After an edifying and well-received book, Indian Lobbying and its Influence in US Decision Making, Dr Ashok Sharma turns his focus on an increasingly critical sector of India’s domestic and foreign policy—energy security—key to its economic ambitions. The country faces several challenges—environmental, equity-based, economic, technological and geopolitical—to meet its energy deficit. They have powerful implications for India’s energy policy.
This remarkable book by Ashok Sharma is, to the best of my knowledge, the first to examine key issues related to India’s energy security in a comprehensive manner. Several factors combine to make energy security one of the key challenges facing not just India but the world economy as well. While high GDP growth rates in India are necessary to raise living standards and reduce poverty, such growth rates will also sharply raise energy demand.
After his first seminal book Indian Lobbying and Its Influence on US Decision Making, Dr Sharma takes a thorough study of India’s energy security. Dr Sharma observes that much of the global energy demand will be due to growth from India and China. India, the world’s third largest energy consumer, will continue to supersede the growth rate of all major economies. This will increase its oil and gas import dependency. India is also turning to renewables and nuclear sources, signalling a shift to a more environment-friendly energy policy.
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