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For millions of Indian households, access to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is no longer the primary challenge. The bigger challenge is ensuring that households can use it regularly, reliably, and safely.  

Sarita, a Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) beneficiary, experienced this gap firsthand. Her story, featured in the first blog in this series, reflects the everyday challenges that many households face after they gain access to LPG. 

Consumers face affordability, constraints, sudden dry-outs, uncertain delivery timelines, and safety concerns. Delivery personnel encounter unpredictable demand, distributors deal with inefficient logistics, and oil marketing companies (OMCs) lack visibility into actual consumption patterns. The government also faces challenges with subsidy targeting and curbing diversion. 

Although these challenges appear disconnected, they stem from a common underlying issue. India’s LPG ecosystem has expanded significantly, but its last mile remains largely invisible. 

The question, therefore, is not whether India needs more LPG cylinders or more distributors, but rather, what if the missing layer in India’s LPG ecosystem is digital? 

Over the past decade, India has shown how digital infrastructure can transform large-scale public systems. Aadhaar provided a trusted digital identity that enabled targeted service delivery. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transformed payments through real-time, interoperable transactions. More recently, smart electricity meters have improved power distribution through real-time consumption data and remote meter readings. These digital transformations have improved transparency, efficiency, and inclusion. They have also created a digital layer that enables seamless information exchange across complex ecosystems. 

The same principle can apply to LPG. Digital tools and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled sensors across the LPG value chain can provide real-time insights into distribution, payments, and usage patterns. 

India has one of the world’s largest physical LPG distribution networks. Millions of cylinders move each day from bottling plants to distributors and then to households. Yet, once a cylinder reaches a household, the ecosystem has limited visibility into its use until the consumer books another refill. As a result, decision-making relies on historical refill records rather than real-time consumption patterns. 

A digital layer on this physical network requires one critical building block: bringing IoT-enabled sensors to the last mile. These sensors can monitor household consumption and securely transmit real-time information to a digital platform. This system can transform a conventional cylinder into an information-driven asset. It can also provide real-time visibility across the value chain and improve information flow throughout the ecosystem. Better information can support decisions for consumers, distributors, OMCs, and policymakers. 

Just as smart electricity meters allow users to monitor power consumption and pay for actual use, a smart LPG ecosystem can give households greater control over their LPG use. It can also offer more flexible payment models. A pay-as-you-go (PAYG) approach allows households to pay only for what they consume rather than pay for a full cylinder upfront. This model can address the high upfront cost of LPG cylinders. 

Unlike conventional households that estimate the remaining gas by lifting or shaking the cylinder, Sarita uses a digital LPG app linked to an IoT-enabled sensor on her cylinder. The sensor tracks her real-time LPG use and sends a push notification through the app. The notification shows how many days of LPG remain. The app also alerts her when the system places a refill request. This feature reduces uncertainty and helps prevent sudden dry-outs during cooking. 

For Sarita, the benefits extend beyond timely refills. Instead of making a large upfront payment for a replacement cylinder, she could pay for the LPG she consumes. This model resembles prepaid smart electricity meters. It spreads the cost across smaller, more manageable payments. Such a model could ease the financial burden on households with irregular incomes. It could also encourage more consistent LPG use. 

A few days later, Sarita receives an alert about a potential gas leak in her kitchen. The IoT-enabled system can detect unusual gas flow patterns that may indicate a leak. In such cases, the regulator could automatically shut off the gas supply. This would give Sarita time to contact the distributor. An event that once relied on intuition, self-vigilance, and periodic inspection can now be supported by real-time information. 

Such solutions must account for varying levels of digital literacy, technological familiarity, and access to smartphones and the internet among households. A phased approach can help the system mature, improve accessibility, and support wider adoption over time. 

While Sarita’s experience is illustrative, the benefits are not limited to a single household. The same information can improve last-mile operations and enable smarter distribution. Real-time monitoring of LPG use can reduce uncertainty in everyday cooking.  

Delivery planning by distributors after they receive refill orders can result in uneven workloads, suboptimal route planning, and higher logistics costs. Instead of waiting for a household to submit a refill request, the system could forecast demand based on actual consumption patterns. Better visibility could also help distributors anticipate refill requirements, schedule deliveries proactively, improve workforce deployment, minimize delays, and reduce the need for households to maintain a second cylinder as a precaution. 

