How Indian Is India’s Hydrogen Train?

How Made-In-India Is India’s First Hydrogen Train, Really?

By Dev Chandrasekhar

On 22 May 2026, India announced an engineering milestone. The Railway Board cleared a 10-coach hydrogen fuel cell trainset for commercial service on the Jind-Sonipat section in Haryana.

Built at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, it will draw its fuel from a green hydrogen plant rising at Jind.

The rake is designed for speeds of up to 150 km/h, though the pilot will run it at a deliberately conservative 75 km/h. 

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has been calling it the longest and most powerful hydrogen train on broad gauge.

The cost so far, across the trainset and its ground infrastructure, runs to roughly Rs 112 crore, with a wider plan to put 35 such trains into service for about Rs 2,800 crore. In this framing, India joins Germany, Japan, China and the United States in the hydrogen-rail club, and does it on its own hardware.

What the framing leaves out are the layers of this train that are Indian, and those that are not. 

What’s Indian And What’s Not

The railcar and its coaches are built at ICF. The diesel-electric multiple-unit being retrofitted is Indian. System integration sits with Medha Servo Drives, a Hyderabad firm, working to specifications framed by the Research, Design and Standards Organisation. 

The Jind plant, its electrolyser, the 3,000 kg of hydrogen storage, the 11 kV supply and the refuelling apparatus are all domestic builds. The engineering is meaningfully more than buying a finished Coradia iLint —  world's first passenger train powered by a hydrogen fuel — from its French manufacturer Alstom and bolting it to a domestic timetable. 

Germany simply bought complete Coradia iLint trains from Alstom and ran them; India designed, built, and integrated its own vehicle and fuelling system rather than importing a finished train off the shelf. That is a genuinely higher rung of capability. 

But the heart of a hydrogen train is the fuel cell, the device that combines hydrogen with oxygen from the air to generate the electricity that drives the motors, with water vapour as the only exhaust. 

It is the engine of the engine, and that is where the indigenous story thins out. The pilot retrofit programme Indian Railways awarded to Medha Servo Drives ran on modules from Canada's Ballard Power Systems, eight units of 100 kW apiece. 

Ballard's technology is built on proton-exchange membrane stacks that India does not manufacture. 

The latter ICF-built trainset has been reported to use fuel cell systems from Tata Advanced Systems, though that sourcing is not officially confirmed, and even Tata's fuel-cell activity has historically leaned on imported stacks rather than a stack designed and made in India from first principles. 

The government has published no localisation breakdown.

It is tempting to soften this as “indigenous except the stacks.” Run down the chain, and it imports almost the whole way. 

This dependency would matter less if the global hydrogen-rail supply chain were healthy. It is not. 

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$159 billion

That is allegedly how much India's markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), has said Mumbai-listed Rajesh Exports misrepresented in revenues from subsidiaries over the five fiscal years through March 2025.

The figure equals nearly 99.8% of the company's subsidiary revenues, and the regulator has ordered it to make "true and fair" disclosures. Chairman and majority shareholder Rajesh Mehta has been barred from trading in the company's stock until further notice.

Context: The allegations are a dramatic fall from grace for a company built on a remarkable rise.

Mehta began in jewellery with a loan of just Rs 1,200, before expanding into manufacturing, retail stores under the Shubh Jewelers brand in Karnataka, and ultimately acquiring Swiss gold refiner Valcambi in 2015 for $400 million, a deal that positioned Rajesh Exports as the world's largest gold exporter, The Core earlier reported.

Catch Up Quick: SEBI's interim order cited a pattern of routing corporate funds through personal accounts, misuse of funds to promoter-controlled entities, and said there was a "credible and real risk" of assets being dissipated. The regulator also flagged "prima facie misconduct" by the company's statutory auditors.

Rajesh Exports denied the allegations, citing a "communication gap" with the regulator. Shares have lost more than 40% this year. Investors, including LIC, Charles Schwab, and Vanguard, hold stakes in the firm.

