At a quiet lab in the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) campus in Bengaluru, a new start-up is trying what few in India have – building a nuclear fusion prototype.
Pranos — a blend of prana and cosmos — was founded in May 2024 by Roshan George and Shaurya Kaushal. Inspired by the Joint European Torus’ 2021 breakthrough, where fusion energy was sustained for 5 seconds, the duo saw a shift: fusion was no longer just a scientific puzzle but an engineering challenge.
“This is when we woke up to the idea of nuclear fusion, realising commercial nuclear fusion is not far off,” shared Roshan George, Co-founder, Pranos Fusion.
George explained that nuclear fusion occurs when two light atomic nuclei collide and fuse, releasing a massive amount of energy. “Because nuclei are positively charged, they naturally repel each other. But with enough energy to overcome that repulsion, fusion takes place to release energy — similar to what happens in the Sun,” he said. In the Sun, gravity compresses hydrogen into a high-density, high-temperature plasma, creating the conditions for continuous fusion.
On Earth, scientists replicate this process using magnetic confinement. Hydrogen is heated until it becomes plasma — a super-heated, electrically charged gas. While the Sun’s core reaches around 15 million degrees Celsius, fusion on Earth requires plasma temperatures of 100 to 150 million degrees — a feat already achieved.
Magnetic confinement
The challenge is in sustaining those extreme conditions. Plasma, made of charged particles, can be confined using powerful magnetic fields. In most designs, it is held in a toroidal (donut-shaped) chamber, where magnets stabilise and heat the plasma long enough to initiate and maintain fusion reactions.
The Co-founder shared that Pranos is developing a distinct approach to magnetic confinement, diverging from conventional designs. This alternative methodology allows for quicker iterations at a smaller scale and with significantly lower capital expenditure.
“The business model is to sell the technology at the end. That’s the long-term vision. We have a few ideas of auxiliary technologies which we can commercialise and are actively working on it,” he said.
The company has been in stealth mode for most of its first year, since the announcement in January 2025, working out of JNCASR and BITS Pilani. It has a core team of six members and six advisors. The early efforts are centered around design and simulation, supported by a team that includes computational engineers and physicists, as well as mechanical and electrical engineers.
Fusion also offers significant advantages over fission: little to no long-term radioactive waste, abundant fuel (deuterium from seawater and tritium from lithium), and no meltdown risk.
“Fission by-products have a half-life of 20,000 years,” George explained. “Fusions are short-lived — in the range of 10 to 100 years — and easier to contain.”
Fusion is the future
Fusion also offers energy independence. India currently imports over 60 per cent of the uranium used in its reactors. In contrast, it is among the world’s largest exporters of deuterium.
While fission reactors will likely dominate until mid-century, George believes fusion will take over beyond 2070.
Pranos was also the first company backed by Industrial47, a new deep-tech fund launched by former Antler investor Maj Rahul Seth to support foundational technology start-ups in India.
Seth, investor and mentor at Industrial47, commented, “Nuclear plants are thought of significantly because in many ways they are the only one-to-one replacement for a coal or gas-powered plant. This means that they can give continuous baseload over long periods of time without any stoppages, unlike solar, wind, or hydro.”
“India realised there are a few high technology areas where we can be best in the world and not just build a copy. Space was one. Fusion could follow the same path — a collaboration between start-ups, large companies, and the government,” he added.
Government push
India already contributes to global fusion efforts — notably $2.2 billion to ITER, the international megaproject in France. However, few Indian start-ups are pursuing fusion directly. Globally, over 30 fusion start-ups exist, with the majority pursuing magnetic confinement.
“We are at an early stage worldwide,” said Prof Santosh Ansumali, Advisor and current faculty at JNCASR. “Fusion at this moment would be roughly at the same stage quantum computing was 10-15 years back. My optimism here is, unlike AI or quantum, this field is at the early stage so the government would also like India to catch up since everyone is roughly at a similar level.”
In February this year, as part of the Union Budget, India outlined a push towards nuclear energy as part of its long-term energy transition strategy. The government set a target of 100 GW nuclear power capacity by 2047, positioning nuclear energy as a major pillar in India’s energy mix.
India’s current nuclear power capacity of 8,180 MW is projected to rise to 22,480 MW by 2031–32, driven by the construction and commissioning of ten new reactors, adding a combined capacity of 8,000 MW, across States including Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.
Fusion’s potential use cases are vast due to the promise of abundant, clean energy. While early grid integration will come with high costs, the technology is expected to become more efficient and affordable over the next 15-20 years. Future reactor designs could be tailored for specific needs — from grid-scale baseload power to portable systems for off-grid locations. Eventually, fusion could even out power space propulsion. The most immediate application, however, remains providing steady, low-carbon energy to the grid, George said.