The Government will help smaller mills go green
The Ministry of Steel is preparing a ₹5,000 crore scheme, the national strategy for sustainable secondary steel, to fund cleaner technology across steelmaking, with a senior official telling PTI it is expected to launch within three months, pending Union Cabinet approval. The scheme covers all steelmakers, but the major share of funds is earmarked for secondary producers: the induction furnace, electric arc, and sponge iron units that make nearly half of India's steel.
What changes on the ground
Support arrives as concessional loans, risk guarantees, and other financial incentives rather than a single subsidy, structured for units that cannot fund upgrades from their own balance sheets.
Many qualifying producers are MSMEs; modern technology adoption among secondary units runs below 50%, against 50 to 60% at primary producers.
The gap being targeted: Indian steel averages 2.55 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel versus a global average near 1.9, and the sector carries 10 to 12% of national emissions.
What is already moving
The proposal is being prepared for Union Cabinet approval, the final step before launch.
Hydrogen-in-steel pilots under the National Green Hydrogen Mission are already awarded, and a broader Green Steel Mission under discussion could add a production-linked incentive for green steel and procurement mandates for government buyers.
The bigger trade picture
This scheme is the funding half of a policy pair. The environment ministry has assigned plant-wise carbon intensity targets to 255 iron and steel units with 2026-27 as the compliance year, so the units now carrying a carbon number are the same ones this money is designed to reach. For exporters, verifiably cleaner production doubles as the credential European buyers increasingly request under the EU's carbon border rules.