India’s Battery Bet Is On Shaky Ground

India's Battery Storage Push Faces An Execution Problem

By Shubhangi Bhatia

What?

India's battery storage capacity up for bidding has exploded, from 6.8 GW in 2018 to 90.7 GW by 2025, a 13 times jump in seven years, as per JMK Research.

But a chunk of that growth came from aggressively low bids, with some tariffs so thin that developers may struggle actually to build, finance, or safely operate the projects they have won.

Why?

Falling battery prices and government subsidies pushed companies to underbid, betting battery costs would keep falling. That bet is now backfiring as lithium carbonate prices have risen in China, and Beijing's removal of export tax breaks is set to make imports pricier still, hitting a country that sources roughly 84% of its lithium-ion battery from China and has almost no domestic refining capacity.

As ICRA's Ankit Jain told The Core, some tariffs are "much lower than the tariff needed to meet the debt servicing requirements for such projects”.

Only 46.3% of awarded capacity went to developers with real standalone storage experience, and JMK’s Prabhakar Sharma noted that when inexperienced winners go to the lender, they sometimes struggle to source the money, and so the capacity ends up stranded.

Why It Matters

Storage isn't optional for India's renewable ambitions. Without it, solar and wind can't deliver power after dark, undermining the push toward 500 GW of renewable capacity by 2030.

If underfunded projects get built anyway, developers cutting corners on cost could raise fire risk and compromise grid reliability, the opposite of what the buildout is meant to achieve. JMK expects many projects awarded in late 2025 to face delays of 9 to 18 months.

Sunkonnect founder Avishek Kumar said the deeper issue isn't policy but execution. "The real bottleneck is skilled manpower and system design." He pointed out India also lacks markets that pay storage for grid services, that are standard in the UK, US, and Australia, which makes it harder to justify storage investments, even though demand from utilities is growing.

So is India's storage boom the start of a genuine execution, or the first cracks of a correction waiting to happen, and can the fixes on the table arrive before the bill comes due?

Building Wealth For A Longer Life

Longer lives. Rising costs. Market volatility. Uncertain returns.

The assumptions that once shaped retirement planning are being challenged, and the rules of long-term wealth creation are changing with them.

The Core, in partnership with Spotify Unlock, invites a select group of senior leaders, founders and investors to a closed-door conversation on Building Wealth for a Longer Life, led by Saurabh Mukherjea, Founder & CIO, Marcellus Investment Managers.

August 25, 2026 | 8:30 AM | Late Checkout

Limited seats. By invitation only.

Blu Dot surpasses 2,000% ROAS with self-serve CTV ads

Home furniture brand Blu Dot blew up on CTV with help from Roku Ads Manager. Here’s how:

After a test campaign reached 211,000 households and achieved 1,010% ROAS, the brand went all in to promote its annual sales event. It removed age and income constraints to expand reach and shifted budget to custom audiences and retargeting, where intent was strongest.

The results speak for themselves. As Blu Dot increased their investment by 10x, ROAS jumped to 2,308% and more page-view conversions surpassed 50,000.

“For CTV campaigns, Roku has been a top performer,” said Claire Folkestad, Paid Media Strategist, Blu Dot. “Comping to our other platforms, we have seen really strong ROAS… and highly efficient CPMs, lower than any other CTV partner we've worked with.”

Using Roku Ads Manager, the campaign moved from a pilot to a permanent performance engine for the brand.

Learn more

Rs 7,877 crore

That’s how much the government has approved in 31 new investment proposals under its Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, as it tries to push India beyond assembling electronics and towards making the parts inside them.

Fast Facts: The scheme covers components and sub-assemblies used across smartphones, computers, telecom equipment, consumer electronics and other products. The government launched it in 2025 with a Rs 22,919-crore outlay, but later raised the allocation to Rs 40,000 crore in Budget 2026-27 as investment interest surged.

The push addresses a weakness that India’s electronics boom has exposed: the country has become good at assembling finished products, but still imports many of the components that go into them. 

The Core has previously reported that even as smartphone manufacturing has shifted to India, much of the supply chain remains overseas. Analysts have pointed to the lack of a dense local supplier ecosystem as a key disadvantage compared with China.

Pivot: The government now wants to deepen that ecosystem, increasing domestic value addition and reducing import dependence. Previous ECMS approvals have already targeted PCBs, camera and display modules, enclosures and Li-ion cells.

More Air India Pilots Fail Drug Test

Two more Air India pilots have tested "non-negative" in initial drug screenings, and confirmatory tests are now underway, The Indian Express reported, citing sources. Both pilots have been taken off duty, as required by the rules.

