Safeguarding India’s Energy Security

As India shifts gears to fast-track its economic growth, it warrants an exponential increase in energy requirements to power the gigantic industrial complexes and household demands of its citizens. Currently, there is over-dependency on conventional sources of energy, causing debilitating damage due to emissions and pollutants released into the environment.

Our country stands at an inflexion point raising its share in the world economy but should be equally conscious of the trajectory it takes to meet such growth to maintain ecological sustainability, financial viability and inclusivity.

This presents an opportune moment for the Government at different levels, Policy Makers and Citizens at large to work in unison to prepare a blueprint to meet the pressing issues and then work collaboratively to implement the action plan in their respective capacities.

Regulatory reforms at the Government Level

India should aggressively expand its share of renewable energy like Solar, Wind, and Hydropower Energy to reduce its dependency on coal and natural gas. Such projects usually require large land parcels and regulatory approval, thus private energy firms stay away due to financial overhead and high transaction costs involved.

The Government also has limited capacity and financial resources to fund such projects. One way to fast-track the development of alternative energy sources could be through a pragmatic policy designed by the government. This could entail pre-negotiation concerning the issue of land acquisitions whilst giving fair compensation and inviting bids from private players to build and operate.

This will incentivise private firms to invest capital and build greenfield investments as all risks are eliminated. The local youth in nearby areas of acquired land can be trained in the maintenance and operation of Solar parks providing skilling opportunities and employment generations. This will generate a competitive market through the participation of more players resulting in a virtuous cycle by removing regulatory roadblocks.

Most of the city infrastructure like roads, street lighting, and water resources maintenance lies at the municipal level. To promote energy savings, all new tenders floated should have a mandatory policy of using only energy-efficient components.

The garbage and waste collection from households should be used for Waste to Energy Plants at a decentralized level at the community level.

Local governments should work closely with Startups to leverage their novel disruptive ideas as pilot projects to solve energy and governance issues, and these can then be scaled at the state and national levels.

The Municipal government charges property tax every year. Buildings and Residential Complexes which migrate to cleaner sources of energy by the installation of Solar panels can get a tax rebate on property tax, providing them with a financial cushion to reduce dependence on fossil fuel-powered plants.

India also needs to rapidly expand its nuclear energy installation capacity to leverage its fullest potential of being more economically viable and environmentally sustainable.

It needs a holistic policy vision to articulate and navigate global nuclear diplomacy roadblocks and parallel invest in R&D capacities on utilizing large thorium deposits and developing fast breeder reactors (FBRs) across the country.

All approvals of new industrial manufacturing complexes being built should be fast-tracked if they incorporate Zero Emission Components and adopt the Green Buildings Code. This will propel all new buildings to adopt efficient power savings components and hold the firms to seek solutions to treat their emissions.

The government should deregulate electricity companies from constant intervention in setting tariff prices due to vested interest in winning elections and keeping prices artificially low to please voters.

The government also releases pending dues very late to these companies. Such interventions seriously impact the finances of companies to provide a constant supply to Industry and Households due to financial constraints in procuring raw materials.

This largely reduces the manufacturing output of Industrial firms, which halts operations or impacts the livelihood of citizens, decreasing the growth potential of our country.

A competitive market will stabilize prices to deliver the best prices to citizens. Securing India's energy meeting is critical as it directly aids in lifting millions of people out of poverty and setting up new Industrial Hubs.

Create Domestic Manufacturing Capabilities of Renewable Equipment

As most of the physical materials, components and devices which can run on low power with higher durability, are still in the research phase, the government can invest some equity and allocate funds to further such research so that it can commercialize it later for large usage for wider adoption.

At the Union level, the government should proactively use diplomacy at multilateral forums to disseminate policies to attract investment in energy-efficient components manufacturing.

This reposes faith in the international business community to invest capital in India, which will propel the growth. This would aid to a large extent in meeting the financing requirements of building massive solar, wind and hydropower projects across the length and breadth of the country.

This also gels well with Atma Nirbhar Bharat's Mission of achieving self-reliance and reducing the import of critical hardware components to be immune from global supply-side shocks during economic exigencies.

All Electronic Components should have the BEE star rating labels and requisite approval. In markets, cheap power-hungry electronic components dump imports are available without any star rating labels. The State should be stringent in its enforcement and violations should be penalized to send correct signals to manufacturers to adhere to rules.

Technical and Skilled Professionals in the Energy Domain

School students should be made ecologically conscious and sensitive based on curriculum, experiential learning and inculcating good habits. These behavioural changes at home and in society will nudge them to live in a symbiotic relationship with nature. These children will go on to become future Citizens and work in different domains which will impact the policy.

The Government should introduce a new Education Institute, Departments and curriculum to build Energy professionals in Engineering, Diplomas and ITIs to produce the trained skilled manpower required to meet future demands. This required urgent implementation by making education with future job trends and replacing obsolete courses.

India produces lakhs of engineering graduates yearly who build projects for their course requirements, but many of these only get a degree with minimal societal impact. We can build these linkages by mapping societal problems and then the college students should make projects to solve these problems at the local level of energy device efficiency.

This will be of more utility, and educational technical institutions producing such projects should aid them in good NIRF Ranking and NAAC Accreditation grades. The more prominent ones can be incubated to enhance their potential by connecting them with Government Research Schemes and private firms that can invest capital.

Such an incentivising structure focuses on outcome-driven education, aiding the environment and unleashing the creative potential of our youth reaping the demographic dividend. Examples include the installation of Piezoelectric Sensors in places of high public density.

The above policy recommendations would aid the Indian economy to meet its global aspirations and meet the energy demands as well. Indians have lived symbiotically with nature and it's ingrained in us.

We have one of the lowest per capita energy consumption as compared to developed countries and have always lived in reverence of our environment as enshrined in Sanskrit Shloka माता भूमि': पुत्रो अहं पृथिव्या: meaning Land is our Mother and We are her Son.

These policy recommendations would secure India’s energy future based on sound legal, economic and psychological principles to nudge and incentivise multiple stakeholders to deliver efficient outcomes. It would help in course correction of some of our fault lines by serving as a beacon of hope for all the advancements in renewable space and would propel India to occupy her rightful place in the world.

Article by



Arpit Awasthi

Columnist - Writers For The Nation

Assistant Professor
Writing Fellow