Indian Industry Plus A Pratisrutiplus Suppliment
As India prepares to host Bharat Steel 2026, a global platform to reshape future of steel, the nation is signalling its intent to showcase the next era of global steelmaking forged by R&D, digitalization, innovation, and access to high skilled engineering and technology human resources. The two-day summit in New Delhi will bring together policymakers, technology pioneers and industry leaders to confront the defining challenges of the decade: building resilient supply chains and accelerating the transition to low-emission steel production.
Steel has played a pivotal role in modern economies, akin to a skeleton”, emphasised Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, remarking that whether it is skyscrapers, shipping, highways, high-speed rail, smart cities, or industrial corridors, steel is the strength behind every success story. “India is striving to achieve the goal of becoming a $5 trillion economy, with the steel sector playing a significant role in this mission”, he added during India Steel 2025, expressing pride in India being the world’s second-largest steel producer.
The Prime Minister’s vision forms the cornerstone of this year’s Bharat Steel summit, which seeks to reimagine a global blueprint for the steel sector at a time marked by economic uncertainty, fragmented trade flows, rising protectionist tariffs, and the urgent imperative of achieving net-zero goals.
India’s leadership is rooted in both scale as it is already among the largest steel producers and ambition, with a national target of 300 MT of steel production capacity by 2030 and 500 MT by 2047. India’s steel demand continues to grow across infrastructure, housing, railways, defence and energy. But achieving 500 MT requires more than added capacity; it demands secure raw materials, predictable regulations and innovation-led modernisation. Strengthened domestic beneficiation, reduced coking-coal dependence, improved logistics and efficient approvals form the backbone of this supply-side push.
The Government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for specialty steel is reshaping the sector, shifting India from commodity-grade output toward high-value precision engineered steels essential for aerospace, automotive, defence and advanced infrastructure.
‘Green’ steel lies at the heart of India’s competitiveness. The Ministry of Steel’s 2024 Green-Steel Roadmap outlines the transition to clean energy integration, green hydrogen pilots, CCUS deployment, expanded scrap utilisation and emerging routes like direct electrolysis.
Digitalisation; covering IoT monitoring, robotics, automation and predictive maintenance; will be a core Summit theme. AI-based optimisation promises efficiency gains, lower waste and improved quality. This technology thrust will be reinforced by expanded R&D, deeper partnerships, clearer tech-transfer pathways and pilot-scale trials for emerging processes.
As global trade moves toward carbon-accounting norms, India aims to position itself as a major exporter of low-emission, high-grade steel. The National Steel Strategy prioritises joint ventures in hydrogen-based DRI, CCUS and electrolysis technologies, supported by targeted investment incentives.
The Bharat Steel Summit thus marks a pivotal moment; one in which India seeks to chart a global roadmap for a steel sector that is secure, competitive, climate-aligned and future-ready. Such direction will ensure that steel remains not only the backbone of India’s infrastructure, but also the spine of sustainable progress and global industrial leadership.
The summit will be attended by over 700 global delegates representing various aspect of the steel value chain. Partner Country Pavillion, Partner State Pavillion, Public Sector “Maharatnas”, Leading Private Sector, Scale-Ups and Starts-Ups from Steel and Allied sector, Innovators, and investors will add to the significance of the summit’s overarching intent of strengthening Prime Minister vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 by emphasizing on self-reliance, innovation, technologically advanced, and economically resilient country.
