The Indian government is intensifying efforts to reduce reliance on imports across key sectors, with a focus on local capacity building in energy, fertilisers, electronics, and critical minerals, backed by substantial incentive schemes and strategic policies.
The government is widening its effort to make supply chains more resilient across key industries, from energy and fertilisers to electronics, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and critical minerals, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. According to Goyal, the aim is to reduce dependence on imports and build deeper domestic capacity in sectors seen as strategically important.
The minister said the administration is focusing on a mix of measures in energy security, including greater domestic production, diversified sourcing, more refining capacity, ethanol blending, biofuels, strategic petroleum reserves and renewable energy. In fertilisers, domestic output met nearly 73% of India’s total requirement in 2025, he said, underlining both progress and continuing reliance on overseas supplies.
Critical minerals have become a particular priority as India pushes ahead with clean energy, electric vehicles and advanced manufacturing. Goyal said lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, rare-earth elements and copper are essential inputs for those industries. He said the National Critical Mineral Mission is intended to secure supplies at home and abroad while strengthening the full value chain, from exploration and mining through processing, recycling and advanced manufacturing. He added that the minerals are also being given greater weight in trade and investment talks, including free trade agreement negotiations.
Goyal also pointed to the scale of the Production Linked Incentive scheme, saying that by March 31, 2026, 892 applications had been approved. He said the programme had generated more than ₹2.40 lakh crore in investment, lifted production and sales above ₹22.66 lakh crore and created more than 14.15 lakh jobs, including 8.4 lakh direct positions. Cumulative incentive payments under the scheme have reached ₹35,354 crore, according to the minister.
In mobile phones, Goyal said output has risen nearly 2.4 times and imports have fallen by about 77%, with domestic makers now producing about 99.2% of the handsets used in India. That industrial shift comes as the government has approved a separate ₹62,500 crore mobile phone manufacturing scheme to deepen local value addition, design and research and development. However, Business Standard reported earlier this year that manufacturing capacity created under the earlier incentive push has not been fully used, with about half of the more than 500 million-unit annual capacity sitting idle as demand for feature phones and entry-level smartphones weakened.
The pharmaceutical incentive programme has also expanded domestic manufacturing, Goyal said, with cumulative sales crossing ₹3.64 lakh crore and 1,931 products supported, including 191 bulk drugs produced in India for the first time. He said a bulk-drug capacity of about 55,000 metric tonnes has been established across 26 critical active pharmaceutical ingredients. In medical devices, 22 applicants have started operations and 55 distinct devices have been commissioned. The telecom incentive scheme, meanwhile, has helped develop indigenous 4G technology and strengthened local manufacturing for 5G equipment, reinforcing the government’s broader push to cut import dependence and build more resilient industrial supply chains.
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