Energy Security in India: Future and Prospects

Global dependence on sources of energy derived from the environment, and their uneven distribution across the globe, have consistently dominated political, strategic and diplomatic philosophies of nations. History is replete with examples of sources of energy having played a major role in a bewildering variety of bilateral and multilateral interaction between countries – both coalitions and confrontations. Prior to the Second World War, the Germans had carried out a detailed analysis of the energy situation and it is a well-known fact that the German offensive on both Romania and Russia were mainly to secure the oil reserves, in order to keep their war machinery underway. Similarly, the Chaco war of 1932-35 in which Paraguay annexed a region of Bolivia assuming presence of oil resources, reluctance of France to grant independence to Algeria during their war of independence of 1954-62, Nigeria’s war against the liberation of Biafra in 1967-70, China’s war against Vietnam in 1974 over the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, Iraq’s Occupation of Kuwait and the subsequent Gulf War of 1991 are all classic examples of sources of energy having driven nation states to wage war. The import requirements of oil for our country, that was 30 % a decade ago stands at 70 % presently and is expected to gallop to 90 % within a couple of decades. Similarly, 70 % of the requirement of Natural Gas will also need to be imported. It hence needs no reemphasis that any supply disruptions, or even cost fluctuations, on account of any of the reasons brought out above, will have a devastating effect not only on our economy, but also on the day-to-day life as the modern society is heavily dependent on energy. Under such circumstances it is imperative that our country charts out a clear future strategy and implement time-bound measures to ensure ‘energy security’