Recycling firm Lohum's subsidiary Vidyuta has received approval for 20 KTPA of cathode active material manufacturing capacity under the government's Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, the company said.

The project involves a total capital investment of ₹500 crore, of which up to ₹125 crore, or 25 per cent, is supported through a capex-linked incentive under the scheme for commercial scale-up, the company said.

Cathode active material (CAM) is a critical component of lithium-ion cells. This approval brings the cathode into the scheme's support for India's cell materials ecosystem, alongside anode material and other battery materials, Lohun said.

Vidyuta is the first LCO (lithium cobalt oxide) cathode active material company to receive approval under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), it said.

The flagship initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS), was launched in April last year with an aim to build a self-sustainable domestic electronics component manufacturing ecosystem in the country.

Vidyuta's production line is designed for LCO cathode active materials in both polycrystalline and single-crystal forms, giving cell manufacturers the flexibility to specify chemistry and morphology from a single supply partner, the company said.

The project forms part of the Lohum group's integrated value chain -- lithium, cobalt and nickel refined by the company, including critical minerals recovered from spent lithium-ion batteries, are used to produce cathode active material at Vidyuta for cell manufacturers in India, it said.

With approval under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme, Vidyuta will produce LCO cathode active material in India at 20 KTPA (kilotonnes per annum), giving cell manufacturers a domestic source for one of the most valuable materials in an electronics battery," said Rajat Verma, Founder & CEO, Lohum.

India's electronics manufacturing has scaled quickly, but the materials inside the battery cell have largely stayed imported. Lithium cobalt oxide cathode is a good place to change that, he said.

Citing Niti Aayog, the company said that for CAM, positive active material accounts for nearly half the cost of a lithium-ion battery pack and estimated that India's advanced chemistry cell manufacturing will need about 1,93,000 tonne of cathode active material a year to produce around 100 GWh of batteries by 2030.

"Cathode is where much of a battery's value and performance is decided. This approval under the Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme allows Vidyuta, a Lohum company, to scale cathode active material production in India, drawing on critical minerals refined at Lohum. It brings India a step closer to a battery supply chain built at home, from refined metal to cell," said Ankit Sharma, Co-founder and CEO at Vidyuta.

Published on November 10, 2026