National Green Hydrogen Mission: Targets, Outlay and Progress

On 28 October 2026 the Press Information Bureau put out a backgrounder on green hydrogen, described as an emerging pillar of India's clean energy transition. Green hydrogen is made by splitting water with renewable electricity, and it matters most in sectors where emissions are hard to cut: fertiliser, petroleum refining, iron and steel, heavy-duty road transport and shipping.

What makes hydrogen green

Hydrogen gives off no carbon dioxide when it is used, so everything depends on how it is produced. In August 2023 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy notified India's Green Hydrogen Standard. Hydrogen counts as green only if emissions stay within 2 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent for every kilogram of hydrogen, measured well-to-gate as a 12-month average. India thus became one of the first countries to define the term formally. Production runs on electrolysis, in which renewable power splits water into hydrogen and oxygen inside an electrolyser with a cathode, an anode and an electrolyte.

The Mission and its money

The SIGHT programme, short for Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition, pays incentives on both sides of the market, for making electrolysers at home and for producing the gas. Fifteen companies have been awarded support for 3,000 MW a year of electrolyser manufacturing, incentives cover 8,62,000 tonnes a year of production capacity, and about 8,000 tonnes a year had been commissioned by February 2026.

Pilots, hubs and clusters

Money set aside for pilots runs to Rs 455 crore for low-carbon steel, Rs 496 crore for mobility and Rs 115 crore for shipping. Twelve mobility projects will put 70 hydrogen vehicles on the road, 27 buses and 43 trucks, with 16 refuelling stations across 21 routes. Three ports have been recognised as hubs: Deendayal Port at Kandla, V.O. Chidambaranar Port at Tuticorin and Paradip Port. Four Hydrogen Valley Innovation Clusters have been awarded, at Jodhpur, in Odisha, at Pune and in Kerala.

Skills, states and the road ahead

Training has covered 8,149 candidates, of whom 7,248 were certified, across 14 States and Union Territories. Six States, namely Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal, have notified dedicated green hydrogen policies. By 2030 the Mission is expected to cut fossil fuel imports by about Rs 1 lakh crore, draw over Rs 8 lakh crore in investment, create more than 6 lakh jobs and avoid nearly 50 MMT of carbon dioxide emissions a year, feeding into the goals of Viksit Bharat by 2047 and net zero by 2070.