Food is essential for survival of human being. Cooking or baking of food material requires thermal energy and such energy in developed countries is meeting through electricity. Underdeveloped or developing nations are still striving for constant supply of electricity. Biomass such as crop residues, charcoal, dung cake, etc., is the primary energy source to meet the domestic thermal energy requirement in developing nations. The biomass is available everywhere and can be burnt directly in the cookstove. It is inexpensive than other fuels and also considered as a renewable source of energy. There are numbers of initiative has taken by many government agencies to promote the energy efficient biomass cookstove to improve the fuel efficiency. This review deals with classification of cookstoves, test protocol available across the globe, global adaptation of improved cookstoves. The recent advances in cookstoves, CO2 mitigation potential and economic assessment are also presented in this paper. The several issues concerning improved cookstoves for better adoption by user are addressed.