How India's LPG success became its soft underbelly

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, India's clean-cooking revolution expanded LPG access to millions of households and pushed coverage to more than 95%. But the same shift has tied everyday cooking more closely to imported gas supplies for crores of Indians, which has become an Achilles's Heel amid the US-Israel war with Iran.

India's LPG shortage has exposed a paradox. The country's most successful clean-energy push has also created a new vulnerability. Over the past decade, millions of households moved away from firewood and coal to cooking gas. The flagship Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in 2016, expanded LPG access among poor and rural families. The shift was historic. But the same expansion also deepened India's dependence on imported cooking gas. That vulnerability was laid bare as the government revived kerosene for domestic cooking and coal for restaurants amid the war in the Middle East.

When disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz slowed energy shipments amid the conflict, LPG supplies tightened quickly. There are long queues outside LPG agencies and godowns, and domestic consumers are complaining that they are facing a week-long delay in delivery of LPG cylinders.

Economist and a member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC), Shamika Ravi, says the problem reflects a broader shift in household energy dependence. According to Ravi, the risk goes beyond a temporary LPG shortage. India's rapid expansion of LPG access has created a "dual dependence" on petroleum products in household spending.

Calling it a "dual petroleum dependency", Ravi on X says that, "Together, LPG and conveyance account for 7.5-10.2% of monthly budgets." She adds that such exposure "did not exist at this scale in 2011, when rural LPG adoption was just 17%."

LPG coverage rose from about 62% of households in 2016 to more than 95% in 2026, according to government data. India now has over 33 crore LPG connections, with more than 10 crore issued under the Ujjwala scheme alone.

The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, launched in 2016, is a central government programme that provides free LPG connections to poor households. The flagship scheme mainly targets women from below-poverty-line families. The scheme aims to replace traditional cooking fuels like firewood and dung with clean LPG to reduce indoor air pollution and health risks.