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The third day of India Energy Week (IEW) 2026 concluded with a strong focus on synchronising policy, data, technology and investment to address India’s fast-growing energy requirements, as leaders from government, industry and global institutions outlined strategies for building a secure, resilient and inclusive energy system aligned with the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
At the Global Energy Conclave, 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 underscored the expanding role of bioenergy in India’s energy mix.
Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, said that India’s bioenergy sector has the potential to grow much faster than overall energy demand, emerging as a key contributor to 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 double the world average and could exceed global growth by two times or more in the coming decade. Citing policy-driven success, Mittal highlighted the ethanol blending programme, which has expanded from 1.4 per cent in 2014 to nearly 20 per cent today, with similar blending targets in place for biodiesel, compressed biogas and sustainable aviation fuel.
Presenting the IEA’s findings, Paolo Frankl, Head of the Renewable Energy Division at the International Energy Agency, said India has tripled its consumption of modern bioenergy since 2020 and, with strengthened policy implementation, could double deployment again by 2030.
The importance of integrated data for long-term planning was highlighted during the Leadership Spotlight Session titled Empowering Economic Policy with Energy Data: Steering India’s Growth Towards Viksit Bharat 2047.
Pankaj Jain, former secretary of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Member Secretary, the Eighth Central Pay Commission, cautioned against reactive planning, stressing that energy systems must anticipate demand rather than respond retrospectively. He called for deeper integration of data across petroleum, power, coal and gas sectors to enable informed macroeconomic forecasting and infrastructure prioritisation.
In another Leadership Spotlight Session on leveraging artificial intelligence in the upstream sector, Rajarshi Gupta, Managing Director and CEO of ONGC Videsh Limited, said India is witnessing a fundamental shift in the way exploration data is generated, shared and utilised. He emphasised collaboration and the breaking of institutional silos to unlock the full potential of AI-driven decision-making.
Addressing the future of renewables at the session 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 now move beyond capacity addition to focus on grid integration and strengthening domestic manufacturing. He noted that India’s non-fossil fuel capacity has reached around 267 GW.
At the leadership panel on Coal’s Evolving Role in a Secure Energy Mix: Charting a Balanced and Pragmatic Approach, Vikram Dev Dutt, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, said affordable and reliable baseload power remains essential as India works towards significantly increasing per capita energy consumption, even as renewable energy capacity continues to expand.
Momentum in clean fuels was highlighted during the Leadership Spotlight Session on Scaling Green Ammonia: Value Chain Synergies and the Hydrogen Ecosystem, where Abhay Bakre, Mission Director, National Green Hydrogen Mission, said India’s green hydrogen ecosystem is progressing decisively from ambition to execution, supported by competitive renewable energy prices, policy certainty and growing global partnerships.
As Day Three drew to a close, IEW 2026 reaffirmed that India’s energy transition will follow a coordinated and multi-pronged pathway — balancing growth with sustainability, innovation with reliability, and ambition with realism. With policy stability, data-led decision-making and collaboration across stakeholders, India continues to consolidate its role as a key shaper of the global energy future.
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