India Energy Week: Minister Hardeep Singh Puri Highlights India’s Clean Cooking Fuel Model

New Delhi, February 12, 2025: On the second day of India Energy Week (IEW-25), Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri briefed the media, sharing details of multiple bilateral meetings with ministers from Sudan, Brazil’s Petrobras, Malawi , Nepal, Tanzania, and several African nations. Speaking about a ministerial session on clean cooking fuel, the minister noted the growing global interest in India’s achievements in this sector. “In 2014, India had only 140 million LPG connections. Today, that number stands at 330 million. We have almost covered the entire population with clean cooking fuel, unlike many other countries where about 2.8 billion people still lack access to affordable clean cooking solutions,” said Puri. Focus on Replicating the Indian Model Globally The session, which was initially planned as a closed-door event, was opened to the press due to the widespread interest in India’s clean cooking story. Ministers and private-sector representatives discussed how India’s success could be replicated in other countries of the Global South. The Deputy Prime Minister of Tanzania expressed interest in solar cooktops, and in response, Puri invited the CMD of IOCL to join the discussion. The IOCL CMD revealed that a Tanzanian delegation is already working with one of their vendors and that 100,000 solar cooktops have been supplied to Tanzania. A similar initiative from Ahmedabad has also provided ethanol cooktops to Kenya. Plan for India Energy Week 2026 Minister Puri proposed creating a detailed roadmap and timeline by the next India Energy Week in Goa (February 2026) to promote affordable clean cooking solutions globally. The session also witnessed discussions on financing solar cookers and other solutions with USIBC. This session has been described as one of the key takeaways of IEW-25, reinforcing India’s role as a leader in clean energy and cooking solutions.