Uptake of induction stoves sluggish in low-income Indian households

E-commerce platforms have seen mounting demand for induction cooktops amid the West Asia crisis, which has led to public anxiety about disruptions to LPG supplies. While prices for cooktops have gone up, supplies remained available on e-commerce platforms in many cities, at least as of Wednesday (March 11, 2026).

While a small minority of Indian households use induction cooktops, only 5% of households had “electric penetration” in their kitchens, Milind Deore, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency’s Secretary said in a discussion held back in 2024.

The product segment is competitive online with products selling at less than half of their sticker price. On Amazon, a 1,800 watt cooktop by Pigeon was retailing at ₹1,499, ₹100 higher than its price last week, and higher than its price in the last three months.

However, that price is still less than half the maximum retail price for this specific model. Other models on Amazon, which only provides price history for 90 days, have seen similar trends. A 2,000 watt Cadlec cooktop is also retailing at ₹1,499, but its earlier price was ₹300 less. A similar price hike happened for a cooktop by iBELL Castor.

Uptake friction

There are adoption pain points for electric cooktops. Even though the demand for electric and induction cooktops is perhaps unprecedented, adoption may be limited in most households. “We did a household survey of 910 households in the low to medium income group,” Rudrodip Majumdar, assistant professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies said in the 2024 Modern Energy Cooking Forum (MECF) held in New Delhi.

“Many of these households, they actually lacked [electric] load bearing capacity in the kitchen. About 13% of households had no 5 ampere plug; 64% of households had only one 15 ampere plug; and 47% of households did not have any 15 to 20 ampere plug, which is actually the essential part of the electric cooking appliances,” he pointed out.

Even with a hypothetical demand aggregation programme bringing prices down for individual buyers by 50%, Mr. Majumdar said an electric cooking setup may be too expensive to adopt for most households.

Lost opportunity

The lack of comprehensive policy support to electric cooktops would expose Indians to international oil fluctuations, four presenters from the International Institute for Sustainable Development warned in 2024. LPG growth “exposes Indian consumers (who are already facing affordability barrier) to international fluctuations in oil prices”, the researchers said in a presentation.

In a survey, the researchers said most urban households who switched to “e-cooking” did so as a “back-up” or because they were young professionals moving to a new place facing difficulties in getting an LPG connection.

A key challenge the researchers identified was that it takes a long time to cook on an induction cooktop with a single heating unit, and double units are “currently very expensive and come with a total power rating of more than 3kWh”. Double units cost upwards of ₹8,000 at the time of the research.