India's energy security in Post-covid times
- Indian Journal of Political Science
- 85(1), Jan-Mar, 2024: p.379-386
Energy security has become a major foreign policy objective for every nation in the 21st century to sustain a high economic growth rate. The term "energy security" has evolved into a multi-dimensional concept as several academicians and policy analysts have investigated in meaning through different lenses. This paper focuses on identifying the multiple dimension of India's energy security objective as well as urgent internal and external challenges of post-COVID times. It reveals that, as India's strategies are set on energy transition and self-sufficiency, there are dimensions of availability affordability, efficiency, stewardship and low vulnerability of energy systems recognized among higher political levels. However, COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine conflicts created major disruptions, burdening energy systems and switching pathways back to fossil fuels. one structural issue of domestic importance that aggravated during the pandemic was the growing debt of discoms and their inability to pay dues. At the same time, considering the fact that geopolitical consideration dominate India's energy security in the global arena, competition and intersection with Chinese interests is inevitable. This paper, therefore, suggest that cooperative federalism should accompany the goal of addressing energy poverty in the domestic arena. Additionally, the goal of self-sufficiency is not antithetical to regional and global cooperation, especially in South Asia. -Reproduced
India, Energy, Security, Definition, Electricity, China