Green hydrogen, semiconductors, commercial space, nuclear energy, data centres, critical minerals: sectors without a single regulatory or ministerial home. Jurisdictions overlap, the implementing architecture is being built in real time, and the regulatory clarity of established sectors does not yet exist. How should a company entering or investing approach a space still composing its own rules?
Green hydrogen, semiconductors, commercial space, nuclear energy, data centres, and critical minerals share an institutional feature: none of them has a single regulatory authority that owns the complete approval chain. These sectors sit at the intersection of multiple ministries, and the regulatory execution architecture is being constructed alongside the commercial build-out; in real time, through sequential notifications, draft regulations, technical committees, and inter-ministerial working groups. The companies that enter these sectors now will shape the rules. Those that wait for regulatory certainty will find the rules shaped by others.
Green hydrogen requires concurrent engagement with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) as the nodal ministry for the National Green Hydrogen Mission, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on end-use applications, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for the Green Hydrogen Certification Scheme, state electricity regulatory commissions for open-access and captive generation, and environmental authorities for water use and effluent discharge. The Strategic Interventions for Green Hydrogen Transition (SIGHT) programme operates through SECI as implementation agency; the scheme's two modes, electrolyser manufacturing incentive and green hydrogen production incentive, are presently in successive tranches of allocations.
Commercial space has been opened to private participation with a graded FDI framework: 100% automatic for components and ground-segment user applications, 74% automatic for satellite manufacturing and operation, and 49% automatic for launch vehicles and spaceports. The regulatory pathway still involves the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) for activity authorisation, the Wireless Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC) for spectrum coordination, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for sub-orbital vehicles, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for earth observation data clearance, and the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for SCOMET export control compliance. The Indian Space Policy 2023 defined the architecture; the implementing regulations, standard operating procedures for authorisations, and inter-agency coordination protocols are still being composed in response to specific applications as they arrive.
Nuclear energy has been opened to private participation through the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Act, which received Presidential assent in December 2025 and repealed the Atomic Energy Act 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act 2010. Companies can now build, own, operate, and decommission nuclear power plants under a licensing regime administered through the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), with core functions such as uranium enrichment, heavy water production, and spent fuel management retained with the Central Government. But the AERB licensing framework for private operators, the graded liability architecture for equipment suppliers (with damage caps scaling from ₹100 crore to ₹3,000 crore by facility type), environmental clearances for new sites, and the power purchase and tariff determination mechanism are all still being constructed. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) is revising its Bharat Small Reactors tender to align with the post-SHANTI regime, with the first private-operator licensing cycle under observation.
Semiconductor manufacturing operates under a multi-ministerial architecture anchored by the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), with approvals passing through the ISM Empowered Committee. Fiscal support runs through the Modified Scheme for Semiconductors and Display Fabs (MSDF), the Design Linked Incentive (DLI) scheme for fabless design companies, and the Electronics Components Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) for N-1 component localisation. State-level counterpart packages in Gujarat, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, and Karnataka determine actual allocation; central scheme eligibility is necessary but not sufficient. Cross-border dimensions include DGFT's SCOMET controls on dual-use technology, US Bureau of Industry and Security export controls on advanced nodes, and the fab-specific geopolitical calibration that each approval carries.
Data centres sit across the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (for IT Act 2000 compliance, intermediary guidelines, and CERT-In reporting), the Ministry of Communications (for infrastructure and licensing under the Telecommunications Act 2023), state IT departments (for land, power, water, and incentive packages), state electricity regulatory commissions (for open-access, captive generation, and demand-charge structures), and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (for environmental clearance at the building-plus-power-infrastructure scale). The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 introduces data localisation requirements whose implementing rules are still under development. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal have each issued state-level data centre policies with differentiated incentive packages; the institutional evaluation of which state a data centre campus is best located in is now as much a regulatory calculation as a commercial one.
Critical minerals span the Ministry of Mines for exploration and auctioning under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, state mining departments for operations, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for environmental clearance, DGFT for export controls and Critical Minerals List notifications, Khanij Bidesh India Limited (KABIL) for overseas acquisitions, and cross-border compliance dimensions such as the EU Battery Regulation's sourcing requirements and the US Inflation Reduction Act's qualified foreign entity provisions. The National Critical Mineral Mission, approved in January 2025, is operationalising through auction reforms, SPV-led overseas acquisitions, and processing-side incentives; the governance architecture includes an inter-ministerial committee and sector-specific technical committees whose deliberations shape the eligibility and structuring parameters before formal notification.
In each of these sectors, the political will and the legislative framework are in place. What is being constructed, in real time, is the regulatory execution architecture. This is where regulatory participation becomes distinct from regulatory compliance. The instruments through which participation operates are specific: draft regulations open for public consultation, typically in 30 to 60 day windows through MyGov or ministry websites; technical committees constituted under particular ministries that invite industry inputs at the pre-notification stage; inter-ministerial working groups that resolve cross-jurisdictional ambiguities; and Parliamentary Standing Committee deliberations that shape primary legislation. Companies that engage at the draft-regulation stage, submit technical comments through industry associations, and maintain senior presence on relevant technical committees see their operational requirements reflected in the final rules. In a sector where the regulatory framework is still being constructed, the distinction between regulatory compliance and regulatory participation disappears.