For OMCs, access to last-mile data could improve production planning, cylinder utilization, and inventory planning across regions. It could also minimize operational losses from diversion and inefficient asset deployment. 

From a governance perspective, the advantages of a smart and data-driven LPG ecosystem extend beyond operational efficiency. For governments and policymakers, real-time visibility into household-level consumption trends could help improve subsidy targeting. It could also support a robust monitoring protocol for subsidized LPG distribution and enable evidence-based policymaking. 

The transition to a smart LPG system can occur incrementally, without requiring a complete overhaul of the existing infrastructure. Smart sensors could initially be introduced through pilots in selected geographies and integrated with existing distributor and OMC networks. As the technology and operating model mature, coverage could expand across households. Data platforms, customer interfaces, and delivery systems could also be gradually integrated to enable smoother information flow. This phased approach would allow stakeholders to test the technology, refine operating processes, and build the capabilities required for scale. 

Real-time data on last-mile consumption behavior could also help identify irregular use patterns that may indicate diversion of subsidized domestic cylinders for commercial use. Instead of relying mainly on periodic audits or refill histories, the government could use granular, ground-level data to monitor the system more effectively and respond proactively. 

Besides better day-to-day operations and governance, digital LPG could also serve a larger strategic purpose: strengthening India’s energy resilience. Rising geopolitical tensions and volatile global energy markets make real-time demand management increasingly important for energy security. 

For decades, the debate on energy security has focused on higher storage capacity. Recent geopolitical tensions have also highlighted the need to maintain adequate strategic LPG reserves. But as India’s LPG ecosystem continues to expand, another equally important question arises: Can resilience emerge from effective management of the existing system, and not from storage alone? 

Digitalization can help achieve this. Rather than treating millions of household cylinders as the end of the supply chain, stakeholders can integrate them into a connected network. This network can provide insights into consumption trends, demand changes, and inventory needs. It can also help supply chains respond proactively to disruptions and use existing assets better. 

This has a significant implication. India’s future energy security strategy may depend less on how much LPG it stores and delivers and more on how intelligently it manages the LPG in circulation. 

A smarter LPG network can help India move from access to LPG to reliable, sustained, and informed use. Over the past decade, the country has built one of the world’s largest clean cooking networks. The next decade offers an opportunity to make this network smarter. Every refill can generate useful insight. Every cylinder can become part of a connected system. Every stakeholder can benefit from real-time information. 

It is just after sunrise when Sarita begins her day. Breakfast is on the stove, lunch boxes need packing, and three school-going children must get ready for the day ahead. A liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connection has made these mornings easier. She no longer spends hours collecting firewood, and cooking no longer means breathing smoke in a cramped kitchen. 

Yet the LPG cylinder in her kitchen has not eliminated uncertainty. Will the refill arrive on time? Has the booking gone through? If a delivery is delayed, how long will she have to wait? For Sarita, as for millions of Indian households, access to clean cooking fuel was a major milestone, but it was only the first step. 

Through initiatives such as PAHAL, GiveItUp, and the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), LPG connections grew from 145 million in 2014 to nearly 330 million today. This expansion has transformed millions of kitchens across India, making cooking cleaner, safer, and more convenient. 

Women spend less time collecting firewood, indoor pollution has declined, and cooking has become safer and more convenient. However, as India’s LPG ecosystem has expanded, a new question has emerged: has access translated into a seamless experience for all stakeholders across the value chain? 

The economics of sustained LPG use remain challenging. Each refill costs nearly INR 900 (USD 9.5) upfront. As a PMUY beneficiary, Sarita receives the subsidy directly in her bank account. However, she often struggles to arrange the full amount at the time of purchase because her household depends on uncertain daily wages. 

As a result, she learned to make each cylinder last as long as possible. She cooks at a lower heat, prepares fewer dishes at a time, and postpones refills whenever possible. Like many households, she keeps firewood as a backup because it remains a reliable option when she cannot refill her LPG cylinder. 

The contrast reflects one of the biggest hurdles in India’s clean cooking transition. Although access to LPG has expanded rapidly, sustained and exclusive use remains irregular. PMUY households refill only 3.9 cylinders on average each year, compared with 6.5 cylinders among non-PMUY households. This suggests that many families continue to rely on traditional fuels alongside LPG. 