Context: This follows Air India's decision to start mandatory drug testing for all its roughly 5,000 pilots, including those at Air India Express, from August 13. The move came after the pilot flying the August 4 Phuket-Delhi flight tested positive for marijuana. That flight had suffered a sudden 300-foot drop in altitude, injuring 24 people on board.

Nearly 400 pilots have been tested so far in this one-time exercise, which goes beyond the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s, mandatory annual random testing of 10% of flight crew. Air India earlier said the move aims to uphold safety standards and reassure passengers.

Setup: The Phuket-Delhi incident is under investigation. It is also reportedly being examined for possible hydraulic and control-system snags.

Silver's Slow Return

Silver traders brought 89.81 tonnes into India in August through the India International Bullion Exchange in Gujarat, after six months of zero imports, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The resumption comes after several traders and banks secured licences under a new import regime introduced in May, though paperwork hurdles are still slowing things down.

Background: India imposed licensing requirements for silver imports in May to preserve foreign-exchange reserves, sending shipments to a fraction of the country's demand.

The move came on the back of a broader silver boom, as reported by The Core, global silver demand stood at 1.16 billion ounces in 2024 against mine production of just 819.7 million ounces, a clear deficit.

India imports more than 80% of its silver needs, making it highly exposed to supply disruptions and price swings.

Forecast: The 30-day average premium still sits around $4 an ounce, Bloomberg reported. A new requirement, a government-issued certificate proving a shipment's country of production, is causing delays at customs.

Bollywood Stars on FDA Radar

Shah Rukh Khan, Ajay Devgn and Tiger Shroff have been asked to stop appearing in surrogate advertisements for Vimal cardamoms, a brand largely associated with pan masala, a prohibited betel nut product sold in tiny Rs 3.5 packs and considered harmful, especially when mixed with tobacco, Reuters reported.

The state FDA gave the actors 15 days to explain and asked them to remove the ads from social media.

Context: The notice is part of a broader food safety push by Maharashtra FDA chief Tukaram Mundhe, who has become popular on social media for his no-exceptions approach.

The FDA recently inspected 104 chain restaurant establishments across Maharashtra, suspending four Domino's outlets and issuing 95 improvement notices to others including KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Subway.

The state also shut 12 warehouses of large grocery retailers over hygiene lapses.

Forecast: India's pan masala market was worth an estimated $5 billion last year. Surrogate advertising rules remain disputed in courts, and stricter rules drafted in 2024 are yet to be finalised, Reuters reported.

Buying AI Chops

AI drove nearly half of India’s IT sector mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals over the past two financial years, as companies increasingly bought specialised capabilities instead of building them internally, according to a Crisil Ratings analysis. 

Catch Up Quick: Crisil assessed around 90 acquisitions involving India’s top 26 IT companies and found a sharp shift towards AI, data engineering, digital engineering, cloud and enterprise platforms. More than 70% of the targets were based in the US and Europe, giving Indian IT firms access to specialised talent, intellectual property and global clients. Major deals included Coforge’s $2.35 billion acquisition of Encora and TCS’s $700 million purchase of Coastal Cloud. 

The Lead: Crisil said most companies funded these acquisitions through internal accruals, cash reserves or share swaps, limiting pressure on their balance sheets. 

“The objective is not merely to add scale, but also to enhance relevance through specialist talent, domain-ready platforms, marquee clients and sharper go-to-market capabilities,” said Crisil Ratings director Aditya Jhaver.

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Tewolde Gebremariam’s Experience Could Be Key To Air India’s Reset

Earlier this month, Air India appointed former Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde Gebremariam as its new chief executive, tasking him with the monumental challenge of turning around the legacy carrier.

Gebremariam, who famously scaled Ethiopian Airlines into a global aviation powerhouse, steps into a role complicated by significant financial losses, safety concerns, and an urgent need for operational reform.

The new CEO is expected to leverage his expertise in fleet expansion and crisis management to guide the airline through a difficult "five-to-ten-year" recovery journey. Success will depend on his ability to foster cultural cohesion, enhance reliability, and reclaim Air India’s market standing.

Markets Stay Down As Oil Prices Wait For War Developments

On Episode 951 of The Core Report, financial journalist Govindraj Ethiraj talks to Puneet Gupta, Director–India & ASEAN Automotive Market at S&P Global Mobility as well as Anindya Banerjee, Head of Research for FX and Interest Rates at Kotak Securities.

• Markets Stay Down As Oil Prices Wait For War Developments

• Why Did The RBI Close The FCNR Deposit Window So Suddenly?

• A Top Govt Official Makes An Open Case For Bringing In E10 Fuel, As Opposed To E20 Which Consumers Are Upset About.

• The Rupee Fell To Its Weakest Level In Two Weeks On Monday