Govt mulls FAME-like scheme for hydrogen-powered systems: Niti Aayog member

New Delhi: The government is mulling a proposal to bring a FAME-like scheme for hydrogen-powered systems, to push the hydrogen economy in a big way, Niti Aayog member VK Saraswat said on Friday.

Addressing a virtual event organised by industry body FICCI, Saraswat said the government is planning to form an overarching committee for steering the hydrogen economy in its totality.

“Can we bring schemes like FAME, which has been done in the case of battery vehicles, in the case of hydrogen-powered systems or fuel cell-powered systems, can we bring in the same kind of GST infrastructure, all these thoughts are going on,” he said.

The government in April 2015 launched the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme.

The main objective of the scheme is to encourage faster adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles by way of offering an upfront incentive on the purchase of electric vehicles and also by way of establishing necessary charging infrastructure for EVs.

Saraswat said that already, there is a top-down approach as far as the hydrogen economy is concerned, right from the office of the Prime Minister and the Niti Aayog.

“There has been a major push for bringing all the stakeholders together and come up with an overarching committee which will steer the process of the hydrogen economy development in the country,” he said.

Saraswat said this process is strongly on and he had a couple of meetings, including with industry partners like Mahindra and Mahindra.

The Niti Aayog member said research in the production of hydrogen needs investments and also needs the participation of industry.

“Hydrogen will be key part of India’s energy mix as prices of hydrogen will come down in 2-3 years,” he said.