CURRENT AFFAIRS | 12 JUNE 2026
India’s flagship rooftop-solar scheme has hit a milestone and a hurdle in the same breath. PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana has crossed roughly 40 lakh rooftop-solar installations, adding about 12 GW of clean capacity. Yet from 1 June 2026, a new Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) mandating only locally made solar cells threatens to slow the very rollout it is meant to indigenise.
This is a textbook current-affairs item for CLAT: a welfare-cum-energy scheme, a Make-in-India policy lever, and a real-world trade-off between self-reliance and speed. Knowing the scheme’s design and the manufacturing bottleneck arms you for both GK and reasoning-style questions.
What Happened
PM Surya Ghar, launched in February 2024 with a target of one crore households, has now powered past 40 lakh installations and roughly 12 GW of added rooftop capacity. To deepen domestic manufacturing, the Centre mandated that from 1 June 2026 all rooftop projects use only domestically manufactured solar cells — DCR-compliant cells — after the earlier exemption expired on 31 May.
The catch is a supply gap. India’s solar-cell manufacturing capacity (~30 GW) lags demand (~60-65 GW), so DCR-compliant cells are scarce. Installers warn of longer waiting periods of 25-30 days or more and rising module prices, which could slow the rollout in the near term. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is monitoring the situation.
- Installations crossed ~40 lakh; ~12 GW added.
- DCR (domestic solar cells only) mandatory from 1 June 2026.
- Cell capacity ~30 GW vs demand ~60-65 GW — a shortage.
- Risk: waits of 25-30+ days, higher module prices.
- Scheme target: 1 crore households; up to 300 free units/month.
Constitutional / Legal / Policy Framework
PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana sits within India’s Make in India / Atmanirbhar Bharat push in clean energy. The DCR is a policy tool that conditions subsidy or eligibility on the use of domestically manufactured components, building local supply chains. Quality is governed through the ALMM (Approved List of Models and Manufacturers), and the scheme is administered by the MNRE.
Constitutionally, electricity is on the Concurrent List, so both Centre and States legislate on it; renewable-energy commitments also flow from India’s climate pledges (Panchamrit / net-zero by 2070), giving the scheme an international-law dimension.
CLAT Angle
CLAT increasingly pairs schemes with their underlying policy trade-offs. Here the examiner can ask: why might a pro-indigenisation rule slow a welfare rollout? The answer — a mismatch between domestic cell capacity and demand — tests cause-effect reasoning. Memorise the launch year (2024), the 1-crore target, the 300-unit free-electricity figure, and the DCR/ALMM acronyms; these are high-frequency GK hooks.
Key Facts
| Scheme | PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana |
| Launched | February 2024 |
| Installations | ~40 lakh (~12 GW added) |
| DCR mandate from | 1 June 2026 |
| Cell capacity vs demand | ~30 GW vs ~60-65 GW |
| Ministry | MNRE; ALMM quality list |
Mnemonic / Memory Hook
Use “SURYA = Solar Units Reaching Your Aangan” to fix the rooftop idea. For the snag, remember “DCR = Domestic Cells Required” — and that requiring them locally, when supply is short, slows things down. Lock the cap with “300 free, 1 crore homes, year 24”.
Conclusion
PM Surya Ghar’s 40-lakh milestone shows the appeal of free solar power, while the DCR mandate reveals the friction of building self-reliance overnight. For aspirants, the lesson is that good policy often involves trade-offs: indigenisation strengthens the supply chain long-term but can pinch the rollout short-term. Tracking how MNRE balances speed against self-reliance will keep this a live, exam-relevant story through 2026.
Practice Quiz — 10 CLAT-Style Questions
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