New Delhi, April 30 -- The government's push for clean mobility, though a climate imperative, is pushing India's automobile industry through a difficult transition.

Going by road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari's comments this week, the Centre wants faster progress. "There is no future for diesel and petrol vehicles," Gadkari said, adding that hydrogen was the "fuel of the future."

This, even as a shift to electric vehicles (EVs) has fallen short of expectations.

To be sure, the urgency has grown; vehicles free of carbon exhaust are not just desirable to help us achieve India's net-zero goal, they would also spell relief from hydrocarbon-import reliance, with all its cost volatility, as seen in the wake of the Gulf war's ...