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Industry brief · Construction & Building Materials

Construction and building materials, where our guest makes bricks

One Building Real founder works in building materials. In India, Kunjpreet Arora and Angirus Industries make bricks from single-use plastic and construction rubble. This brief covers the industry around her in India, from construction output, jobs and housing to cement, steel, bricks, construction waste and the rules on emissions.

India
Checked 20 Oct 2026 · every figure linked to its source · next review Jan 2027

01At a glance

7.4%

real growth in India's construction sector (gross value added at constant prices) in 2025-26, according to MoSPI's provisional estimates1

Provisional; new 2022-23 base series, not comparable with older growth rates
12.0%

of India's workers were in construction in 2025, down marginally from 12.3% in the previous survey, according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 20252

The survey design changed in 2025, so the two rounds may not be fully comparable
168.4 Mt

of crude steel produced in India in 2025-26, up from 88.98 million tonnes in 2014-153

Crude-steel production, not finished-steel consumption
~68%

of India's total steel consumption in FY2023-24 went to construction and infrastructure, the main drivers of steel demand, the Steel Ministry says4

FY2023-24, the latest split the ministry gives
8.4%

year-on-year rise in India's cement production in May 2026, and 8.3% in April-May 2026-27, in the Index of Eight Core Industries5

A single provisional month, May 2026
233B

bricks a year, plus or minus 15 billion: what a 2023 Nature Sustainability study estimated India produces6

A 2023 study estimate of total brick production; other estimates differ and are not combined here

02How AI and site data are reshaping it

Adoption is rising, skills are the barrier

RICS's 2026 global survey of construction professionals found that the share of organisations reporting no AI use fell by more than a third from 20257.

A lack of skilled personnel was the most-cited barrier to AI adoption in the same 2026 survey8.

Global samples with no India split. RICS gives the 2026 share only in a chart, so we print no percentage.

One Indian example: cameras on helmets

$1.2M

seed round raised in May 2025 by construction-site data startup Contineu, led by SenseAI Ventures, for a platform that combines helmet-mounted 360-degree cameras with 3D computer vision models9

A single small round, shown as an example, not as a measure of the market.

03Where the money is moving

Public spending and housing

The government says public capital expenditure has been raised from about Rs 2 lakh crore in FY2014-15 to Rs 12.2 lakh crore budgeted for FY2026-2710.

The FY2026-27 figure is a budget allocation, not spending, and covers all public capex, not construction alone.
  • Urban housing. Over 1.25 crore houses have been sanctioned under PMAY-Urban and PMAY-U 2.0, and more than 1 crore completed and delivered, the Housing Ministry said in August 202611.
  • Rural housing. Under PMAY-Gramin, 3.91 crore rural houses had been sanctioned and 3.06 crore completed as of June 202612.
Cumulative scheme counts from two ministries, on their own bases. Other PMAY-Gramin releases count houses differently, so we use only this one.

Startup funding

$552M

raised by Indian proptech startups, a category that includes construction tech as well as real estate and co-working, across 32 deals in 2025, by Entrackr's count13

Building-materials platform Infra.Market secured around $175 million in 2025, over 30% of all Indian proptech funding that year, by Entrackr's count14.

Proptech is a broad category; this is not a construction-tech total. Entrackr does not say whether the Infra.Market money was equity or debt.

04Cement, steel and bricks

Cement: growth and carbon

A NITI Aayog roadmap projects that India's cement production is likely to rise from 391 million tonnes in 2023 to about 2,100 million tonnes in 207015.

0.63 tCO2e

per tonne of cement: India's cement carbon intensity, which NITI Aayog says must fall to roughly 0.09-0.13 tCO2e per tonne by 2070, prioritising refuse-derived fuels, clinker substitution and carbon capture16

A roadmap and a projection, not a binding target.

Steel: green certification

89 units

of Indian steel had been awarded green steel certification as of 31 March 2026, covering 12.34 million tonnes of production17

India's Green Steel Taxonomy, released in December 2024, defines green steel as steel made with emissions below 2.2 tonnes CO2e per tonne of finished steel, with five-star steel below 1.6 tonnes18.

Certified production is a different measure from total crude-steel output and is not shown as a share of it.

Bricks: coal, clay and kilns

A 2023 Nature Sustainability study estimated that India's brick industry uses 990 ± 125 PJ of energy and 35 ± 6 million tonnes of coal a year, comparable to the country's steel and cement industries, and found large under-reporting in official estimates19.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition estimates that South Asia's brick kilns emit approximately 66-84 million tonnes of CO2 a year, and that India accounts for almost 75% of the region's brick production20.

