reliable continuous power. The Nuclear Energy Mission was described as a key pillar intended to increase nuclear capacity by 2047 through phased expansion and wider participation from public and private stakeholders. The collaborative model between government and industry was presented as gaining momentum to accelerate progress in critical areas.

The government has adopted a mission-mode framework linking the National Green Hydrogen Mission, India AI Mission, the National Quantum Mission and biotechnology programmes as parts of a broader strategy. This was supported by increased public investment in research, a dedicated corpus and institutional mechanisms such as the National Research Foundation (NRF) to strengthen the research ecosystem. Structured interfaces between industry, academia and government are being promoted to align research with market needs and scale technologies, with startups and women-led enterprises noted as important contributors. The minister emphasised that urgency and coordination are required so self-reliance combined with global engagement advances national priorities and global sustainability goals.