India should partner with Japan in its mobility, clean energy journey: NITI Aayog member

The arrival of Japan’s Suzuki in India in the early ’80s triggered a transformation in India’s automobile industry, which grew exponentially since then; and now, it is time that India worked closely with Japan again towards its journey to the new age mobility seeking to build newer pathways of energy sources, urged V.K. Saraswat, member, NITI Aayog here on Monday.

India and Japan brought complementary strengths to the future of mobility. While India offered scale, market growth and expanding capabilities in software and AI, Japan contributed advanced technological depth, engineering excellence and global leadership in safety and mobility systems, he said while speaking at the Japan-India Mobility Summit 2026 (JIMS 2026) held in the city.

Today, India has a huge manufacturing ambition supported by a policy commitment to diversify in the energy sector, he said.

Large-scale testbed

“India can serve as a large-scale testbed for new technologies like hydrogen grid corridors, mobility as a service integration, grid interactive EV systems and so on,’’ he said.

Mr. Saraswat further said that Japan offered advanced technological support in mobility, power‑semiconductor leadership, and high‑speed rail engineering, and cited the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project as an example.

According to Mr. Saraswat, Japan’s expertise in safety engineering and signalling systems can significantly improve traffic management and road safety. Integration of smart mobility with smart urbanisation, integrating rail networks with urban growth models, offering valuable insights in establishing multimodal hubs and high-density planning, etc were possible under collaboration.

Mr. Saraswat also said India should focus on plug-in hybrid vehicles across the spectrum and expand plug-in hybrid adoption in high-end cars to small vehicles. “All studies in Japan and India have shown that plug-in hybrids give a much better lifecycle emission compared to even the best of electric vehicles,’’ he stated.

PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) have both an engine and a motor, and one can choose among the fuels, i.e., conventional fuel or alternative fuel such as bio-diesel, he elaborated.

“I am not saying that we should not go to all electric systems, but our aim is not just electric systems, our aim is net carbon zero; our aim is minimum pollution,’’ he added.

Mr. Saraswat further said the next phase of Indo-Japanese partnership should not only move beyond infrastructure, but also towards technology co-creation, from hydrogen mobility and smart transport systems to next-generation vehicles and integrated mobility platforms.