The Coalition's 2019-2021 project page said about 50,000 fixed-chimney brick kilns in India needed converting to cleaner zig-zag technology, after around 8,000 had converted in the previous four years21.

In a 2019 Down To Earth analysis, Chandra Bhushan wrote that an estimated 600 million tonnes of clay, obtained mostly by excavating agricultural fields, was being used to make bricks in India every year22.

The Coalition's figures come from an undated project page for 2019-2021 and are regional; they are not today's count of kilns awaiting conversion. The clay figure is an unsourced 2019 estimate, not an official one.

Construction and demolition waste

Estimates of India's construction and demolition waste vary widely: the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council put it at 100 million tonnes a year in 2018, while the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry projected 150-500 million tonnes in 2024, Mongabay India reported23.

The Centre for Science and Environment said in August 2020 that India's official C&D waste recycling capacity was about 6,500 tonnes a day, against an estimated 150 million tonnes of C&D waste generated each year24.

India's C&D waste processing facilities rose from 16 in 2019 to 34 in 2024, but CEEW says demand for recycled materials remains weak because of concerns about quality, certification and price25.

No measured national figure for C&D waste exists; these are estimates and should not be read as a trend.

05What the government is changing

  1. Concrete aggregates. The third revision of IS 383, India's specification for coarse and fine aggregate for concrete, was notified in 2016 and, according to the Centre for Science and Environment, allows recycled C&D waste in the concrete mix26.
  2. Brick kilns. Under an environment ministry notification (G.S.R. 143(E)), all new brick kilns in India may be set up only with zig-zag or vertical-shaft technology or using piped natural gas as fuel27.
  3. Green steel. India released its Green Steel Taxonomy, defining green steel as steel made with emissions below 2.2 tonnes CO2e per tonne of finished steel18.
  4. Building energy codes. The Ministry of Power says India's revised codes, ECSBC for commercial buildings and Eco Niwas Samhita for homes, apply to large commercial buildings and multi-storied residential complexes with a connected load of 100 kW or more, and that states may adopt them28. It says the new codes will help reduce electricity consumption by 18%29.
  5. C&D waste rules. India's Construction and Demolition Waste Management Rules 2025 require building projects with a built-up area of 20,000 square metres or more to use processed C&D waste, starting at 5% in 2026-27 and rising to 25% by 2030-3130. CEEW says the required share reaches 15% for road projects by 2030-3131. Mongabay India reported extended producer responsibility targets for recycling waste from reconstruction and demolition projects of 25% for 2025-26, rising to 100% from 2028-2932.
  6. Emission targets. India notified its first greenhouse-gas emission-intensity targets, covering 282 industrial units in aluminium, cement, pulp and paper and chlor-alkali, with targets in the cement sector of about 3.4% over two years from a 2023-24 baseline33.
  7. C&D rules start. The Environment (Construction and Demolition) Waste Management Rules, 2025 were scheduled to come into effect on 1 April 202634.

06Trends to watch

Carbon rules are reaching cement and steel

India's first emission-intensity targets cover cement, at about 3.4% over two years for the sector33, and NITI Aayog's roadmap wants cement's carbon intensity cut from 0.63 to roughly 0.09-0.13 tCO2e per tonne by 207016. In steel, 89 units had green steel certification by 31 March 202617.

Rules push recycled C&D material, buyers are wary

Large building projects must use processed C&D waste, from 5% in 2026-27 to 25% by 2030-3130. CEEW says demand for recycled materials remains weak because of concerns about quality, certification and price25, and that several recycled alternatives are taxed at 18% GST while many new construction materials attract 5%35.

Brick kilns are under pressure to clean up

Since February 2022, new brick kilns may be set up only with zig-zag or vertical-shaft technology or piped natural gas27. A 2023 study put the brick industry's coal use at 35 ± 6 million tonnes a year, comparable to steel and cement19.

Public building keeps demand up

The government has budgeted Rs 12.2 lakh crore of public capital expenditure for FY2026-2710, and construction and infrastructure took about 68% of India's steel consumption in FY2023-244. More than 1 crore urban houses had been completed under PMAY-Urban by August 202611.

AI use is spreading faster than the skills

In RICS's 2026 global survey, the share of construction organisations reporting no AI use fell by more than a third from 20257, yet a lack of skilled personnel was the most-cited barrier to adoption8.

