Opinion
Securing India's Energy Future
05 Aug 2005 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Indian Express
The Iran-India pipeline has been in the news. As one of the two co-authors of this project way back in 1989, I feel gratified by the movement forward, even though impediments continue to dog its prospects. The risks attached to the project have been highlighted in these columns, but the fact is that our energy future is itself fraught with risks that need careful evaluation.
Irony of (in)dependent regulation
04 Aug 2005 |
Ms Manisha Gulati
,Ms Anjali Garg
| Business Line
We create institutions. Then we develop a deep intolerance for them. Further we make demands for those very institutions in different areas. That sums up the story of independent regulation in India. When the economy was liberalized and reforms introduced in the early 1990s, the power and telecom sectors were gradually thrown open to private investment and competition.
How best can we arrive at optimal energy solutions? Back up government role with competing think tanks
22 Jul 2005 |
Dr R K Pachauri
| The Financial Express
The need for an integrated energy policy has been highlighted and acknowledged by successive governments. It is heartening that the Prime Minister has now established an Energy Coordination Committee, including several ministers in the government and the deputy chairman and member responsible for energy in the Planning Commission. It is hoped that the coal minister will also be added to this group, because India's dependence on coal would remain paramount, as indeed the Prime Minister emphasised in his address to the US Congress.
From Non-Proliferation to Civilian Energy Cooperation
21 Jul 2005 |
Ms Veena Aggarwal
| The Indian Express
This is the right time for India to look again at nuclear power as an important source of energy in the future. Energy security is a hot topic today, and so is sustainable development. Environmental concerns relating to carbon emissions are also increasingly centre-stage. The role of nuclear power has to be appraised in this context.
Synergy in energy
14 Jul 2005 |
Dr Leena Srivastava
| The Financial Express
Oil prices are increasing rapidly while we have been debating dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism ad nauseum. Paradoxically, even a private company like Reliance has been asked to share in meeting the subsidy burden! On closer analysis, however, this may not be completely unjustified given that the petroleum product pricing regime, based on a flawed import parity pricing formula, allows refiners huge margins.
What do gas finds mean for energy economics?
06 Jul 2005 |
Mr R K Batra
| The Economic Times
The last few months have been one of the most exciting times for the development of the natural gas market in India. The petroleum minister had lengthy and fruitful discussions with his counterparts in Iran and Azerbaijan for gas supplies by pipeline; Shell commissioned their LNG terminal at Hazira; a five-million tonne per annum contract for supply of LNG from Iran was signed; after several false starts, a firm plan to revive the LNG fired Dhabol Plant in Maharashtra was agreed to and the icing on the cake has been the announcement by GSPC of a bonanza discovery in the KG Basin.
Firm prices will boost the viability of renewable energy alternatives: Our country is a repository of several kinds of resources that can be tapped
22 Jun 2005 |
Dr Leena Srivastava
| The Financial Express
While India has been significantly dependent on oil imports for several years, the government followed a system of pooling the prices of domestically produced crude (highly subsidised) with imported crude, thereby providing a significant price protection to consumers. Combined with further product subsidies, the final oil price to consumers was significantly lower than equivalent border prices.
The long view
17 Jun 2005 |
Mr Vikram Dayal
| TERI Newswire 11(12)
The events reported in newspapers and weeklies reflect the complexity of our world. Although newspapers do report forecasts, most notably, of the weather and the economy, analyses of the long term are neglected. Scenario analysis can help us go beyond the events of today to explore the future.
The energy charter treaty
07 Jun 2005 |
Mr R K Batra
| The Economic Times
We should aim at creating a level playing field for potential investors and gas producers, consumers and transit countries across south Asia, so that the various gas pipeline projects become a reality.
Falling water tables: addressing India's groundwater challenge
02 Jun 2005 |
| TERI Newswire 11(11)
In his book Outgrowing the earth: the food security challenge in an age of falling water tables and rising temperatures, Lester R Brown, the President of the Earth Policy Institute, Washington, DC, draws our attention to the twin challenges of climate change and groundwater depletion. He argues that crop production will suffer as global temperatures rise and groundwater tables fall.