One morning, Sarita’s cylinder unexpectedly ran out of gas while she was cooking. Such incidents were not unusual. What frustrated her most was the sudden shortage and her inability to know when the cylinder would run out. She relied on experience and guesswork, as she sometimes lifted and shook the cylinder to estimate how much gas remained and how many days it would last. Until the replacement cylinder arrived, she returned to cooking with traditional firewood. 

This uncertainty is not limited to households. Distributors learn about refill demand only after consumers place orders, which gives them limited visibility into future demand. As a result, cylinder deliveries remain reactive rather than proactive. This creates unpredictable wait times for consumers and operational inefficiencies for distributors. 

When the replacement cylinder eventually arrived, Sarita saw another side of the same problem. For LPG distributors and delivery personnel, daily demand can fluctuate significantly. Some days require only a few deliveries. On other days, the number of orders exceeds what the available workforce can comfortably fulfill. LPG agencies struggle to optimize delivery routes, deploy their workforce efficiently, and forecast refill requirements without reliable insights into household consumption patterns. 

The domino effect extends across the supply chain. Consumers face delayed deliveries, distributors incur higher logistics costs, and oil marketing companies (OMCs) face challenges with demand forecasting and inventory planning. 

What appears to be a minor inconvenience in a household kitchen forms part of a much larger operational challenge. 

While waiting for her refill, Sarita discovered another obstacle that affects LPG availability. The large price difference between subsidized and commercial cylinders creates incentives for diversion. Domestic LPG costs around USD 0.7 (INR 65) per kg, while commercial LPG costs around USD 1.7 (INR 167) per kg. Small-scale commercial establishments often prefer subsidized domestic cylinders because they cost substantially less than commercial cylinders. This practice may reduce operating costs for businesses, but it also puts greater pressure on domestic supplies and can lengthen waiting periods for households. 

This challenge has long concerned policymakers. Once cylinders leave the bottling plant and enter the last-mile distribution network, visibility into their end use declines. This limited visibility makes it difficult to detect diversion, track consumption, and ensure that subsidized cylinders reach their intended beneficiaries. 

Consumer confidence in the LPG system depends on more than affordability and availability. Many households remain unsure whether their cylinders contain the full quantity of gas they paid for. However, households have limited practical ways to verify the quantity. Safety awareness around LPG has also improved over the years, but households still rely on periodic inspections and personal vigilance to detect gas leaks or faulty regulators. These concerns can weaken consumers confidence in the LPG ecosystem. They can also encourage households to keep traditional fuels as a backup and limit their reliance on LPG. 

Each of Sarita’s experiences may appear disconnected when viewed separately. A high upfront payment creates affordability challenges. Sudden LPG shortages disrupt cooking routines. Unpredictable delivery schedules create difficulties for consumers. Demand fluctuations make distribution planning more complex. Diversion creates supply chain inefficiencies. Limited visibility into end use affects subsidy targeting and market oversight. Safety concerns weaken consumer confidence. Together, these challenges reveal a much larger issue. 

Figure 1: Challenges faced by various stakeholders in the LPG value chain 

Each stakeholder in the LPG value chain faces distinct challenges. However, most of these issues stem from one common problem: a lack of real-time visibility across the LPG supply chain, particularly at the last mile. Consumers have limited information about their consumption. Distributors have limited visibility into future demand. OMCs lack insight into consumption trends after cylinders leave bottling plants. Governments have limited visibility into the end use of subsidized LPG. 

Although India’s LPG landscape has evolved and expanded in recent years, most stakeholders still rely on limited data and make reactive decisions. 

India’s LPG reforms have addressed access for almost every household in the country. The next phase of this journey requires a different approach. The focus now needs to shift from expanding access to improving the ecosystem for all stakeholders across the value chain. As the LPG network expands and global energy markets become more volatile, transparency, responsiveness, and resilience across the value chain become essential. 

Sarita’s story, therefore, reflects more than the experience of one household in India. It reflects the experiences of millions of households, distributors, delivery personnel, OMCs, and policymakers across the same ecosystem. 

The question is no longer whether India can deliver LPG to households. The question is whether the system can become smarter and more responsive. 

In the second blog of this series, we explore how digital reforms can address these structural barriers. We also examine why the next chapter of India’s clean cooking transition may depend on transforming the last mile of the LPG ecosystem.