India's Clean Cooking Shift

LPG and PNG have played a significant role in improving clean cooking energy access in India. At the same time, reliance on LPG/PNG also creates clear constraints: affordability remains a barrier for low-income households, last-mile delivery and servicing are uneven in several geographies, and import dependence and global price volatility translate into recurring fiscal pressures. Many households also continue to "stack" fuels, using solid fuels alongside LPG/PNG, which reduces the health and welfare gains of clean cooking access. 

This report argues that addressing these constraints requires gradually diversifying India's clean cooking pathway beyond reliance on any single solution. It sets out a practical, context-specific approach that expands options while recognizing the central role LPG/PNG have played in India's clean cooking progress. The report's core proposition is a "twin-track" diversification strategy: scale e-cooking in urban and peri-urban areas where electricity access is stronger, and scale biogas in rural areas where households have adequate feedstock and where local delivery and maintenance ecosystems can be built and sustained. 

The analysis draws on fieldwork with households and users across multiple locations and compares technologies on performance, user experience, and costs. It also uses cost and scenario analysis to assess how diversified pathways can affect household affordability and broader system outcomes (including LPG demand and subsidy pressures). 

For rural biogas, the report shows that sustained use depends on strong on-the-ground delivery systems: timely installation, reliable after-sales service, routine maintenance, and local capacity to troubleshoot plant performance. Where these systems are in place and feedstock access is reliable, biogas reduces dependence on firewood and improves cooking convenience. Scaling requires addressing high upfront costs, seasonal productivity drops in colder regions, land constraints, and shortages of trained installers and technicians. 

For urban and peri-urban e-cooking, the report finds that recurring cooking costs are competitive for many households under prevailing electricity tariffs, and e-cooking adoption would increase if households can access better appliances aligned with Indian cooking practices, consumer financing to manage upfront costs, and strong repair and after-sales ecosystems. The report also emphasizes that e-cooking scale-up must be paired with improvements in electricity reliability and distribution performance and with targeted support mechanisms that effectively reach low-income households. 

Overall, the report's message is that India can strengthen clean cooking outcomes by gradually diversifying clean cooking solutions—expanding biogas in suitable rural contexts and e-cooking in urban/peri-urban contexts—to address the constraints associated with high dependence on LPG/PNG, while improving affordability, reliability, and household health outcomes through better program design and service delivery.

Read more publications from this project:

• Beyond Irrigation: Turning sunlight into supper for Kenya's women and farmers | A pilot of secondary use of solar irrigation power for clean cooking
• Beyond Irrigation: Harnessing the untapped potential of solar pumps | Lessons from a solar-powered milling pilot in Uttar Pradesh
• Ethnographic Research as a Tool for More Inclusive Just Transition Policies: Lessons from Mpumalanga, South Africa
• Coal Transition Impacts and the Approach to Inclusive Just Transition Policies in Indonesia
• Indonesia's Next Cooking Transition: Shifting to non-fossil cooking