The Role of SMRs In India’s Energy Transition

Under the leadership of Dr VK Saraswat, NITI Aayog  is spearheading the entire initiative of energy transition and nuclear scale-up in the country.

NITI Aayog is the apex public policy think tank of the Government of India and is directly chaired by the Prime Minister of India. The commission is tasked with catalyzing economic development, designing strategic and long-term policy and program frameworks and initiatives, and evolving national development plans with active engagements of stakeholders.

NITI Aayog literally translate to Policy Commission, however NITI is also an abbreviation for National Institution for Transforming India. This apex body was established in 2015 via a resolution of the Union Cabinet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘s government. It replaced the erstwhile Planning Commission to include bottom-up approach in economic policy making process.

For its mandate, NITI Aayog has been leading the clean energy transition in India. The agency is spearheading several major missions for building up clean energy capacities, clean hydrogen ecosystem, EV infrastructure,  Battery manufacturing, and Biofuel/Bioenergy capabilities in the country.

With success of these initiatives, NITI Aayog is now focusing on scale-up of nuclear capacity in the country through Large reactors as well through new generation small modular reactors. On 16 May 2023 NITI Aayog organized a G20 Summit on Small Modular Reactors . In association with Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), NITI Aayog also released a comprehensive report on “The Role of SMRs in the Energy Transition”, detailing on the technology development, roadmaps , regulatory frameworks and increased private participation in nuclear sector. NITI Aayog considers that energy transition and net zero cannot be possible without nuclear making up a substantial portion of the energy mix.

India NBP sincerely thanks Dr VK Saraswat, Hon’ble Member- NITI Aayog, Government of India to accept our invitation for the Inaugural Keynote Address at the 5th edition of India Nuclear Business Platform (INBP) meeting in Mumbai this 19-20 November. More information on this meeting is available here.

Download the NITI Aayog report on “The Role of SMRs in the Energy Transition” above.