How visa delays for Chinese staff threaten India’s grand battery plans

The issues are happening despite bilateral relations between India and China having eased in the past few months. India had stopped approving visas for Chinese nationals after the 2020 Galwan clashes, but began issuing short-term visas in August 2024 under the production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes.

The first person cited above said on condition of anonymity that Chinese workers currently receive six-month visas, after which they must return home and wait for some months before returning, creating long gaps in their availability and pushing project timelines out.

To be sure, as per ministry of home affairs norms, business visas with multiple entry facility can generally be granted for a period up to five years or for a shorter duration as per the requirement.

Chinese technicians are critical because stringent warranty clauses for the machinery involved may lapse if the machines are handled by local or non-authorised technicians, slowing progress further. Technicians involved here are ground level commissioning engineers for construction, and erection, the first person added.

The second person said the government is aware of these challenges and is working on expediting visa applications. It takes about six weeks to renew a Chinese business visa, this person said.

In a briefing on 27 November, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said that the visa regime for Chinese business travelers and tourists is “fully functional”.

“Six months is not adequate for completing and commissioning large-scale battery projects,” Debmalya Sen, president of India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) said, adding that a person whose visa has expired needs to go back, which creates an unnecessary obstacle to projects. “This process needs to be fastracked,” he said.

Queries emailed to the ministry of heavy industries, the ministry of external affairs, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi, Ola Electric, Rajesh Exports, and Reliance Industries remained unanswered.

Reliance, Ola and Rajesh Exports are the beneficiaries of the ₹18,100-crore production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for advanced chemistry cell (ACC) batteries.

Mint reported on 1 December that the government is considering extending the timelines for the scheme due to slow progress in building plants. Progress on 40GWh manufacturing capacity allotted to these companies has been excruciatingly slow.

“The Chinese have leadership worldwide in EV (electric vehicle) technology and batteries, along with the raw material supplies. Other than China, there are only partial alternatives from Europe, Japan and Taiwan. As a result, India has no option right now but to use China’s technology,” said Sambit Chakraborty, an independent management consultant in the EV and battery sector.

He added that companies also have to resort to technical help using video conferencing due to a lack of physical inspections and visits.

The background

The developments come in the background of India’s push to create substantial domestic battery manufacturing capacity for renewable energy and clean transportation. Rising demand for electric vehicles, along with a need for large-scale grid expansion, makes domestic battery manufacturing critical.

According to data from Vahan, the government’s registry of new vehicle registrations, India sold more than 2 million electric vehicles in 2025 (January-November). “This shift will drive annual EV battery demand to 1,080 gigawatt-hours by 2050, a 40-fold increase from 2025 projections,” noted a research report by think tanks RMI and India Foundation in November 2025.

The report added that development of technology and a ready workforce for the battery sector is crucial. According to the report, “coordinated efforts to build technical capacity and upskill workers are essential to meet emerging industry needs” alongside targeted research and development investment.

Battery recycling

Warranty clauses are fairly common in battery machinery contracts, said Nitin Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Attero, a battery recycler, as the technology and machinery involved in making batteries is Chinese.

Gupta added that his company is not dependent on Chinese technicians for recycling technology, as Attero has developed recycling capability in-house and holds more than 47 global patents for crucial industrial processes. But growth may be impacted in the long run, he said.

“In the short run, our growth prospects are dependent on end-of-use batteries, which we can procure from vehicles or other electronics,” Gupta said. “But delays in setting up large battery manufacturing units, for instance gigafactories, can adversely impact long-term growth prospects.”