New InfluenceMap analysis finds that industry actors in India have been actively advocating in response to the energy crisis stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. While some entities from the oil and gas industry may be using the conflict to advocate for fossil fuel buildout, a growing number of positive corporate voices are calling for increased deployment of renewables and electric vehicles (EVs) to address the country’s energy security concerns.
The ongoing conflict has triggered the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil and gas markets and the most severe energy shock on record, slowing global economic growth and driving up inflation. Asia-Pacific economies are particularly vulnerable, given their heavy reliance on oil and LNG shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the case for India: with imports responsible for around 85% of the country’s crude oil supply, nearly half of which transited the Strait of Hormuz prior to the war, the crisis exposed India's energy vulnerability.
The Indian government has taken both supply-side and demand-side measures to address the crisis. It rapidly diversified its crude import sources to increase the share of imports routed outside the Strait of Hormuz and invoked emergency measures to redirect liquefied petroleum gas from industrial applications to households. At the start of May, the Prime Minister of India announced austerity measures, urging citizens and businesses to reduce fuel consumption, shift to public transport and electric vehicles, carpool, resume working from home, and avoid purchasing gold and non-essential foreign travel to conserve foreign exchange.
InfluenceMap’s tracking of the Indian industry’s response to the crisis finds a new impetus to push for zero-carbon solutions, framing domestic clean energy sources as essential to reducing India’s dependence on fossil fuel imports and strengthening long-term energy security and affordability.
In April 2026, InfluenceMap analysis found that the global fossil fuel industry has deployed a playbook in response to the crisis, as it did following the commencement of the 2022 war in Ukraine, pushing new fossil fuel investments as essential to energy security and affordability. However, the analysis also highlighted how renewable energy and utility companies are starting to challenge the fossil fuel industry's long-standing narrative, reframing energy security as an argument for accelerating the clean energy transition—a positive trend emerging in India as well.
Since the current crisis began in March 2026, senior executives at renewable energy companies—and one notable conglomerate—have stressed the importance of accelerating the transition toward renewable energy for India’s energy security and independence.
At ReNew Power Private Limited (ReNew), a renewable energy company, CEO Sumant Sinha supported a renewable energy transition in a March 2026 Financial Times article, arguing that the energy crisis highlighted the need for major fossil fuel-importing economies to strengthen their energy security. In a LinkedIn post sharing the article, Sumant Sinha reiterated the fragility of fossil fuel dependence and wrote that “renewables, by contrast, are not simply an environmental imperative—they are the strategic anchor of resilience and independence.” In an April 2026 CNBC interview, Sinha also advocated for urgent electrification and clean transmission infrastructure build-out and reiterated his positions in a May 2026 ET NOW interview.
At Hero Future Energies (HFE), the renewable energy arm of India’s Hero Group, Managing Director Rahul Munjal advocated for India to expand renewables and electric vehicles to reduce fossil fuel imports and strengthen energy security in an April 2026 Hindustan Times op-ed, describing the Iran war as a wake-up call on the fragility of existing energy supply chains. In an April 2026 Economic Times article, Munjal argued that renewable energy adoption should be reframed around energy security rather than environmental goals alone. In a May 2026 BusinessWorld interview, HFE’s global CEO, Srivatsan Iyer, also urged India to electrify and increase its transmission capacity, stressing that geopolitical crises are becoming commonplace.
At Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest conglomerate with major fossil fuel and growing renewable energy operations, Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani appeared to support the move towards decarbonization of the energy sector in an April 2026 press release, referencing the Iran war and the need for energy security.
At Suzlon, a large wind turbine manufacturer and renewable energy developer, Vice Chairman Girish Tanti communicated support for a transition to renewable energy to meet increasing electricity demand, citing global conflicts and emphasizing energy security and affordability.
As in other regions, InfluenceMap also identified corporate actors pushing for new domestic infrastructure and investments in fossil fuel production to reduce reliance on imported fossil fuels and their associated energy shocks. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is clear that fossil fuel-dependent economies risk locking themselves into carbon-intensive pathways that will increasingly lead to stranded assets, underutilized infrastructure and job losses as climate commitments progress and carbon prices rise. At times, this push has coincided with support for increasing renewable energy.
For example, at JSW Energy, a JSW Group company with thermal, hydro and renewable power generation, CEO Sharad Mahendra promoted the need for additional thermal coal capacity, referencing pressure on gas-based power generation due to the crisis and stressing the intermittency of renewable energy.
The Federation of Indian Petroleum Industry (FIPI), an industry association representing India’s oil and gas sector, supported new exploration and production of domestic oil and gas to bolster India’s energy security in a May 2026 X post, referencing the geopolitical situation.
Despite supporting an increase in renewables in the energy mix, the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII), Director General, Chandrajit Banjeree, simultaneously emphasized the need to expand petroleum and natural gas reserves in response to the energy crisis.
Similarly, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), supported a transition toward renewable energy while also calling for expanding domestic gas infrastructure and enhancing strategic petroleum reserves capacity in its April 2026 report on the crisis.
While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that electrification powered by low-carbon electricity offers the greatest decarbonization potential for road transport globally, it states that biofuels may have to complement electromobility in road transport in developing countries in the short to mid-term. In response to the current crisis, the government of India appears to be pursuing two key strategies for the automotive sector: accelerating electrification as part of its austerity measures and increasing ethanol blending in petrol to reduce dependence on imported oil. While EV sales surged amid the crisis, new petrol standards permitting higher ethanol blends of up to 27% signal policy support for biofuels. Consistent with InfluenceMap’s 2024 analysis of the Indian automotive sector, responses to the crisis highlight a divide in industry positions.
Tata Motors CEO and Managing Director Shailesh Chandra highlighted growing EV sales in India as a result of the crisis in a May 2026 media statement, while opposing any tax exemptions for flex-fuel vehicles. He also expressed concerns about increasing ethanol blending beyond the mandated 20%, as it would reduce the fuel efficiency of such vehicles.
In May and June 2026 media statements, Maruti Suzuki Managing Director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi and Chairman RC Bhargava supported biofuels and alternative fuels, such as compressed biogas (CBG), alongside EVs and hybrids, as a response to the crisis1. Takeuchi described CBG as a “carbon-negative” solution, despite IPCC guidance to the contrary2. This is consistent with recent InfluenceMap findings that Japanese automakers have consistently advocated for a “multi-pathway” approach in emerging markets, which is likely to prolong the role of internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid vehicles.
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) appears to favor expanding fossil gas and biofuels in road transport over electrification. In March 2026, SIAM wrote to the government to increase the availability of liquefied petroleum gas, piped natural gas, and propane for the automotive sector amid supply chain concerns. SIAM also engaged with India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas in April and May 2026 to secure economic concessions to benefit flex-fuel vehicles, which are ICE vehicles capable of running on petrol, ethanol, or a mixture of both.
Indian industry's response to the crisis signals a positive shift in how companies engage with government policy. As a growing number of companies cite energy security and geopolitical risk to make the case for policies that favor renewables and EVs, they position the clean energy transition as essential to economic, as well as environmental, goals.
Geopolitical shocks are likely to become more frequent. As they do, the corporate voices calling for a move away from imported fossil fuels and towards domestic clean energy resources will be central to India meeting both its economic and its climate objectives.
1Maruti recently announced plans to introduce flex-fuel vehicles capable of operating on 100% ethanol in India.
2The IPCC suggests that lifecycle emissions of biogas are typically not GHG-neutral and require significant upgrading (IPCC AR6, 2022, Chapter 6, 6.4.2.6) and methane mitigation (IPCC AR6, 2022, Chapter 12, 12.5.3).
