Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 21 February 2026 in New Delhi, during the State Visit of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, India and Brazil signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Critical Minerals between India's Ministry of Mines and Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy. The MoU establishes a bilateral framework spanning the entire critical-minerals value chain — exploration, mining, processing, recycling, and refining — with explicit focus on rare-earth elements, lithium, nickel, cobalt, niobium, manganese, and other strategic minerals. It was issued alongside a broader Joint Statement targeting USD 30 billion in bilateral trade by 2030 and a ten-year strategic-partnership roadmap covering AI, defence, energy, agriculture, and digital transformation.

The Government of Maharashtra, Industries Department, notified the Maharashtra Industry, Investment, and Services Policy-2025 on 31 December 2025, valid for five years and superseding the prior Maharashtra Industrial Policy 2019. The umbrella state-level instrument supports Maharashtra's "trillion-dollar economy by 2030" and "Developed Maharashtra 2047" vision with targets of ₹70.5 lakh crore (~USD 850 bn) cumulative investment, 50 lakh (5 million) jobs across manufacturing and services, and expansion of industry's share of Gross State Value Added to 30%. It is Maharashtra's first-ever combined industry + services + investment-promotion framework (prior policies were industry-only), establishes the unified "Invest Maharashtra" platform and revamped MAITRI 2.0 portal (125+ services, AI investor support, blockchain document verification), and empowers a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the Chief Minister to sanction bespoke customised-package incentives for Mega and Ultra-Mega Projects above the ₹500 crore threshold.

On 1 February 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the National Manufacturing Mission (NMM) in the Union Budget 2025-26 as a horizontal umbrella framework extending the 2014 "Make in India" architecture across small, medium and large industries. The mission rests on five focal areas: (i) ease and cost of doing business; (ii) a future-ready workforce for in-demand jobs; (iii) a vibrant and dynamic MSME sector; (iv) availability of technology; and (v) quality manufacturing. It will deliver policy support, execution roadmaps, and a governance/monitoring framework binding central ministries with states. NMM specifically commits to building a clean-tech manufacturing ecosystem with explicit coverage of solar PV cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, very-high-voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries — i.e., the full hardware stack for India's Panchamrit (500 GW non-fossil by 2030), FAME-III EV ramp, and National Green Hydrogen Mission. NMM is the first horizontal Indian manufacturing-mission instrument in the IPTM register; existing IND entries are sector-specific PLIs (electronics, batteries, steel, semiconductors) and the National Critical Mineral Mission. Operational rollout flows through subsequent Cabinet-level scheme approvals (e.g. Biopharma SHAKTI ₹10,000 cr, Chemical Parks ₹600 cr in BE 2026-27); the mission itself does not carry a single headline outlay because it is the framework rather than an instrument.

On 4 January 2023 the Union Cabinet of India, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial financial outlay of ₹19,744 crore (≈USD 2.3 bn) covering FY2023-24 through FY2029-30. The bulk of the outlay — ₹17,490 crore — funds the Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme for electrolyser-manufacturing incentives and green-hydrogen production incentives. ₹1,466 crore is allocated to pilot projects (steel, mobility, shipping, ports, decentralised hydrogen), ₹400 crore to R&D, and ₹388 crore to other Mission components (skilling, regulatory framework, certification). The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is the lead implementing agency. Headline targets by 2030: at least 5 MMT/year of domestic green-hydrogen production capacity, with ≈125 GW of associated additional renewable- energy capacity, mobilisation of >₹8 lakh crore (≈USD 100 bn) of total investment, creation of >600,000 jobs, and avoidance of ≈50 MMT/year of CO₂ emissions. The Mission is positioned as the supply-chain underpinning for India's hard-to-abate decarbonisation (refining, fertilisers, steel) and as the basis for a green-hydrogen export industry leveraging India's low-cost solar resource. MNRE notified the SIGHT scheme guidelines on 28 June 2023, splitting the programme into Component I (Electrolyser Manufacturing Incentive, ₹4,440 crore) and Component II (Green Hydrogen Production Incentive, ₹13,050 crore for Mode-1; subsequent Mode-2A and Mode-2B tranches added for sector-specific tenders). Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) is the implementing agency for both components and runs the competitive reverse-auction tenders.