Six months after Parliament quietly ended a 63-year state monopoly, India’s nuclear energy sector had its first real implementation meeting. On July 10, 2026, NITI Aayog convened officials from the Ministry of Power, the Central Electricity Authority, NTPC, the Department of Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to work through the practical mechanics of opening nuclear power generation to private and foreign capital for the first time since the Atomic Energy Act of 1962.
The law behind that meeting is the SHANTI Act, 2025 — Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India — passed by Parliament in December 2025 and now moving from statute book to project pipeline. The government’s target: 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047, up from roughly 8 GW today.
What the SHANTI Act Actually Changes
Since 1962, nuclear power generation in India has been the exclusive preserve of government-owned entities, principally NPCIL under the Department of Atomic Energy. The SHANTI Act repeals both the Atomic Energy Act, 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010, replacing them with a single framework that:
- Opens plant operation, power generation and equipment manufacturing to private Indian and foreign companies, including select fuel-cycle activities such as uranium conversion, refining and enrichment up to a government-set threshold.
- Gives the AERB formal statutory recognition and independence for the first time — previously it operated under executive order, a long-standing criticism of India’s nuclear governance.
- Replaces CLNDA’s single liability cap with a graded, tiered operator liability framework, intended to make risk more insurable and financeable for private operators.
- Keeps weapons-related and other strategic activities reserved exclusively for the central government.
Why NITI Aayog Convened Industry Now
Passing a law is one step; making it investable is another. The July 10 consultation, chaired by NITI Aayog member Prof. Abhay Karandikar and attended by the CEA chairperson, NTPC’s CMD and senior DAE and AERB officials, was structured around three practical pillars that will determine whether the 2047 target is credible or aspirational:
Who’s Already Moving
Private capital didn’t wait for the ink to dry. Adani has incorporated four nuclear-focused entities and outlined plans for eight 200 MW small modular reactors (SMRs) under a “Bharat SMR” programme. Tata Power is partnering with NPCIL on two 220 MW SMRs, with site studies underway in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. Reliance, JSW Energy, Hindalco and Jindal Steel & Power have all submitted responses to government RFPs, together identifying 16 candidate sites across six states. NTPC has separately invited global consultants for pre-award services on 1,000 MW-plus nuclear projects.
Nuclear Joins Solar, Wind and Hydrogen on the Same Path
Zoom out and the SHANTI Act reads less like an isolated nuclear reform and more like the latest chapter of a familiar Indian energy story: a state monopoly gives way to private capital once the legal and liability framework catches up. Solar and wind went through it in the 2000s and 2010s. EV charging — the market YoCharge and YoMobility operate in — went through a lighter version of the same shift, moving from scattered state-utility pilots to a competitive, multi-operator private buildout within a decade. Nuclear, via small modular reactors, appears to be tracing a similar arc, at a materially larger capital scale. The parallel is directional, not literal: reactors typically take a decade or more from site selection to first power, where a charging station takes months.
The numbers above come from public disclosures rather than the NITI Aayog meeting itself, so it’s worth being precise about what each one actually says. The Central Electricity Authority’s own roadmap for reaching 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047 (from roughly 8.8 GW today) puts the cumulative capital requirement at ₹19.28 lakh crore, or about $214 billion — a figure for the sector’s entire build-out, not a standalone “SMR market” estimate. On the corporate side, Adani Power’s wholly-owned Adani Atomic Energy Limited has since incorporated three project-specific subsidiaries — tied to prospective sites in Uttar Pradesh, coastal Maharashtra and Rajasthan — taking its nuclear-entity count to four as it works toward a reported 8×200 MW Bharat SMR fleet. Tata Power’s CEO has confirmed the company is preparing detailed project reports with NPCIL for two 220 MW reactors, with geotechnical studies underway in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha. And NPCIL’s own tender for a fleet of “Bharat Small Reactors” has drawn document submissions from six companies — Reliance Industries, JSW Energy, Hindalco, Jindal Steel & Power, Tata Power and Adani Power — who between them have flagged 16 candidate sites across Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
None of this is generation yet — it’s incorporation filings, non-disclosure agreements and site feasibility studies, much the same early paperwork stage solar and wind projects passed through years before capacity actually got built. But it’s the clearest signal so far that private capital is starting to treat nuclear SMRs the way it already treats solar, wind and hydrogen: as investable infrastructure, not a state preserve.
What could still slow this down
None of this is guaranteed to move at government-target speed. Nuclear projects routinely run a decade or more from site selection to first power, insurance markets for the new graded-liability framework are still being built, and public acceptance for new sites — explicitly flagged as a work stream in the NITI Aayog consultation — has historically been the single biggest delay factor in Indian nuclear projects (Kudankulam and Jaitapur both faced years of local opposition). The 22 GW-by-2032 milestone, in particular, leaves a narrow six-year runway for projects that haven’t yet cleared site studies.
What It Means for the Energy Transition
Nuclear doesn’t compete with solar and wind so much as it solves a different problem: baseload power that doesn’t depend on sunlight or wind speed. As India’s renewable capacity grows, grid operators need dispatchable, low-carbon generation to balance intermittency — a role currently played mostly by coal. A liberalised nuclear sector, if it delivers even a fraction of its 2047 target, gives India a third clean-energy pillar alongside renewables and storage, rather than a slower-moving alternative to them.
That matters directly for electric mobility. Every EV on Indian roads is only as clean as the grid charging it, and a grid mix that leans more on nuclear and renewables and less on coal makes every charging session — whether at a home wallbox or a public DC fast charger — genuinely lower-carbon by the numbers. It’s a multi-decade shift, not an overnight one, but it’s the same direction of travel as the EV and charging infrastructure buildout already underway.
Source: Press Information Bureau, Government of India — NITI Aayog stakeholder consultation, 11 July 2026 (Release ID 2283545) | Central Electricity Authority, Roadmap for 100 GW Nuclear Capacity by 2047, finalised 30 June 2025. Corporate SMR disclosures per NPCIL tender filings and company statements reported in industry and financial press (Feb–May 2026).