The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the National Investment Policy for Urea-2026 for Atmanirbhar Bharat (NIPU-2026) to encourage fresh investments in gas-based urea manufacturing units and enhance India's self-sufficiency in urea production.

The policy introduces key reforms, including the separation of fixed and variable costs, a return on equity (RoE) band of 12% to 16%, and a mechanism to mitigate foreign exchange risk by converting fixed costs into Indian rupees after four years. These changes are expected to generate savings of over Rs 250 crore per plant compared with the earlier NIP-2012 framework.

The new policy aims to bridge the gap between domestic urea production and demand, reducing dependence on imports. Currently, India has 33 operational urea manufacturing units with a total installed capacity of 269.42 lakh metric tonnes (LMT).