ABSTRACT
In explaining India, I have often argued that no matter what one says about the country; exactly the opposite is true for a large section of her population. India is often presented as a major economy of the world, growing rapidly and poised to become the world’s third largest economy by 2020. Yet India is also a country with the world’s largest concentration of poor – over 830 million Indians live below the two-dollar-a-day level, with some 370 million of them living in abject poverty on less than a dollar a day. India’s energy scenario also mirrors this reality. India, home to some 17 per cent of humanity, is the fi fth largest consumer of fossil fuels in the world with a share of 3.7 per cent of the global commercial energy supplies, yet its per capita commercial energy consumption is only 20 per cent of the world average, 4 per cent that of the United States and about 28 per cent that of China. India faces many challenges in meeting the millennium development goals and raising its human development index. That said, water and energy are easily the two largest challenges in the country’s path to emerging as a middle-income country and, importantly, there is a strong link between these two challenges. Addressing energy, this chapter begins by outlining India’s energy challenge, provides a defi nition of an energy-secure India, details India’s energy requirements and then outlines India’s energy strategy.
