India’s Hydrogen Standards Gap: 23 Of 50 Value-Chain Parts Still Lack A Usable Standard
India hydrogen standards fully cover only 12 of 50 parts of the hydrogen value chain, says an MNRE-BCG gap assessment. What is missing and who must fix it.
India’s Hydrogen Standards: Closing The Gaps
💡 India’s Hydrogen Standards: Key Highlights
- MNRE released India’s Hydrogen Standards: Gap Assessment and Preliminary Action Framework, prepared with Boston Consulting Group, on 8 October 2026.
- It splits the hydrogen value chain into 50 sub-components. Only 12 are fully covered by standards. 15 have partial gaps and 23 have no usable Indian standard.
- 166 relevant standards, codes and reference documents were identified and compared with roadmaps from Canada, Germany and the EU.
- Five bodies write the rules today: BIS, PESO, PNGRB, OISD and MoRTH. In 2024, recognised test labs existed for just 6 of 87 Indian hydrogen standards.
- The Mission has awarded 8,62,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen capacity, about 17% of its 5 million tonne 2030 target (our derivation).
India hydrogen standards cover less than a quarter of what a full green hydrogen economy needs. That is the core finding of a gap assessment the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) released on 8 October 2026, World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day. Of 50 parts of the hydrogen value chain it examined, from making the gas to piping, storing and using it, only 12 already have adequate standards. Twenty-three have none that India can use.
The report was launched at an MNRE event in New Delhi attended by more than 100 officials, industry representatives and researchers, with panels on standards and on safety at hydrogen facilities. We are writing on 20 October, twelve days later. The official release names the report but does not link it, and MNRE had not posted it on its own portal when we checked. The figures below come from the report’s published summary, and from MNRE’s own earlier data.
What A Hydrogen Standards Gap Assessment Is
A standard is an agreed technical rulebook. It says how thick a storage tank wall must be, what pressure a valve must survive, how a refuelling nozzle connects, and how equipment is tested before anyone is allowed to use it. Regulators then write those standards into licences and approvals. Without them, every new project has to argue its own safety case from scratch, which is slow, expensive and hard to insure.
Hydrogen needs its own rulebook because it behaves differently from the fuels India already regulates. It is the smallest molecule there is, so it leaks through joints that hold natural gas. It can make some steels brittle over time. It ignites in air at concentrations anywhere from about 4% to 75%, and its flame is almost invisible in daylight. A gap assessment lists every piece of equipment and every activity in the chain, checks which ones an Indian standard already covers, and ranks what is missing.
India’s Hydrogen Standards: What The Assessment Found
The study maps the chain into 20 components and 50 sub-components across four areas: production, transport and storage, end use, and cross-cutting safety. It identified 166 relevant standards, codes and reference documents, and compared India’s position with the hydrogen standards roadmaps of Canada, Germany and the European Union.
Put simply, 46% of the chain has no usable Indian standard at all, and another 30% is only partly covered. In coverage of the launch, the largest gaps were reported in the parts that move and hold hydrogen at scale: transmission pipelines, natural gas pipelines repurposed for hydrogen, underground storage, tube trailers that carry compressed gas by road, and the piping inside plants. Rules for newer end uses, such as shipping, aviation, railways and stationary fuel cells, were also described as incomplete.
Adopt, adapt or develop
For each gap the framework recommends one of three routes: adopt an international standard as it is, adapt one to Indian conditions, or develop a new Indian standard. It also flags three enablers: building skills, support for approvals and certification, and digital access to standards. The report calls itself preliminary. It is a plan for writing rules, not a set of new binding rules.
Who Writes The Rules: BIS, PESO, PNGRB, OISD And MoRTH
India’s hydrogen rulebook is split across five bodies, a structure MNRE described in an earlier 2024 study with CEEW that serves as the baseline for this one.
| Body | What it covers for hydrogen | Standards issued (2024) |
|---|---|---|
| Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) | National standards body; equipment and product standards | 62 |
| Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) | Safety standards for oil and gas installations | 13 |
| Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) | Licences for gas cylinders, storage and compressed gas | 5 |
| Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) | Rules for hydrogen vehicles | 5 |
| Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) | Pipelines and gas networks, including blending | 2 |
Standards related to green hydrogen issued in India, by body, as counted in MNRE and CEEW’s May 2024 report “Green Hydrogen Standards and Approval Systems in India”. Total: 87.
That 2024 count found 87 standards in place, 59 under development and 52 international standards worth considering. Thirty-four of the 87 had been issued in the 14 months after the Mission launched, so the pace has been real. The weaker link was testing: recognised labs existed for only six of the 87 standards, four of them only partly. A standard that no Indian lab can certify against is a standard on paper.
