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Beyond Fossil Fuels: How is India building domestic energy storage security using local raw materials like salt?

This episode analyses how a made-in-India sodium-ion battery technology is successfully scaling out of premier labs to de-risk the national energy grid against volatile global supply chains. In this episode of the Earth Chakra podcast, Dr Manjusha Shelke (Chief Scientist, CSIR-NCL) and Dr Vilas Shelke, the founder couple behind deep-tech startup Rechargion Energy, join host Chetan Bhattacharji.

The discussion provides a realistic analysis of translating battery innovations from academic research directly into commercial industrial deployments. The founders share internal cost comparisons detailing the stark economic differences between the chemistries. While they track battery-grade lithium carbonate climbing rapidly from $8,000 to $24,000 per ton in international trade, domestic sodium carbonate inputs remain stable at approximately 700 rupees per kilogram (equivalent to roughly $8 per kilogram). The interview explores the performance trade-offs between the two technologies, detailing why sodium-ion’s safety parameters and longer lifespans present a viable alternative for India’s ₹48,000-crore stationary storage and micro-mobility markets.

The conversation also outlines the structural realities of deep-tech entrepreneurship as a husband-and-wife scientific team. From executing a commercial pilot with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at the Godrej building in Hyderabad to navigating the "valley of death"—the high-risk capital gap between laboratory prototyping and full-scale commercial manufacturing—via the government's Scientist Entrepreneurship Scheme, this episode provides an evidence-based blueprint for scaling public research into national infrastructure.