Written by: Neha Dhingra4 min readNov 2, 2026 06:25 AM IST First published on: Nov 2, 2026 at 06:25 AM ISTIn March, as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz stalled, Indian families queued for cooking gas and induction cooktops sold out in several markets across the country. India imports about 60 per cent of its LPG, and nearly 90 per cent of those shipments pass through the strait. Within weeks, a conflict far from our shores affected our kitchens and factories.Electricity offers a way to reduce that exposure. NITI Aayog’s Scenarios Towards Viksit Bharat and Net Zero shows the scale of the shift ahead. In its net-zero scenario, electricity’s share of final energy rises from 21 per cent in 2025 to 60 per cent by 2070, and the fuel import bill falls from about 4 per cent of GDP to 0.2 per cent. This makes electrification a strong component of economic and security strategy. India’s clean power base is strong: In 2025, it became the world’s fourth-largest producer of clean electricity. But how we electrify matters as much as whether we do.AdvertisementBureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)-led programmes saved 53.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent in 2023-24. The same discipline must now guide electrification. Two places to start with this are industrial heat and the kitchen.Factories use almost half of all the energy consumed in India, and most of it comes from burning coal, oil and gas on site. Electricity meets only about a quarter of Indian industry’s energy needs; in China, it meets nearly half. Closing that gap would also cut India’s fuel imports, help industries decarbonise and help exporters meet carbon border rules such as the EU’s CBAM.Industrial heat is the lowest-hanging fruit, and heat pumps are the way to pick it. A heat pump works like an air conditioner in reverse, drawing heat from air, water or waste streams and moving it to where it is needed. In Indian conditions, air-source models deliver 2.5 to 4 units of heat for every unit of electricity; an electric boiler delivers at most one. Swapping a coal boiler for an electric one adds its heat demand to the grid, but a heat pump meets the same need with a fraction of the electricity.AdvertisementAbout half the heat used by Indian MSMEs is needed below 250°C, for steam, hot water, washing and drying; a large share of it is within the range heat pumps already serve. Dairies, food processors, textile units, pharmaceutical plants, hotels and hospitals depend on it, and much of it comes from coal, diesel or gas boilers. The kitchen follows the same logic. An induction cooktop delivers most of its energy directly to the pan, while a gas flame loses a large share to the surrounding air. The scope to switch is large: Surveys show that only 4 per cent of households own an induction cooktop.you may likeThree things hold the market back: Cost, confidence and supply. A heat pump costs more to buy than a boiler and repays the difference rather slowly, given high industrial power tariffs and low fuel costs. Buyers have little way to judge the promised savings. Nearly 90 per cent of heat pumps sold in India are imported from China, leaving the market exposed to the kind of supply shocks electrification is meant to reduce.Confidence is the first problem to solve. Manufacturers today quote efficiency figures tested under American, European or Chinese standards. A buyer has no way to compare the claims, because each was measured under a different foreign standard. But India has done it before. BEE’s standards and labelling programme made the star label a signal consumers trust. Heat pumps need standards suited to Indian conditions, minimum performance requirements, backed by BIS certification, and a star label that gives buyers a way to compare products and claims. Work is underway on this.During the LPG shortage, the government deferred mandatory star labelling for induction cooktops to January 2027 to keep the supply flowing. Standards should be in place before demand surges again, so that a buying rush does not fill homes and factories with substandard products. The outcomes would be tangible and energy efficient: Less imported fuel, lower energy bills for MSMEs, less new generation capacity to build, and a domestic manufacturing base for a growing global product.The writer is India director, CLASP