Trade Deal Pipeline

India expects nine free trade agreements (FTAs) signed over the past three years to become operational within the next 10 months and plans to conclude negotiations on another three to four major trade pacts within a year, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said at the Citi 2026 India Conference in Mumbai on Thursday. 

How We Got Here: India recently concluded trade agreements with the United Kingdom, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Australia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and New Zealand, while continuing trade negotiations with partners including the United States.

The Turning Point: The push for new trade deals comes amid growing uncertainty in global trade. The United States has revived tariff measures under President Donald Trump and adopted a more protectionist trade stance. Earlier this week, the Office of the United States Trade Representative proposed additional tariffs on certain Indian imports over alleged forced-labour concerns, even as New Delhi and Washington continue negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement.

India's Monsoon Arrives Late

Kerala received its first monsoon rains on Thursday, three days behind schedule, the India Meteorological Department said, bringing some relief from a brutal heatwave that has pushed power demand to record highs.

The Lead: The monsoon delivers nearly 70-80% of India's annual rainfall, irrigating everything from rice and cotton to soybeans and sugarcane. The cost of home-cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis increased 5% and 7% year-on-year, respectively, in May 2026, according to Crisil Intelligence's latest Roti Rice Rate report. The IMD has forecast that the 2026 monsoon will bring the lowest rainfall in 11 years, with June alone expected to receive below 92% of the long-period average. This is due to a returning El Niño, a periodic warming of the Pacific Ocean that historically suppresses rainfall across South Asia.

Forecast: Crisil flags three compounding risks this kharif season: below-normal rainfall during critical yield-forming stages in August and September, intensifying pest outbreaks, and tightening fertiliser supplies worsened by the West Asia conflict. A weak harvest would feed directly into food prices, squeezing household budgets already under pressure.

Clean Energy Hits Regulatory Wall

India's clean energy ambitions are running into a regulatory headwind. New grid discipline rules, due to take effect in April 2027, will sharply increase penalties for solar and wind producers that fail to match their power delivery commitments, Reuters reported.

Impact: Industry groups estimate the tougher regime could cut solar project revenues by 11% and wind farm revenues by as much as 48%.

The rules have unsettled major foreign investors, including KKR, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Actis, who warned Indian officials in April that lower returns and policy unpredictability could slow investment in the sector.

Setup: Developers say India lacks the forecasting infrastructure needed to meet the tighter standards, and are investing in upgraded weather systems and battery storage to adapt, even as legal challenges to the regulation mount.

The Core earlier reported how India may be trying to achieve ambitious renewable energy targets, but the infrastructure to carry that power is still struggling to keep pace.

Cautious But Resilient

Less than half of Indian consumers (48%) expect the economy to improve this year, according to Kantar's latest State of the Nation survey, highlighting growing caution amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty. That’s down from 60% in January, while concerns about layoffs rose to 41% from 36%. At the same time, 61% expect their savings and investments to either remain unchanged or decline compared with 2025.

By the Numbers: The survey found that Indian households are prioritising financial security. Healthcare costs emerged as the biggest concern, cited by 85% of respondents, followed by rising living expenses (80%) and retirement preparedness (78%). Nearly two-thirds (63%) said they are very likely to increase savings for the future.

Impact: Despite this caution, demand for travel remains resilient, with 60% planning a domestic holiday over the next year. “For brands, this presents a clear imperative: demonstrate tangible value, build trust and relevance and deliver meaningful benefits that help consumers navigate uncertainty with greater confidence,” said Deepender Rana, Executive Managing Director, South Asia at Kantar.

Markets Await Govt. Moves on Foreign Investments

On Episode 893 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Vikas Chimakurthy, CEO at Kotak Alts (Real Estate Fund), as well as Dr Kailash Sharma, Dean Academic projects at Tata Memorial Center, Mumbai.

• Markets await government moves on foreign investments

• The big shift in oil production and movements

• Is the UK FTA hitting a bump even as more FTAs on the anvil

• Kotak closes a $1 billion real estate fund with a majority FDI investment. Where could the funds go?

• Understanding what the NEET controversy means from a healthcare industry perspective