Energy is the life line for economic development. India is diverse in its energy endowments and requirements. Energy demand is increasing day by day due to increase in population and per capita income. India imports about seventy percent of its energy needs, out of which seventy two percent comes from the Persian Gulf. However, this region is volatile. Therefore India is diversifying its energy supply. This book tries to evaluate the importance of Persian Gulf in spite of diversification. It also analyses the changing dynamics of India's energy security like inherit desire of energy cooperation with big competitor like China, playing active role in International Energy Organisations, enhancing energy efficiency and promoting renewable energy to combat the growing concern of climate change.

This book is a comprehensive examination of the dynamics of India's energy security policy in the domestic and international context. Over the past decade and a half, energy security has been a constant driver of India's foreign policy. Successive Indian governments have emphasized it as a major concern, next only to food security. The long-term satisfaction of India's energy security needs calls for a fresh and multi-pronged approach. This is imperative in the light of the recent dynamics of India's foreign policy and the challenges that India is facing in its quest for energy security, mainly in the context of diversification of sources abroad and shift to alternative sources in a carbon-controlled environment. This is further intensified in the context of the complex and competitive strategic rivalry between India and China in the Indo-Pacific region, as India looks outward and expands its outreach to meet its pressing energy security challenges. The book presents an in-depth analysis of all such domestic and foreign policy challenges and measures to meet India's fast-growing energy demand in a competitive geopolitical environment.

India, one of the largest importers of oil in the world, has been diversifying its energy resource options and moving towards greater energy security. This book analyses India’s potential for building energy ties in the Asia–Pacific considering the global and regional power politics. Facing China’s growing influence in Asia, India’s eastward engagement with its extended neighbours has been entrenched in its Act East Policy and institutional commitments towards Southeast Asia. This volume focuses on diverse facets of energy security beyond the traditional understanding of demand and supply and price and stability. It examines India’s energy sector, its dependence on hydrocarbons, and the push towards renewable and alternate energy resources. It further looks at the strategic importance of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea regions in geopolitical negotiations from an energy perspective and how China’s influence in the region will affect India’s moves towards greater energy cooperation with the countries of East Asia. With contributions by leading experts, the volume seeks to fill a major void in this theme and cater to the needs of a variety of audiences including academics, policymakers and experts in international relations, geopolitics and geoeconomics, and professionals in the field of energy studies.

Energy is fundamental to the economic development of a society. Ensuring energy security is critical to the security, sovereignty, and well-being of any country. However, there is no consensus on the definition of energy security. Energy Security and Economic Development in India: a holistic approach attempts to construct an appropriate definition for the concept of energy security. The evolution of energy security is traced at both the global level and in the Indian context. This book elaborates on the concept of energy security, highlights its linkages, enumerates India's indigenous energy resources, examines the status of energy security in the country, and makes policy suggestions to ensure energy security in the country.

Dated November 2012

This book presents a critical review of the status of energy security in Asia and suggests how a country or a region collectively can achieve energy security in two broad aspects. First, it analyzes how regional cooperation and energy trade can enhance energy security in the region. Second, it reviews how energy security can be ensured in national and regional general contexts. From the reviews and analyses, this book asserts that diversification and integration are key to ensuring energy security. It presents policy implications for enhancing energy security, especially in resource-rich as well as resource-poor developing countries in Asia.

The linkages between WTO rules governing trade and energy security with a certain degree of focus on India are the main subject of this book. The edited volume brings together the views of academics, policymakers and experts with extensive experience covering WTO and international trade issues. The issues examined include mapping the linkages between trade and energy security in the WTO agreements, case law, accession and Doha negotiations; assessing the issues that could be raised by energy deficit or energy surplus countries at the WTO; analyzing the provisions of the ECT and NAFTA vis-à-vis the Indian policy framework and examining the trade regimes of selected OPEC members and other major suppliers of fossil fuels to India. While the Indian perspective is evident in the contributions, this book will also be of interest to an international audience, as trade, the WTO and energy security are global concerns and of relevance to all practitioners and academics working on these issues.