Approvals are the other layer. The same study counted 73 approvals needed to set up a green hydrogen project, 43 of them held by state governments, 23 by central bodies and seven by local authorities. Better standards make each of those approvals faster to grant, because the officer signing off has a clear benchmark to check against.
Why Standards Decide How Fast Hydrogen Scales
The National Green Hydrogen Mission, approved in January 2023 with an outlay of ₹19,744 crore, targets 5 million tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity a year by 2030. The latest official tally we found is a Rajya Sabha reply of 24 March 2026; we found no newer award totals as of 20 October. It reported:
- 8,62,000 tonnes a year of green hydrogen production capacity awarded to 18 companies
- 3,000 MW a year of electrolyser manufacturing capacity awarded to 15 companies
- Prices discovered for 7,24,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia for 13 fertiliser units
- 20,000 tonnes a year awarded for supply to Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL refineries
By our arithmetic, the awarded production capacity is about 17% of the 2030 target. Each of those tonnes has to be stored, moved and used somewhere, and those are exactly the stages where the assessment found the biggest gaps. Green hydrogen is cheapest to make where sun and wind are strongest, often far from the steel plants, refineries and ports that will buy it. Pipelines and tube trailers are how it gets there.
End uses are the same story. India is already running hydrogen buses and trucks on pilot routes, has a hydrogen fuel cell train on the Jind to Sonipat line, and broke ground on a port-based e-methanol plant at Kandla for green shipping fuel. Each one needs refuelling, storage and handling rules before it can grow from a pilot into a fleet. The March reply also noted that PNGRB has published a roadmap for moving hydrogen through pipelines and blending it with natural gas, one gap already being worked on.
What It Means For India’s Energy Transition
Standards are the unglamorous gate to hydrogen at scale. Electrolysers and auctions make headlines; a tube-trailer code or a pipeline material specification does not. Yet investors, insurers and lenders price risk off exactly those documents, and so do the overseas buyers India hopes to sell green ammonia and hydrogen to. Adopting or adapting international standards where they exist, as the framework suggests, keeps Indian equipment and exports compatible with markets in Europe and East Asia.
The two numbers to watch are how fast those 23 blank sub-components get standards, and how fast test labs follow. There is also a grid angle. Electrolysers are large, flexible electricity loads that can ramp up when solar and wind are plentiful and ease off when they are not, the same balancing role batteries and EV chargers can play when they are coordinated through VPP operations across the Yellow Haze network. Clear India hydrogen standards are what let that flexible demand be built safely, in volume, close to where clean power is generated.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the MNRE hydrogen standards gap assessment?
A report titled “India’s Hydrogen Standards: Gap Assessment and Preliminary Action Framework”, prepared by MNRE with Boston Consulting Group and released on 8 October 2026. It checks which parts of the hydrogen value chain Indian standards already cover and recommends how to fill the rest.
How many hydrogen standards gaps does India have?
Of 50 sub-components assessed, 12 are adequately covered, 15 have partial gaps and 23 have no usable Indian standard. The biggest reported gaps are in pipelines, underground storage, tube trailers and plant piping.
Who sets hydrogen safety rules in India?
Five bodies: BIS writes product and equipment standards, PESO licenses cylinders and compressed gas storage, PNGRB regulates pipelines and gas networks, OISD sets safety rules for oil and gas installations, and MoRTH covers hydrogen vehicles. MNRE coordinates through the National Green Hydrogen Mission.
Are the report’s recommendations now binding?
No. The report describes itself as a preliminary action framework. New rules only become binding once BIS, PESO, PNGRB, OISD or MoRTH issue or adopt the relevant standards and regulations.
What is India’s green hydrogen target?
5 million tonnes of green hydrogen production capacity a year by 2030 under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, which has an outlay of ₹19,744 crore. As of March 2026, 8,62,000 tonnes a year of production capacity had been awarded to 18 companies.
More on India’s hydrogen buildout
Follow the projects these standards will govern, from road and rail pilots to green shipping fuel and the research behind cheaper hydrogen.
Source: Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Organises World Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Day 2026 — Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, PIB Delhi, 8 October 2026 (Release ID 2320929) | Government Drives Green Hydrogen Expansion and Strengthens Clean Energy Transition — MNRE, PIB Delhi, 24 March 2026 (Release ID 2244663) | Green Hydrogen Standards and Approval Systems in India — MNRE and CEEW, May 2024.
