Rethinking Energy Security in India
“Rethinking Energy Security in India” by Dr Shebonti Ray-Dadwal, Published in India , by Knowledge World 5A/4 A Ansari Road Darya Ganj New Delhi 110002 Pp 182 ISBN 81-87966-11-4
“One of the ironies at the turn of the century is that, in an age when the pace of technological change is almost overwhelming, the world will remain dependent, up to the year 2020 at least, essentially on the same sources of energy———–oil, natural gas, coal———–that prevailed in the twentieth century”
_________ Guy Caruso; Director, Strategic Energy Initiative USA
The right to obtain reasonably priced energy has become vital to the functioning of modern-day economy-based nations. However, the patchy availability of natural energy sources, and the elemental need for energy has led to major shift in policy options. Threats to global energy security include the political instability in several energy producing countries, the manipulation of energy supplies, the competition over energy sources, attacks on supply transportation, as well as mishaps and natural disasters. It is also the limited supplies of the most common forms of primary energy, i.e. Oil and Gas, that, changes perceptions on this subject. Although coal deposits are plentiful, its after-combustion pollution inhibits its use as a energy source in developed nations. Nations are thinking of stopping its use after 2030, though India generates 80% of its thermal energy from it. The answer lies in utilising technologies, that, cut down the carbon-dioxide emissions from it. The impending need is to change our primary energy sources in the projected future is the nub of the energy security issue, leading to higher prices, more narrow entrée to sources of energy, contests and political problems, which in turn make the threat even more portentous.
Like Dr Shebonti Ray-Dadwal categorically mentions in her book under review, that, the energy markets have been changing 2K onwards. Now it is a seller’s, favouring the crude producers like the OPEC cartel. They are calling all the shots and with increased confidence since the 1967 Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War!! Beside, the Crude oil market is shifting to Asia now, with China; being the main Asian engine of growth; gobbling up and guzzling down all that it can corner, the world-over.
Despite the author’s erudition, which comes through, clearly in so many clear-headed arguments, spelt out in this richly scholarly tome of her’s , it is the ‘Introduction’ by a former Director of the IDSA; retired Air Commodore Jasjit Singh; who says, that, the rate of population growth, the spread of industrialization and mechanized transportation, the damaging concussions of successive oil shocks, and the Gulf crisis and the war of 1990-91 resulted in imposing a cost of additional Rs 4000 crore; equaling 26% of the defence budget; on the economy; that, stands out in content & quotient! He further states , that, there are no long and narrow solutions to India’s future energy security, in a world scenario of changing political & military alliances & coalitions, because the global energy situation and geopolitics are not going to remain static as is very evident from the events that have precipitated in a scramble to corner energy sources, as can be seen from the rush to stake claims to garner hydro-carbons in Central Asia, South America , Mynamar and even under the Arctic!
Ray-Dadwal is good too, more so owing to the fact, that she is one of the few in India who have done extensive research in energy security, and has been a senior editor in the Financial Express, and therefore can express her self lucidly in written English, and a has a thorough grasp of the economic-strategic core issues of a globalized world, which indeed, must have been honed during her stint as a Deputy Secretary in the National Security Secretariat. This wide knowledge base on which this academic work rests, is indeed, a treat and a virtual gold mine for the discerning and fussy techno-crat, and more so, for the ‘plodding-on-type bureaucrat’. Even the layman will find it very easy on comprehension. No one can miss the import of her analysis, which in a nut shell amounts to saying that, re-thinking energy security in India, that has seen its oil bill go up with as much as 70% in the last couple of decades, amounts to both looking for sources of hydrocarbons and watching their market prices, as also looking for greener alternatives in keeping with environmental concerns. This India has to accomplish, not with standing the regional rivalries amongst Asian engines of growth like China, and the Asian Tigers, the intrinsic volatility of the oil producing regions in West and Central Asia, and the domination of the sea-lanes in the IOR by the United States in the face of the ‘string of pearls’ strategy of China and the Indian Ocean choke points unclogged to the Pacific.
Shebonti Ray-Dadwal has made her mark in her field as a very serious & diligent scholar of energy-related issues, and is; along with Dr Sudha Mahalingam; of The Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board; and who has been recently appointed as a member NSAB, amongst a handful; and is amongst the few, of the current faculty of the IDSA who can come up with a cogent analysis, examining cross-related facts, figures and developing trends, and factors affecting these, to reach deductions, that as a whole, and suggest workable recommendations; who, put pen to paper in the print media of the sub-continent. Incidentally, Sudha Mahalingam herself has been in her field for a very long time, and specializes on reforms and energy security.
This book, is a good primer for beginners in this vital area of energy security. Recommended reading for policy planners, at the national apex level.. .
(The Writer Lt. Col A.K. ‘Sam’ Sharma is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Kharakvasla. Col Sharma was commissioned into the 3rd Gorkha Rifles of the Indian Army in Februray 1964, He retired in 1997 after serving for 33 years. A graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, he holds a MSc Degree in Defence Studies from the Madras University. This officer has been on the instructional staff of two of Indian Army’s premiere training institutes: the College of Combat; now known as the War College; (Directing Staff Junior Command Wing-1972-1975) and the Infantry School ( Senior Instructor, Platoon Commander’s Wing—1984-87) both located in Mhow (MP); where he taught tactics at the unit and sub-unit levels to students, some of who were from friendly foreign armies. He has also served at the world- renowned Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. Col Sharma can be contacted at aksh9@airtelbroadband.in)