ABSTRACT
Energy security can be narrowly defined as a condition whereby a country and its citizens have access to energy resources free from serious physical disruption of service (Kalicki and Goldwyn 2005: 571). However, for rapidly developing countries, such as India, energy security incorporates a broader range of overlapping dimensions. At one level, energy security has become one of the most important challenges for India’s domestic economic development, namely in terms of the ability of energy supply to make economic growth sustainable as well as redistributive. As Sáez (2007a) has shown, energy security is interlinked with a country’s rate of economic growth and demographic trends. At a different level, energy security acquires an internal security dimension. As Barton et al. (2004: 5) have argued, energy security also includes the protection from sabotage of gas supplies, nuclear power plants, hydroelectric dams, and other components of a country’s energy infrastructure. Moreover, viewed from the perspective of the potential of its energy supply, energy security concerns have also shaped India’s external relations. Finally, in light of the emerging concerns about environmental protection, energy security and the management of China and India’s energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been central to global policy debates about climate change. In India’s case, changes to the water level and the inadequate level of rural electrification could pose a severe threat to the sustainability of India’s development.
