Why India's battery dreams are losing charge

<p>About three years ago, the government decided that it wanted India to become a global powerhouse in cell manufacturing. So it went ahead and dangled a very juicy carrot for companies to produce batteries locally. It promised over Rs 18,000 crore in subsidies for anybody who would help it make its battery dreams come true by the end of this decade. </p><p><br /></p><p>Cut to now, three years later, and those dreams are very quickly losing charge. You see, by now the government should have technically already disbursed Rs 2,700 crore to beneficiaries. </p><p>But in reality, not even 1 per cent of that has reached any of them. Merely Rs 24 crore has been spent by the government this far, and most of it has gone towards paperwork, site visits and tender process. That's it. What's going on? </p><p>Tune in. </p><p><br /><strong><em>Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. </em></strong><a href="https://the-ken.com/pricing/"><strong><em>Subscribe</em></strong></a><strong><em> for more exclusive, deeply-reported, and analytical business stories.</em></strong></p><p>The Ken is hosting its first live subscriber event! Join two long-term and contrarian CEOs, Nithin Kamath of Zerodha and Deepak Shenoy of Capitalmind, as they discuss the mental models, decision making frameworks, and potential outcomes related to a very real possibility: an extended stock market winter that lasts 24 months or more. Click <a href="https://the-ken.com/event/beyond-the-first-order/#tickets-cta-container">here</a> to buy your tickets. </p><p><br /></p>