Given the turmoil in West Asia, ensuring a sufficient supply of affordable liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking has emerged as a national priority. India currently imports roughly two-thirds of its LPG, which is used by over 33 crore households for cooking daily. About 90 percent of this LPG came from West Asian countries in 2025, led by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), connecting over 10 crore low-income households to LPG, is nearing a decade of its completion, and remains one of India’s most consequential welfare programmes. When PMUY was launched in 2016, LPG was the best option for a mass-scale clean cooking programme given that India was still upgrading its electricity infrastructure to provide electricity reliably for lighting, cooling, industry and agriculture.
India's power supply has improved significantly since then. Now urban and rural areas receive over 23 and 22 hours of uninterrupted supply daily, respectively, and the grid managed a record peak demand of 250 gigawatts during April-June 2024. Hence, given the volatility of LPG supply, it is time to push for electric cooking—using induction cooktops and electric pressure cookers. PMUY was designed to move poor households away from traditional polluting chulhaburning firewood; a hybrid clean cooking stack of gas and electricity sustains the health gains from PMUY, while insulating the country from imported supply shocks.
A costly deal
The disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed up freight and insurance costs. In response, the Indian government has directed refiners under the Essential Commodities Act to prioritise LPG production and make it available only to domestic consumers. Moreover, government estimates suggest the market-linked price would require an increase of about ₹135 per cylinder, but households saw only a ₹60 hike on March 7.
India’s electricity system has a very different import profile from LPG. About three-quarters of power still comes from coal, most of it mined domestically, with import dependence below 20 percent. Renewables, now, contribute more than 22 percent of daily power generation. Electricity for electric and induction stoves would largely come from coal mines and from growing solar and wind generation within India, not from tankers navigating the Strait of Hormuz.
An induction stove is in no way inferior to LPG—and could even be healthier. Induction cooktops operate at 85-90 percent energy efficiency, compared to 55 percent for gas, and cook faster. The Council on Energy, Environment and Water’s Residential Energy Survey 2020 showed that while only about 5 per cent of Indian homes use any electric cooking device, more than 10 per cent of urban homes already do so.
With a wave of new energy-efficient induction stoves and electric pressure cookers entering the market, consumers are slowly building confidence. Recent market research shows that the electric induction cooktop market in India was valued at about $796 million in 2025. From an energy transition perspective, electrification of cooking is key to India’s 2070 net-zero goals as well.
The government had already launched the National Efficient Cooking Programme in 2023 to promote electric cooking. Clear policy signals to fast-track the shift from cylinder to current for cooking are the need of the hour.
In the short term, households that have and can afford electric induction stoves should be encouraged to use less LPG and switch to electric cooking, similar to the ‘Give It Up’ campaign for LPG subsidy. A CEEW report titled, ‘Are Indian Homes Ready for Electric Cooking?’, estimates that a household cooking entirely on electricity would consume about 80 units per month—making it cost competitive.
For households paying below ₹6.6 per unit on average, electric cooking is already cheaper than unsubsidised LPG currently priced at ₹913 for a 14.2 kg cylinder. The government has already increased the minimum waiting period for booking domestic LPG cylinders from 21 days to 25 days to curb hoarding and black marketing. It can further increase it to 35 days for non-PMUY households to send a policy signal on electric cooking in urban households. It would still allow for 10 cylinders a year, which is generally accepted as exclusive LPG use for a typical family of five.
In the medium term, extending the Production-Linked Incentive Scheme to all electric cooking appliances should drive private investment into domestic manufacturing of induction cooktops and electric pressure cookers, bringing down costs, incentivising multi-burner and energy-efficient designs suited to Indian kitchens and building a supply base ready to meet demand at scale.
As unit costs fall, a capital subsidy like PMUY to make appliances and utensils affordable for the poorest households, alongside behaviour-change campaigns and demonstrations will gradually enable PMUY beneficiaries to stack LPG with electricity.
India’s clean cooking journey began with PMUY’s bold ambition. In a volatile world with an ongoing energy crisis, cooking fuel for Indian households should gradually shift to energy generated on Indian soil. This is not about LPG versus electricity for cooking, but pushing for a clean cooking stack that reflects the ground realities of import reliance.
Abhishek Kar | Fellow, Council on Energy, Environment and Water
Surya Shekhar Auddy | Research analyst, Council on Energy, Environment and Water
(Views are personal)