07The problems our guests are solving

Kunjpreet Arora on Building Real
India

EP09Kunjpreet Arora · Angirus Industries

233B

bricks a year, plus or minus 15 billion: a 2023 Nature Sustainability study's estimate of India's total brick production6

150-500 Mt

a year of construction and demolition waste in India, as projected by the Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry in 2024, while the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council put it at 100 million tonnes a year in 2018, Mongabay India reported23

Industry-wide estimates for the materials Angirus works with, not measures of its market, output or impact.

Kunjpreet Arora says Angirus turns single-use plastic and construction rubble into Wricks, bricks shaped like clay ones so masons need no new process. In the episode she explains how early pilots taught her that builders buy strength, cost and durability rather than sustainability, why damp-proofing became the property buyers noticed, and how the company is scaling from Udaipur to Bangalore.

Watch the episode →

See how these conversations connect on the Discovery Atlas →

08Sources

One research agent gathered 40 figures from government, regulator and established data sources. A separate red-team agent then reopened every source, checked each number, its scope and its date, and looked for newer or conflicting data. It kept 14 figures as written, corrected 23 and cut 3. Each figure above links to its source below, with the date it refers to.

  1. MoSPI via PIB, 5 Jun 2026 · FY2025-26, provisional estimates (base year 2022-23)
  2. MoSPI via PIB, 27 Mar 2026 · Calendar year 2025 (usual status)
  3. Ministry of Steel via PIB, May 2026 (updated Oct 2026) · FY2025-26
  4. Ministry of Steel via PIB, May 2026 · FY2023-24
  5. Office of the Economic Adviser, DPIIT via PIB, 22 Jun 2026 · May 2026 (provisional)
  6. Tibrewal et al., Nature Sustainability, Oct 2023 · Study published Oct 2023
  7. RICS, 18 Aug 2026 · Q1 2026 survey (report Aug 2026)
  8. RICS, 18 Aug 2026 · Q1 2026 survey (report Aug 2026)
  9. Entrepreneur India, 27 May 2025 · May 2025
  10. PIB backgrounder, 9 Jun 2026 · FY2014-15 (actual) to FY2026-27 (budget)
  11. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs via PIB, 9 Aug 2026 · As of Aug 2026
  12. PIB backgrounder, 9 Jun 2026 · As of Jun 2026 (cumulative)
  13. Entrackr, 3 Feb 2026 · Calendar year 2025
  14. Entrackr, 3 Feb 2026 · Calendar year 2025
  15. NITI Aayog via PIB, 21 Jan 2026 · 2023 actual; 2070 projection
  16. NITI Aayog via PIB, 21 Jan 2026 · Roadmap released Jan 2026; 2070 horizon
  17. Ministry of Steel via PIB, May 2026 · As of 31 Mar 2026
  18. Ministry of Steel via PIB, 12 Dec 2024 · Released 12 Dec 2024
  19. Tibrewal et al., Nature Sustainability, Oct 2023 · Study published Oct 2023
  20. Climate and Clean Air Coalition (project page, 2019-2021) · Project period 2019-2021 (page undated)
  21. Climate and Clean Air Coalition (project page, 2019-2021) · Project period 2019-2021 (page undated)
  22. Down To Earth (Chandra Bhushan), 13 May 2019 · Estimate as of May 2019
  23. Mongabay India, May 2025 · 2018 estimate; 2024 projection
  24. Centre for Science and Environment, 25 Aug 2020 · As of Aug 2020
  25. CEEW, Mar 2026 · 2019 to 2024 (as reported Mar 2026)
  26. Centre for Science and Environment (undated page) · IS 383:2016
  27. MoEFCC G.S.R. 143(E), quoted in Supreme Court of India order, 8 Apr 2022 · Notified 22 Feb 2022
  28. Ministry of Power via PIB, 1 Jan 2025 · Ministry of Power year-end review, Jan 2025
  29. Ministry of Power via PIB, 1 Jan 2025 · Projection stated Jan 2025
  30. Mongabay India, May 2025 · Targets 2026-27 to 2030-31
  31. CEEW, Mar 2026 · Targets to 2030-31
  32. Mongabay India, May 2025 · Targets 2025-26 to 2028-29 (as reported May 2025)
  33. ETV Bharat, 10 Oct 2025 · Notified Oct 2025; compliance 2025-26 to 2026-27
  34. CEEW, Mar 2026 · Effective date as stated Mar 2026
  35. CEEW, Mar 2026 · As of Mar 2026