Ensuring Sustainable Energy Security: Challenges and Opportunities for India
Published 18 August 2014
Abstract
Energy has been globally recognized as one of the most critical inputs for economic growth and development of any civilization or society. There is a linear and a bi-directional relationship between economic prosperity and energy consumption. In the global competitive scenario growth of an economy is primarily dependent on availability of environment friendly energy at competitive prices. Also, the productivity of industrial and manufacturing, agricultural, and services sectors are very much reliant on energy available at competitive prices. These sectors are considered to be basic drivers of economic growth of any country. Availability of energy with desired quality at affordable price holds key to sustainable development and quality of services in the field of industrial productivity, education, health, and most importantly food security. Considering last decade economic growth most economists see India as one of the economic powerhouses of the future. It has the economic stability to survive the recessionary pressure and continue to have stable growth. These are some of the reasons why many of them are projecting India as the second largest economy just behind China by 2050. This necessitates higher energy consumption to support the productivity in different industries and services sector. With limited availability of non-renewable energy in the domestic market the country is forced to be over dependent on imported energy. Long term exposure to imported energy means economy remains vulnerable to oil shocks leading to financial un-stability, economic and social unrest. Long term energy security remains as one of the top most priority for government, industry bodies and strategic policy makers in India. This paper analyses the constraints of ensuring affordable energy accessible to all citizens and industries. The paper suggests ways to remove constraints and move forward to ensure long term energy security in India.
Keywords: Energy, Energy Security, Renewable Energy, Sustainability.