India May Be Falling Behind in Nuclear Power but It Cannot Afford to Lose the Supply Chain Fight

As India moves closer to another much-anticipated Union Budget, recent American actions in Venezuela offer a stark reminder of a deeper vulnerability. At its core, India’s growth story still rests on imported energy primarily oil to keep its economic engine running. This dependence explains why India has pushed hard on renewable energy, particularly solar, to meet electricity demand. Yet the reality remains uncomfortable: close to one-third of India’s electricity generation today still relies on oil and gas. India’s dependence on imported energy could climb to a troubling 51% by 2030. As incomes rise, energy use rises with them, and energy-hungry data centres and artificial intelligence infrastructure are only adding to future demand. In this context, nuclear energy stands out as a reliable, safe, and domestically anchored option one that can prevent supply-chain risks from turning into geopolitical crises, and vice versa. India entered the nuclear arena early, building a formidable scientific ecosystem under the leadership of Homi Bhabha, backed fully by Jawaharlal Nehru. This foundation ensured that the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), attached directly to the Prime Minister’s Office, enjoyed exceptional autonomy. The DAE ran its own institutions, trained scientists from an early stage, maintained strict merit-based standards, and largely avoided the bureaucratic paralysis that affected much of India’s broader scientific establishment. Through the 1980s, India was genuinely at the frontier both in indigenous nuclear